SPRINKLER TALK FORUM - You Got Questions, We've Got Answers

Besure to blowout your entire system and to winterize your backflow by removing it's insides and to turn all peacocks at a 45 deree angle to allow any water to escape or you will be buying a new backflow (lived in Colorado Springs, CO)

Joe S.

I mean expanding ice, water doesn't necessarily expand.

As long as you blow out your system your sprinklers will survive just fine. It's the expanding water that does the damage.

Fine. I live near the canada border in the usa and I get 40 degrees below zero farenheit in the winter and nothing breaks. I do blow out my system as that is manditory.

Thanks for the answers, but how does the sprinkler (rubber parts) survives the winter.

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If there is any water left in the pipes, there is room for it to expand so it won't crack the pipes, on the otherside, if the pipe is still full of water it has no where to go when it freezes so it expands out, hence cracking the pipe.

If you blow the water out of your system, most of the water should be out. Even if water does remain after blowing it out, it wouldn't be enough to expand and break anything. Now if you don't blow out your system you would be fixing a lot of broken pipes in the spring. Make sure to blow it out using at least a 90 cfm aircompressor.

In my country, Estonia (Northen Europe) in winter the degrees drop far below 0 degrees Celcius. Of course there are no need for watering at that time, but i wonder how the system survives the winter. Even if I pump all the water out of the system there are still change that some water will remain. Does it break my system or is the plastic pipes and connections so elastic that ice doesn't break them? And do I have to remove sprinklers?

I know the problem is silly, but maybe someone just know or has experience.

Thanks for answering.

Paffkin