Emergency Turn-Off’s

With overnight freezing temperatures expected, we want to share some preventative tips that you can use to help protect your sprinkler system if you’ve not yet had your system winterized and shut down for the season – until we are able to come out.

The parts of your system that are at risk of freeze damage are any pipes and backflows that are above ground, exposed to the elements. The ground temps should protect any pipes, valves, heads and shutoffs that are in the ground. Typically we need below freezing temperatures that last for more than a day or two to cause a freeze that is impactful enough for those things to become susceptible. Therefore if you have a water tap located outside and your backflow is in the ground, you should be safe from any potential freeze damage.

If your system shutoff is in your house and your backflow is outside and above ground, follow these procedures:

Emergency Turn-Off Steps

1. Shut off the water to the system. Do not close the ball valve shut offs on the backflow if it is outside. This will cause the ball valves to crack if the water inside of them freezes. Turn the handles ¼ turn as in the image above.
2. Using a flat screw driver, turn the slot on the test cock ¼ turn.
3. Run your controller through a manual cycle. This will let the water in the pipes above ground gravity drain.
4. Simply invert these instructions when you’re ready to turn your system back on.

If you still need to schedule a winterization appointment submit an online request form and a member of our scheduling team will call you as soon as possible to get that appointment scheduled!

*To qualify for our winterization warranty someone must to be home for the winterization service so that we have full access to the system and can verify that we have the water shut off completely & your winterization invoice must be paid in full