Typically, homeowners call a sprinkler technician when something obvious happens. A head breaks and sprays water into the air. A section of lawn doesn’t get water at all. What might be surprising to some, however, is that the technician shows up, takes a look in a matter of ten minutes and starts telling you things that are wrong with your system that you never even knew about. There are underground leaks. There are pressure issues. There are valve malfunctions that are happening inside of a box you never knew was there.
This isn’t an attempt to upsell. This is recognition based upon patterns someone who sees what invisible damage exists within systems like yours can tell. You might just see a mostly functioning system with one little annoying problem, but they’re able to read fluctuations and outputs that determine there could be far more in the works. Sometimes seeing too much relative to your circumstances is bad, but here, it’s good – it means avoiding more expensive repairs later on.
Technicians Listen to Pressure
When a technician turns on a system, they’re not just looking to see if something is spraying from the heads. They’re listening to how the system sounds, watching how quickly the heads pop up and whether the spray pattern reflects accuracy. Low pressure in one zone typically means that there’s something preventing that line from sending enough water through it. A valve that’s closed only partially. A crack in the line that’s leaking underground before getting to the heads.
High pressure reveals different indications. Heads pop up completely out of control. Misting occurs instead of a proper spray pattern. That fine mist you see in the sunshine? It’s not supposed to be like that. It means you have too high a pressure and you’re prematurely evaporating water before it even reaches the ground. A good technician will detect this without a second thought because they know what’s normal.
Technicians will adjust one zone while monitoring another one and will see if a decision impacts pressure across the board or merely in certain locations alone. This helps determine if it’s a main line issue or an issue of groups determined by valves and suggests further whys and hows in addition to what you might suspect.
Finding Leaks
Leaks underground are rare and difficult to spot. They can run for weeks on end without being noticed because soil will absorb it before it has a chance to puddle up. However, technicians have a trained eye for small details – a certain patch of grass that’s greener than the rest, or perhaps certain areas grow faster than others. Or, there are soft spots in the yard where the ground may feel spongy underfoot or an area continues to grow after water’s applied for longer periods of time.
They’re checking your water meter as well. If no one’s using water in the house, the system’s off and yet they’re still able to detect movement on that line, it means there’s a leak somewhere outside. Professionals that specialize in sprinkler repair in Tampa services will isolate each zone over time – one by one – and see where the meter turns even if it’s off.
Sometimes companies will use acoustic technology that listens for water running in underground pipes elsewhere. It’s almost like a stethoscope for your irrigation system where they place it on various areas within your property and listen for hissing where things should not be moving. Not every company implements this technology, but if one does, it’ll find faults quicker.
Valves You Never Opened
Most homeowners don’t realize where their valve boxes are or what’s inside them. Those green and purple box covers scattered randomly throughout your property? Each contains valves that either make or break different zones within your system. The first thing technicians will do is open these boxes and see what’s going on internally.
Valves can go bad in ways that seem fine to anyone outside looking in. A diaphragm could be torn but only minutely so it lets the zone run longer than it’s supposed but can’t shut down at all. Wiring connections rust out from humidity and it’s not until this corrosion goes up far enough to distance its previous attachment to realize there’s something wrong – but these things follow a pattern. Someone who’s seen it before can connect the dots even if you have no clue that’s going on. They’re also looking for water in the box which means either an outlying valve is busted or there exists a cracked pipe fitting right there.
The solenoid – a metal part connected to the top of the valve – gets tested independently as well. That solenoid acts as an electronic switch and when it’s down, either the zone won’t start or stop at all. A simple test with a multimeter determines whether or not it’s working correctly as this check takes thirty seconds for someone who’s been living with this issue for months.
Controller Checks
The controller of your irrigation system (that box on a wall that’s setting everything) may seem functional because someone can see screen visualization as they set things up like timers – but technicians look at things you might not check yourself. They run each zone manually and time how long they run compared to what the controller says will run them for.
Programming errors happen all too often – but most people wouldn’t even consider this issue until every region’s checked independently with data support to prove otherwise. One person might have programmed it so overlapping zones might mistake operations but that’s double unnecessary because that’s watered out somewhere else anyway while someone elsewhere might have shorted wiring that makes zone three turn on whenever five runs…and so forth.
They’re also checking wire connections inside of the box for frayed wires, corroded terminals or even damage from animals which causes intermittent problems that seemingly make sense. The system works fine until it doesn’t work and then it works again when no connection’s been made before so technicians find these wires that really should’ve been noticed long before but never were.
Physical Walking Of Your Property
After someone checks mechanical parts, good technicians will walk your entire property while it’s running from zone to zone after adjusting whatever they need to adjust – they’ll look at coverage patterns, dead spots and oversaturated spots which indicate heads improperly placed but likely have been engaged too often due to worn nozzles.
It’s not always something broken; sometimes it’s something that’s installed poorly from the beginning – a head too far away from another, wrong nozzle types for colors they’re covering, spray heads trying to water the same way that rotors do because they need two entirely different pressure amounts and run times.
These explanations come down not just suggesting your system needs work – but frankly explaining what failed, why they failed and what happens if they continue to go unfixed. That’s how you know someone actually diagnosed your system – not just showed up to replace something obviously broken – because it’s the unseen problems of systems like yours that cost everyone if they keep going as is.
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