When I bought my house 4 years it came with a 10 zone in-ground sprinkler. I never had or used an in-ground sprinkler system, so when it came time to winterize the in-ground sprinkler system I was lost. I called a contractor, which ran me $80. The following year, my neighbor was having his system winterized by his landscaper. My wife went over and asked him to do our system as well, at a cost of $80 cash. I didn’t mind paying a local landscaper $80, but this time I took notes on how to do it myself.
Winterizing your in-ground sprinkler is really simple, in fact most people call it “blowing out” the system. You only need two tools to winterize your system, an air compressor and a $19.49 adapter found on Amazon.
You can get the $19.49 adapter here:
When is the best time to winterize your system? The easy answer is in the fall, when the weather has cooled off and your landscaping doesn’t require additional watering. I prefer to do this in mid October while the weather is acceptable since the process takes approximately 30-60 minutes depending on your air compressor and I rather not stand outside in really cold temperatures.
WEEKEND WARRIOR FACT: People believe that the first frost will freeze their sprinkler lines and crack them. False. Since your lines are underground it will take 3 straight days of below freezing temperatures to freeze and crack your lines.
Step 1
Turn off the water to your sprinkler system. In my house the shut off valve is in the basement. While doing this, it would be prudent to winterize any outdoor garden spigots by shutting off any other lines going to outdoor spigots.
Step 2
Lug your air compressor outside where your sprinkler controls are, and plug in the air compressor. Push the quick connect adapter onto your air compressor hose and attach to the outdoor spigot.
Step 3
After your air compressor is full, open up the spigot that the adapter is connected to. Remember “righty tighty, lefty loosy” and rotate the valve to the left or counter clockwise until it is completely open. You can set a program on your sprinkler control box to run each zone for 3 minutes or you can do each zone manually. When using a small air compressor that will need to constantly recharge I find doing each manually the easier option.
Step 4
Open the valve on the adapter. This will allow the air from the air compressor to get into your sprinkler system to “blow it out.” The process will not begin until you activate each zone.
Step 5
Turn on Zone 1 and watch as the sprinklers pop out of the ground and the water begins to blow out. Since the lines are initially full, the sprinklers will blow out water as if you are watering your lawn. As the water exists the sprinkler heads, you will see the volume of water decrease and a loud hissing sound. See video below:
Step 6
Follow Step 5 for each zone of your system. I have 10 zones, which means I repeated step 5 10 times. The first time I did this I used my dad’s 2 gallon air compressor. Since this small air compressor had to constantly recharge, I had to repeat Step 5 3-5 times for each zone, which took me approximately 1 hours to do all my zones. I bought a larger air compressor with wheels on Craiglist for $100, which made my life easier and the process now takes me approximately 25 minutes.
Stats
Time: 15-60 minutes (depending on zones and air compressor capacity)
Cost:
NOT DIY: Hiring a contractor will run you approximately $80/year.
DIY: If you own your own air compressor, the DIY process will cost you $20 for the adapter. That is a 1 time payment of $20, so year 1 you are saving $60, then, year 2 and beyond you will be saving $80/year.
If you do not own your own air compressor you can buy a 20 gallon one from harbor freight for approximately $180 and a hose for for approximately $10. You will probably do even better on Craiglist, boy I love Craiglist. A new setup of air compressor, hose, adapter will run you approximately $210, which means you start saving money during year 3. You will also own a compressor for other projects.
WEEKEND WARRIOR TIP:
If you are unsure of where your shutoff valve is and where to connect the air compressor, hire a contractor for the last time to winterize your in-ground sprinkler system and watch what they do carefully. Use the visual knowledge coupled with this post to winterize your system DIY.
PRO WEEKEND WARRIOR TIP
Never pay full price on Craigslist, always offer 25-33% below list price. The longer an item has been posted the lower your offer should be.
