On Jan 25, 6:01*pm, "Bob F" wrote:
Chris Tidio wrote:
On Tue, 01 Dec 2009 21:30:27 -0500, Pointer
wrote:

Chris Tidio wrote:
Tired of paying to have the sprinkler lines blown out every winter,
but I also don't want to have to replace lines and sprinkler heads
in the spring :-)

I am wondering if I could buy one of those 150 psi "Husky"
compressors from Home Depot and do it myself. *Is that doable? *And
if so, where would I get the adapters to connect the compressor
tube to the outside check-valve? *Any ideas?

Thanks for any advise or any "alternate" ideas anyone might have.

Chris
I purchased a compressor about 10/12 years ago for this purpose and
it has been a successful investment. *I presently shut off gate valve
feeding the outside water line for the sprinkler system and two hose
valves, connect the compressor air line to one of the hose lines and
fire away at about 45 psi. *The air line connection to the hose bib
is via the female end of a washing machine hose connected to an air
line coupling fitting secured by a hose clamp.

Well, I should have asked the *right* questions, I guess :-)

I went to Home Depot and got a compressor. *155 psi, 3 gallons. * I
got the appropriate couplers, and run home to blow out the lines.
Turned the water to the spronkler off and connected the compressor to
one of the check valve inlets. I turned the first zone of the
sprinkler valves on and started my new toy... *The first zone, has
three sprinkler heads, with about 35 feet of pipe to each head. *A
little bit of water came out of the first two sprinkler heads and then
the pressure of the compresson dropped and no more water. *Run back to
home Depot, and talked to the guy in hardware (Seemed knowledgeable).
Well he says, with such long rung and multiple sprinkler heads, you
need a lot more that a 3 gallon compressor. *I returned the small
compressor and got a 6 gallon one. *Went back home and tried again. *I
had a bit better luck this time, but still was not able to blow out
some of the longer runs.

I just properly designed my system to slope consistantly, with automatic drain
valves at the low spots. I've never had to blow it out. Maybe this doesn't work
in way colder areas?- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I don't know about the cold factor, but to be self draining it would
seem to require a uniformly sloping area. If you have areas that are
basicly flat, then what? Here in NJ the sprinkler trucks are all
very busy pulling around rented air compressors every Fall. However
part of that could be that not designing them to be self-draining,
even when easy to do, means more $$ in their pockets to blow them out
every year.