When outside temperatures fall below freezing, you should stop using your sprinkler system to avoid the risk of frozen water in your sprinkler pipes. On the other hand, even if you are not actively using your system, water can collect in low spots in your system, freeze, and create disaster. Thus, in order to avoid problems, you should winterize your sprinkler system. 

The Winterization Procedure

As long as you are armed with the right knowledge, you should be able to winterize your own system. Use these steps:

1. Find the main shut-off valve for your sprinkler system. In some cases, you will find the shut-off valve in at the bottom of a riser pipe out in your yard. In other cases, you will find a ball valve for the sprinkler system in the mechanical room in your home. In the case of the outside shut-off valve, it should be a stop-and-waste valve, meaning, that as soon as you turn it off, any water above the valve should start to drain out of your system through the valve. In the case of an indoor valve, you should find a separate drain valve that you must engage to drain the water trapped inside your sprinkler pipe.

2. Simply closing the main shut-off valve will not be enough. If your sprinkler system extends from your home's supply of drinking water, it should be equipped with a back flow preventer. You will want to leave the valves on this device half open and open the drain valves. Typically, these devices are made from brass, so they are expensive to replace. Do not skip this step. 

3. Your last step should be accessing your valve boxes and opening any drain valves included in the valves. If you live in a place that has mild winters, your valve boxes may not have drain valves. On the other hand, if you live in a location that has harsh winters, your valve manifolds should be equipped with a drain valve. If water freezes inside a manifold and causes it to break, the repair will be expensive. 

4. While water should be able to drain out of your system through the various drain valves you now have open, it may still collect in low spots in your pipes. You may not know where these low spots are until a pipe ruptures. However, if you do have a rupture, you should install a drain valve and valve box as part of your repair so that you don't have to repair the same section of pipe year after year. 

Once your system is properly winterized, you should not have to worry about water freezing in your system, cracking your pipes, and thus creating leaks. As the above steps should indicate, winterizing a system is not difficult. When the spring comes, just follow the same steps in reverse to make sure your system is ready to go for the new year. You can click here for more information.