About James Grote Expertise Questions concerning irrigation, sprinkler systems, water pressure,backflow preventers, and drainage would be best. Questions about individual plants or shrubs are best left to others.
Experience
Past/Present clients Edward Jones Dome, Christian Hospitals, Barnes-Jewish Hosptials,St. Anthony's Hospital, St.Lukes Hospital Bellerive Country Club, Normandy Golf Course, Emerson Electric, and residential.
Question I had a well and sprinkler system installed in my Florida home 2 yrs ago. Recently I have experienced a problem with the pressure. The heads pop up and down and I hear a surging sound from the pump area. The heads spray about half the distance as before. The motor seems to be running fine. The neighbors have plenty of pressure and I had my well dug extra deep so I don't think it's the water table.
Answer Frank,
It may be the pump, but you need to check for what is called a mainline leak on the system before you look at the pump. That's where I would start. There are two kinds of pipe in your yard. The pipe the heads are connected to is a lateral line and is only under pressure when the timer opens up the valve for that individual zone/staion. You say that all zones look weak and that's means thatyou would have to have leaks on every lateral. That's not impossible, but unless you just had something trenched across your whole yard it is not likely. Your main line is the pipe before the valves and is under pressure all the time and if you have a large leak in the main it will affect all the zones. The thing is it is not a large leak until the pump kick on so it may not be that noticeable. If there is anywhere at the on the system to screw a pressure gauge on the gauge would tell you if you had a leak. You need some kind of threaded connection for that and then can screw on reducers to get to the size of the gauge. If you do that you would look for a very fast drop of the gauge needle. Another thing to check for is a stuck valve. I do not know the set you have with the pump and controller, but I assume that it works with a pressure switch and maybe even a pressure tank. Nevertheless, you ought to look and see if two zones/stations are trying to run at the same time and the pump can't deliver that much water. Then fix the valve or it is sometimes wires crossing, but usually a mechanical problem with the valve. After that then check the pump, but it is pretty new and it's more likely that the problem is after the pump and on the system. I may be wrong, but the pump is costly and checking the system first is not. Jim
