Irrigation Irritation

Irrigation is both a blessing and a curse. Without irrigation, everything around us would turn brown and crispy (and highly flammable!) in the summer, since our area gets no rain from July through September. However, irrigation systems also need continual maintenance when things go wrong. Well, this year things went wrong for us.

It all starts last fall. We were still irrigating the garden well into October when the first frost arrived. This signaled the end of the garden, but we were still watering the lawn. So we (I) didn't turn off the irrigation and drain the system, preparing for winter. The next thing I knew, it was December, the ground was covered with snow, and the irrigation system hadn't been drained. Oops. I did open all of the valves during a brief warm spell in January, but I knew it was probably a bit too late to avoid any repercussions.

Irrigation pump
foot valve

Come spring, when we turned the system on there was no water pressure. So we walked the irrigation lines and discovered a valve that had cracked. One trip to the supply store later and the valve was replaced, but we still had very low pressure. More investigation uncovered two more repairs needed, including one involving PVC cement. After all of the obvious repairs were complete, when we turned the pump on we had some pressure, but it would only last for ~5 minutes before dropping enough that the underground Rainbird sprinklers in the yard would stop spinning.

We spent many hours trying to isolate the source of the problem. We drained our settling pond; we cleaned out the pump box, which was full of accumulated silt; we replaced a number of broken pressure gauges; we pulled out and inspected the mesh filters on the valves; we poured over the folders of irrigation info from the Clausens. No luck.

It was now late June/early July, and our desperation was intensifying as each day got hotter and the garden and yard languished under only occasional watering from sprinklers connected to the house. In a fit of either inspiration or despiration, Corinne decided that we needed to pull out and clean the mesh filters.

Bingo!

Even though the filters looked fine, each hole in the fine mesh had been clogged with small particles of silt. After the screens were cleaned with a brush, the lawn sprinklers worked fine. Everything worked fine. In the end, hours and hours of work went into a fix that took 20 minutes.

I think this is what they call a "learning experience". We understand much better how the whole system works, and I also have a better appreciation for the timeliness of preparing the system for winter. We do still have at least one problem to fix, though. There is a spot in the yard where water pools on the surface, which we imagine can only be caused by a leak underground. But that is a project for another day.

- Mike (& Corinne)