Sprinkler system issue

Hi, everyone. I am having an issue where I hired a new company to winterize my lawn last year. It looks like they opened the valve box in the ground. Everything was good until I went to turn it on. I turned the system on and the backflow preventer went. So, I bought a new one and installed it. There are 3 zones at my house - I have 3 valves each with a manual bleeder screw. I pressurized the system, and the backflow preventer (new one) started leaking. I looked in the valve box, and there was some water coming out of where the "manual bleeder" (labeled as such) valves are. I closed them, and put the water back on. The backflow preventer held. I turned on the sprinkler system using the master box downstairs. No water went to the system. assumed it was airloced somehow, so I went to back off the bleeder valves. When I opened it way open, the sprinklers started going. Then, the backflow preventer started leaking again, and the system lost pressure. I have been playing with this all day trying to fugure out what is wrong. Finally, I decided to remove the backflow preventer and hard-piped the system. Same issue - if I back the bleeder way off, the system will start, but is lacking enough pressure to be operating correctly. I am not sure, but it also seems that multiple zones may be trying to operate at one time. Lastly, I turned off the entire sprinkler system and closed all the bleeder valves and watched the water meter. I lost about 2 cubic feet in an hour. Anyone have any ideas?

 

If I follow your process here, it sounds like the company that winterized your system manually opened a valve? So when you turn on the water, do all 3 zones run at the same time.... even if they are only dripping water (since your water supply cannot operate all 3 at the same time).?


Your vacuum breaker could be leaking for many reasons. What model/style is it? Also, what size. You need to put it back in since it is required by law and is not the cause of your problems unless you put it back together improperly, or you had one of the shutoffs closed. All vacuum breakers I can think of have 2 shutoffs on them.

By saying that the backflow preventer went when you turned on the system.. I am not sure what you mean by that? What did it do... for how long? It may or may not have been their fault depending on what happened.

Can you recall exactly how the vacuum breaker was set when you used it this spring? Or, can you put it like it was "exactly" and then take a picture of it. That would be more helpful.

I think we will have to take this one step at a time but we can resolve this with a little bit of patience.

 

by "went" I meant started leaking. I shutoff the downstream valve, opened the upstream one a bit until it flooded, then turned it all the way on. Then, opening the downstream valve, the hammer lifted, and the top started leaking. It was probably not gone, but looks original to the house (20 years +) and I have been meaning to replace it. I removed it completely from the system, not so that I can be out of code (I obviously inten to put it back in); I just had too many variables, and was trying to isolate it so that I was sure it was not a bad valve.

When I turn on the system, it does cycle. There's just no pressure. I started thinking last night, and the problem would have to be something that would cause the system to lose pressure, and blow the vacuum breaker. I'm wondering if a bad zone valve would do this. When I pull out the manual bleeders, they all squirt water. (Pressure is in the system)

Of note, I turned the sprinkler system off, opened the ball valve, and watched,my water meter. As of right now, I have a sprinkler head, at the low point of zone 2 trickling out water. Additionally, the meter is turning at a rate of approx 2.4 cu ft / hr

Thanks

It does not appear as though I can post a picture.

 

Your leak sounds like you are losing around 15-20 gallons an hour. It may sound like a lot, but its probably a valve that is not fully closed, or a perhaps a drain in the yard that is not closed or has gone bad.

The best way to find such a leak is to either wander around the yard a lot with the water on... and look for the giant wet spot. Sometimes this can be harder to do than other times if you have sandy soil, or the leak is on the bottom of a pipe and is not pushing its way towards the surface. At times like these, it can actually run for several days without finding it. Given time I am sure you will be successful.

Are you certain that all of your valves are opened fully? If any of them are gate valves, they might not open 100%, but it sounds like that is not the case for you.

Your vacuum breaker would leak constantly if it had less pressure behind it than it needed to seal. if that is the case, it is doing its job and the leaking water is happening on purpose.

Here is one of the first pictures I got from a google search for vacuum breaker:

http://www.cjjstore.com/store/images...reakoutmed.gif

On this model, water comes in from the bottom and leaves out the side. If you close your second handle and open the incoming water (bottom) all the way, does your vacuum breaker stop leaking?

It sounds like it only leaks when you open the second (side) shutoff but I wanted to be clear on that.

You can post pictures at places like imageshack and then use their "thumbnails" for forums link.


Were there any of the valve boxes in the yard (usually green covers) that had what looked like a faucet in them?

 

Sorry for the thread hijack. I'm having the same issue and I'm pretty sure the vacuum breaker in the pic is identical to mine. It even says Febco on the side =)

Anyway, water comes out the breaker. If I close valve 1 (lower one, seems to be the feed from the house), obviously the leaking stops. If I close valve 2 it seems to have no effect on the leaking.

I've got no idea what I'm doing, so any advice would be appreciated. I think the rest of the system works. We moved in to this home in March and just now are getting around to familiarizing ourselves with the system.

Thanks again!
Jason

 

Jayshaw, you have a different issue. Your poppet and bonnet have worn out and you need a repair kit. Loosen the screw on top (silver) and then lift off the bell. inside you will see a plastic round piece with 3 prongs on it. Loosen that carefully so as to not break it. If you have to use large pliers or something, do so carefully without breaking anything.

After you unscrew that, lift out the piece that is sticking straight up and has a round bottom on it. I'll bet that the round rubber part has cracks on it. Those cracks are letting water trickle down the side of your vacuum breaker (around the area where it says febco on it).

Go to a supply store that can help you get a replacement kit or order one online. They cost around $50 or so.