Automatic valve limitations

Plumbing Forums

Help Support Plumbing Forums:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

1021km

New Member
Joined
Dec 21, 2022
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
Hello,

I am considering designing an irrigation system that does not need to be blown out in the winter, even in a Northern climate. Essentially, each zone would be sloped to a midway point between the sprinklers and the valve. The slope would be at least 1/4" per foot. The line would slope down from the valve to the middle point then slope back up at the same rate to the sprinkler, forming a V shape. The low point in the V would be roughly 4 foot under ground given the length of the zone. At that point, I would install a couple automatic valves (the kind that intentionally leak when there is no pressure in the pipe) and encase them in a valve box which would be above and below a couple feet of gravel, with soil piled on top. My hope for this design is that it would cause any water remaining in the pipe after a sprinkler session to drain down to the low point and out the valve, thereby ensuring that no water remains to freeze. I have three questions for this community:

1. Is this a pipe dream? (Pun intended). Am I missing something here that would make this system not feasible?

2. If so, is there a way to tweak it to make it work? If not, is there a way to tweak it to make it work better?

3. I have seen some say that automatic valves should only supplement a proper blowing out. Can anyone show the evidence or reasoning for this line of thought, or is it just speculation that is getting recirculated amongst the experts?

Thanks for any insights you can provide!
 
I've never dealt with Sprinkler systems apart from blowing a few out and repairing breaks when excavating. Is it possible I'm sure but I would not do it. Ground shifts, can settle and with the pipe being flexible I would not trust it. If you were to sleeve it through pvc to keep it more stable might help.
 
I would never trust something like that with our sprinkler system. If you happen to get a lot of rain in the fall the system could be flooded and freeze. It's not that hard to blow out a system and then you know it's clean. I do ours with just a 1 hp shop compressor, but I have a pressure tank in the system, so I can get a surge of air to blow out the 6 heads we have per zone.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top