Sprinkler Startup and Blowout — the Colorado Springs Calendar

Irrigation in Colorado Springs is bracketed by two appointments most homeowners think of as optional right up until the year they skip one.

Autumn blowout is not optional

Water left in an irrigation system freezes, expands and splits things — poly pipe, backflow assemblies, valve bodies, sprinkler heads. A backflow preventer is brass and expensive, sits above ground, and is usually the first casualty.

A blowout uses compressed air to clear water from the lines zone by zone. Two things worth knowing:

• Timing. Schedule before the first hard freeze, not after. Companies book out through autumn and the weather does not wait for your appointment.
• Equipment matters. A shop compressor does not move enough volume to clear a system properly. Too little volume leaves water behind; too much pressure damages heads. This is a genuine reason to use someone who does it professionally.

Shutting off the supply and draining what you can is not the same as a blowout. It leaves water in the low spots.

Spring startup, and why patience pays

The temptation on the first warm week in March is to turn everything on. Our last frost typically arrives well into spring, and a system charged early is a system full of water during the next hard freeze.

A proper startup is more than opening a valve:

1. Open the main slowly. Charging a dry system fast sends a pressure surge through it that breaks fittings.
2. Walk every zone. Look for heads that are broken, sunk below grade, tilted, or spraying the fence and the sidewalk instead of the lawn.
3. Check head-to-head coverage. Spray should reach the adjacent head. Gaps produce the dry patches people later blame on the lawn.
4. Inspect the backflow assembly for cracks and weeping from the winter.
5. Reset the controller. Batteries, clock, seasonal schedule.

Backflow testing

Backflow prevention keeps irrigation water — which has been sitting in pipes with fertiliser and whatever is in the soil — from being drawn back into the drinking supply. Assemblies can fail without any outward sign, which is why testing exists.

Testing requirements vary by water provider and property type, so check what applies to your address rather than assuming. Where testing is required, it must be done by a certified tester, and keeping the paperwork is part of the job.

Watering that suits this climate

Water deeply and less often. Short daily cycles keep roots shallow. Longer, less frequent cycles drive roots down, and deep roots handle our heat and wind far better.

Cycle and soak. Our clay soils accept water slowly. Running one long cycle produces runoff down the driveway. Splitting it into shorter bursts with time between lets water actually absorb.

Water early. Pre-dawn through early morning. Midday loses a great deal to evaporation in our dry air, and evening watering leaves turf wet overnight.

Keep it off the foundation. Zones that soak the ground against the house are a direct contributor to the foundation movement discussed elsewhere on this blog. Aim spray away from the structure.

Adjust seasonally. A schedule set in June and left alone through September wastes a lot of water. Most controllers have a seasonal adjust percentage that takes ten seconds to change.

Two dates to keep

Put the blowout appointment in the calendar in September, before the rush. Put startup in late April or May, after the freeze risk has genuinely passed. Those two entries prevent most irrigation emergencies.