We get this question a lot, and the answer is “Yes!”
(Happy Roots sprinkler services only available to our Fertilizer Program and/or Weekly Mowing customers) WE DO NOT OFFER ONE TIME SERVICES
If you don’t know how to properly drain your sprinkler system, then you should hire a professional to winterize it for you. You can get away with not blowing out the sprinkler lines on some systems, but you will need to drain it properly anyway or you will freeze your backflow preventer, ball valves, copper pipe and/or valve manifold.
When we winterize and blowout a sprinkler system, half of what we do is a proper draining of the system, then we blow air through the lines that can’t be drained to get all of the water out of the entire system. On some systems that have poly pipe for lateral lines, you can get away with not blowing air through the lines, but this is risky. You can crack a sprinkler head or fitting even though the poly pipe may not crack during a freeze. Not to mention the poly pipe becomes weaker each year that you don’t blow the water out of it, because the water expands and contracts the pipe during each freeze, creating weak spots and eventually cracking.
If you have PVC Laterals in your sprinkler system, you better blow it out or you will have major damage the following spring. PVC freeze cracks can go the entire length of your yard, which means you would have to replace the entire run of pipe and that’s not cheap.
Make sure you hire a reputable company to winterize your sprinklers. If the job isn’t done correctly you will have damage in the spring that may cost five times more than a good company charges for a sprinkler blowout. Don’t call the guy who hand writes on a sign and sticks it on the corner, you really never know what your going to get with someone like that.
The bottom line is, you can get away with not blowing out your sprinkler system in some cases, but it is risky if you don’t know what you are doing.
Feel free to call or email us with questions regarding sprinkler winterization and blowouts.
Happy Roots – Thornton, Broomfield, Westminster, Brighton, and Erie Colorado – 303-457-8300
