Even thought the nights are getting cold there is no need to worry yet about your sprinkler system freezing. The part of the system that is most vulnerable to a short spurt of cold weather is the brass thing sticking up out of the ground called the back flow preventer. Generally the temperatures need to go well below freezing a few nights in a row to cause damage to this part of the sprinkler system. All of the other parts of your sprinkler system are below ground and are insulated by the dirt. The belowground part is not susceptible to freezing until well into January.

There are a few steps you can take to alleviate some of the risk of minor freeze damage if your sprinkler system has not been drained and it may go near 30 degrees. Not all sprinkler systems area the same. This covers about 90% of the sprinkler systems installed.

What you about to do is back drain the pipe that sticks up out of the ground outside.

Here are the steps:

  1.. Shut of the main valve to the sprinkler system. Most of our customer’s valves are marked with a red tag. This is either a lever or a round knob.

  2.. Go out side and open the faucet that is part of the sprinkler system plumbing. This is located near the backflow preventer.

  3.. Not get a bucket at least 1 gallon in size.

  4.. Go back to the basement and open the faucet next to the main valve you previously shut off. This is usually tagged with a blue tag. Usually less than a gallon of water will come out of this. But again not all sprinkler systems are the same.

  5.. Once the water has drained out you can shut the valve on the inside of the house.

  6.. Go to the time clock and manually turn on a sprinkler zone. Nothing will happen, that you can see but an electric valve will open under ground reliveing the water pressure in the system.