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If your sprinklers are losing pressure after a few minutes, there are several reasons for this.
These reasons can be a leak in the system, a partially opening shutoff valve, and an increased demand for water from the local municipality. However, you can fix these issues and have your sprinkler function perfectly.
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Can a Bad Solenoid Cause Low Water Pressure?
A bad solenoid can cause low pressure since it normally controls water pressure. With that said, if the system is not producing water to all the corners of your lawn like it should be, the solenoid is among the possible issues.
And to get this fixed, you can call a technician to help out.
Why Did My Sprinklers Lose Pressure After a Few Minutes?
Your sprinkler lost pressure after a few minutes because of some issues with the system. However, the good news is, you can correct all of them. Here are some of the most common problems and how to correct them;
A leak In the Sprinkler
If you recently dug up your lawn and placed a sharp object, fence post, garden stake, or trellis near a sprinkler line, then it may have broken. For this reason, it will need immediate repair. Besides, leaks might also develop and can worsen.
To fix this, you can get assistance from a reliable technician. You can inspect if the problem is either breakage or leak by checking out for uncommon wet spots in your yard. In case of leakage, you will see water bubbling up from the affected area.
Make sure you also assess the sprinkler heads that have not been working as you desire.
Opening the Shutoff Valve Partially
If a sprinkler is attached to a shutoff valve that has a connection to a home’s water supply, ensure you open it fully. And if you recently deactivated your main water supply, you must confirm if the valve is fully open. Besides, a sprinkler needs more flow than other water points in your home.
And you may not realize if you left the valve closed partly.
Increased Demand for the Local Municipality Water Supply
You can confirm with your neighbor about the water supply before you assume that your sprinkler has a problem. Ensure you ask if they have been encountering low water inflow with their sprinkler. Furthermore, check the weather and see if your area has been incredibly hot and also dry.
Make sure you also examine if the pressure in the system drops during the peak watering periods. And in case water flow is great at different times of an entire day, then there might be an issue with the local municipality. In
case there are new homes and businesses in the area, they could be taking much of the water in your area and thus causing low pressure.
The high water demand can be the cause of that issue. You can therefore reach out to your municipality to confirm everything. Further, you can also inquire whether it is a temporary problem or a staff that needs urgent attention.
The municipality can assist you to get rid of low pressure. And if the pressure issue is endless, you may have to reconfigure your existing system. Besides you need to obtain sprinkler heads that are adapted to low pressure in your region.
How Do You Increase Water Pressure For Sprinklers
There are several ways you can increase water pressure for sprinklers. Here are some that you can check out;
Ensure the Water Line Level Is At a Higher Height
This is compared to any other system. And it’s because you may notice the water pressure declines by less than 0.5 psi for a one-foot level and the reverse is also true.
Water Controller Works Well
You need to examine water controller pressure from the given water line for excellent operation.
Adjust Sprinkler Heads
When you examine the system’s heads, you may notice that the sprinkler heads are not adjusted well. And if this is the case, you can turn the head counterclockwise to increase water flow from the head.
Tidy Up the Sprinkler Heads
The system’s heads are likely to clog up with a lot of dirt. This prevents the pressure from flowing. To handle this situation, you can remove the head away from the riser as you hold the canister.
And then rotate the head’s top anti-clockwise. You will notice a screen basket that acts as a filter that has to be pried and then rinsed in clean water. And once you clean it well, you can fix the head to reclaim the initial position.
Replace Sprinkler heads
As you open the heads, you may notice a broken plastic casing or cracks obstructing the sprinkler head from popping up optimally. And this indicates that you need to replace the heads. With that, make sure you buy the same heads online or from local hardware or home stores.
Don’t forget that replacing a sprinkler head may need some skills in the field, so either watch tutorials to help for visuals to do it yourself or hire someone to help you.
Lowering the Number of Sprinkler Heads
If you have several heads for every zone, you need to know that extra sprinkler heads can result in a pressure drop. You can discard the avoidable heads and then cap the line leading to other heads.
Install a Boost Pump
You will need to install this on the mainline. To avoid uncertainties that the pump can increase the consumption of electricity, you can consider installing a pump start relay. This is for the boost pump to operate only when the system’s parts need high water pressure for the whole system.
And truth be told, since it requires technical knowledge to install them, talk with an expert if you aren’t optimistic about doing everything yourself.
What Causes Low Pressure In One Zone of Sprinklers?
There are a few things that cause low pressure in one zone of sprinklers. Here are some of them;
Improper Installation
In case a zone has not had sufficient water pressure from the time it got installed, the person involved most likely made an error. The installer might have linked two zones to utilize a similar water pressure. This always leads to one zone having relatively less pressure.
Still, they may have introduced a faulty valve, didn’t program the timer as required, or even made some mistakes. While some installation blunders can be fixed, some involve a rerun of the initial pipe. However, it all depends on the time the installer made the error.
System Leaks
Normally, when your system is working well and then a single zone starts losing water pressure, the problem is a leak.
That is at one or two nozzles or in the lines of the zones. With leaking nozzles, you will not get the same pressure and will need to do a very easy replacement.
However, finding the area that’s leaking in the line can be a little bit more difficult, though is fixable.
One thing you may contemplate is, if the system has been there for a long duration, the zone’s line may have been damaged by tree roots.
And if so, there may be a need to replace the tubes and think about how you’ll protect them.
Issues With the Timer
Problems regarding the timer are the more popular cause of the intermittent low pressure in a single system zone.
The timer for the zone can be behind others, thus resulting in a delay for the entire water pressure to get to the affected zone.
The timer may even switch the zone on or off for a few instances or not turn it on completely.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are many reasons why your sprinkler loses pressure after a few minutes. Understanding the problem and how to solve it is important. This is because you’ll be able to do repairs early enough and enjoy using your system.