I have a Rain Bird sprinkler system in my lawn. When I bought the house the previous owner (wife who went through a divorce) said that she had not used it and didn’t know anything about it. I have lived here 3 years and never messed with it.
Is there any easy/cheap way to see if this thing could work or adds any value to my property. All I know is that this controller is in a corner of my unheated garage.
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All you can do is give it a try.
Take a look at your back flow valve outside to see if any ports/spigots are open. Should be open if it was winterized properly.
Report back…..
This is what I see. The inside valve is closed, the outside valves are closed except the lowest spigot is open (and empty).
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Outside.
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There was another recent thread about sprinkler systems that has some helpful information and dandorn has offered good advise as well. I was in a similar situation when we bought our house, didn’t know a thing about the system and the controller was very old (analogue).
I would start by locating your sprinkler valves, there’ll be one for each zone. They might be in a box in the ground with a cover or on pipes sticking up a couple feet out of the ground. Take a look to see if the wires are still in tact there, those wires run to your controller. Then find the valve that provides water outside, ours is in the basement and gets turned off when the system is winterized. Make sure that’s on, you can then test to see if the sprinkler valves leak. Follow the steps on your controller to run each zone (some valves also allow you to manually open them by turning a handle). If the sprinklers operate, great, take a look to see that each head is operating, there’s no puddling, etc. If the zone doesn’t turn on, there could be an issue with the controller, the wires from the valves to controller, or the valves themselves.
Fire it up, worst that can happen is you have to shut the water valve back off if something goes wrong then call in a sprinkler guy. LOL
Make sure the bleeder screw is tight on inside valve before turning on the water.
Close spigot outside. Both inline valves are closed outside so you could start by making sure you have no leaks inside. Can you see the entire run to the outside?
You could also call LMS, tag inside, and see what history they have
on your system.
The only other thing that I found while landscaping was an access panel for something in the ground near the water supply. I did not open it and just covered it again with mulch.
Fire it up, worst that can happen is you have to shut the water valve back off if something goes wrong then call in a sprinkler guy. LOL
This is no joke. Do a manual mode on one of the stations to see if the sprinklers come on.
My only concern about just firing it up is if I can return it to it’s winterized state before next winter if it becomes an expensive boondoggle that I don’t want to invest in right away. I have some more pressing house things to do first, and sprinklers are a luxury.
I see some heads along the perimeter of things but I don’t see them in the lawn. Will they pop up through the dirt?
I left a voicemail with LMS – I’ll see if they call or have a map or something. All I have from the previous owner is a handwritten sheet on how to winterize or start the unit by flipping certain valves.
A small pancake compressor and $10 fitting is all it takes to winterize. Even an idiot like me could do it.
I have the compressor and the idiot, not sure about the fitting. Is it that nipple pointing down on the outside pic? Unless it is a one way valve though I don’t see why the water wouldn’t come out there when the system is on. Maybe it is removed and plugged?
That little screw above the nipple is a ball valve.
That little screw above the nipple is a ball valve.
Yup, and right now it appears to be in the open position. Turn it 90deg to close so the slot is perpendicular to the pipe.
Use a multimeter to check the wiring of the system first. Also test that the controller is supplying 24V to all zones. Easy tests that can be done without turning on the water.
Fyi…looks to have the compressor fitting already installed on the #2 Test cock.
Enough already and turn the water on, dont over think it. worse case turn water back off.
The easiest thing to do is call https://www.mickman.com/ and have them come out.
They will fire it up and tell you what is working and not. They will also give you an estimate of anything that needs fixing.
They have handles my sister in-laws for years.
One stop for all the answers … they will also give you a lesson on how to use your system.
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