Winterize Your Lawn’s Irrigation System with an Air Compressor
Winterizing your lawn’s irrigation system using an air compressor is vital to the health and longevity of the system and will help to avoid bursting hoses and other issues. Use this winterization guide to prepare your sprinklers for Winter weather.tem with an Air Compressor
Winterizing Tools and Materials
You will need four things to get started on winterizing your irrigation system the quick and easy way:
- Air compressor
- Air hose
- Quick-connect hose adapter
- Original irrigation layout
If you don’t have the required tools, such as a powerful air compressor or hoses and adapters, you can rent them from Carter Rental.
Setup and Procedure for Air Compressor
The primary task is to clear all water from your irrigation system. You can accomplish this with an air compressor that can blow out the entire system at once (or zone by zone).
With the original irrigation layout, locate the gallons per minute (gpm) for each sprinkler. Then, divide each of those by 7.5, telling you the cubic feet per minute (cfm) necessary to blow them all out. More simply, you can ensure that your air compressor handles at least 10 cfm.
The next steps depend on the pipe system. If you have a rigid PVC pipe design, you can use 80 psi. Otherwise, 50 psi will do for flexible polyethylene piping. Once you shut off the water supply, set the system to a single zone, open its manual drain valve, and connect the airline to the system’s blow out port.
You will see the sprinkler heads pop up and start releasing water. As soon as they stop spitting water, disconnect the air hose. Without any water to cool, the system’s plastic gears could melt in minutes! As you blow out the next few zones, you can let the previous heads cool.
After all the zones are blown out and cooled, repeat the process one last time.
How to Rent an Air Compressor from Carter Rental
Air compressor rentals allow you to avoid sizeable investments in equipment you may rarely use. Carter Rental has a large inventory of air compressors in a variety of models suitable for many different jobs and applications.
For winterizing an irrigation system, you need a compressor able to use 10 cfm to clear your system of extra water. Carter Rental has multiple models in our fleet that are able to handle this task.
With ample, in-stock rentals and a wealth of expertise, contact Carter Rental to choose your air compressor. Speak with a representative at 888.344.RENT.