[FLHomeOwner]

Added new popup sprinklers and pressure is horrible... Advice please!

Hi Everyone,

I attached a rough layout of my predicament. I decided to finally take the plunge and add some sprinklers by the road so we can finally start growing grass on the other side of the sidewalk. I managed to tunnel under the sidewalk and hook up 4 new sprinkler heads (purple) with no problem. However, now my pop ups do not have enough pressure and the new ones do just about nothing...

Doing some research, I decided to drop down to 1/2" PVC (from 3/4" on my existing system) on the other side of the sidewalk to help with pressure. The red dots were my existing 4" popups (all on a single zone). I decided to remove the one by the sidewalk and turn it into a flowerbed. In turn, I teed off the connection and went under the sidewalk. The pressure was lousy so I also capped off (at the riser temporarily to see if it helped) the two heads by the fence/house. They were still leaking a bit but still not enough pressure...

What do I do now? Would permanently capping those two heads help? Do I need to separate these into separate zones? I was hoping to avoid digging up my lawn so that's why I removed a few heads and hoped it would just even out... Any advice from the experts?

Thanks in advance!

 

[FLHomeOwner]

...I do want to add that the sprinklers I temporarily capped off are not really watering anything anyway. I plan to turn that area into a rock bed eventually.

 

[djlandkpl]

Are the purple heads in a separate zone?

Do you know what the water pressure is at the source leaving the house?

Is the system hard piped to your water supply or is there a hose screwed onto a spigot?

 

[FLHomeOwner]

It's all on a single zone. It all worked fine prior so I figured capping 3 heads and adding 4 on a smaller line wouldn't make much of a difference.

I am not sure what the water pressure is but we are in the city and the house is less than 10 years old. Pressure is good!

The sprinkler line is teed off from the spigot in the back. However, we never had a problem with pressure before this...

 

[djlandkpl]

Know the real pressure would help determine the problem. However you could try a few things.

1) Make sure all the water valves supplying the system are open.
2) Check all of your new connections for water leaks
3) Remove the popup from the head closest to the water supply and see if you get a good flow of water. Replace the pop up.
4) Do the same for the new heads at the end of the line.

It's possible that dirt got into the lines and is clogging the heads, but it shouldn't affect the whole system.

I'm not a pro, but 1/2 sounds too small for supply lines.

 

[FLHomeOwner]

Thanks... I was told that 1/2" would be better for the pressure since I was adding additional heads... Is that not correct?

 

[djlandkpl]

Thanks... I was told that 1/2" would be better for the pressure since I was adding additional heads... Is that not correct?

I can't say for sure if it is wrong. It just seems too small. Have you tried disconnecting the new head section to see if the old heads work correctly?

 

[Canarywood1]

Thanks... I was told that 1/2" would be better for the pressure since I was adding additional heads... Is that not correct?

You have the right size pipe,but too many heads for one zone,the four heads that you added need to be a seperate zone.