Congratulations on your new purchase! One of the features on your new home is a fully automated irrigation system. It is imperative that the system is winterized before any freezing weather arrives in the fall or winter. This is a step-by-step process on how to do so. Please remember that any repairs or replacements on any part of your irrigation system WILL NOT be covered if the damage was caused from freezing weather.

Winterizing your sprinkler system:

Tools:

Flathead screwdriver

Shovel/simple gardening tools (in the case you have to dig out mud or trim weeds/grass)

Locate your home’s irrigation shut off valve. This valve is typically located near the water meter but can also be found in different areas of the yard. The valve will be underneath a green irrigation lid in your yard. A Flintrock Builders Customer Care Representative will show you where the valve is located for your specific home during the New Home Orientation.
Once you’ve located the irrigation shutoff, remove the green lid. You will see a blue valve with a white PVC pipe below the valve. There are only two configurations the valve can be in, open or closed. If the valve is OPEN, the blue valve will be parallel with the PVC pipe underneath. If the valve is CLOSED, the blue valve will be perpendicular to the PVC pipe underneath. When winterizing, you want your irrigation valve to be in the CLOSED configuration.
Once the irrigation valve has been closed, identify your home’s backflow. The backflow is typically located on the sides of the home, but sometimes in the corner of the back yard.
There are 2 relief valves located on the backflow. These valves will have black caps on them.Remove the black caps, being very careful not to lose them.
There will be two test clocks located on each relief valve. Test clocks either allow water to drain from the backflow or prevent water from draining. When the test clocks are OPEN, water will drain. When the test clocks are CLOSED, water will be prevented from draining. Use a flathead screwdriver to manipulate the test clocks to the desired configuration. Vertical alignment of the test clocks indicates a CLOSED relief valve. Horizontal alignment indicates an OPEN relief valve. See first picture below for CLOSED and second for OPEN.
Turn the test clock to the OPEN position (horizontal) and allow the water to drain entirely. This could take up to 15 minutes for larger yards.
When there is no longer water flowing from the relief valves, you may reinstall the black relief valve caps you took off in step 5.
Leave your system in this configuration all winter until there is no more freezing weather.
To turn the water to your system back on, turn both test clocks to the CLOSED position (vertical) and turn the irrigation shutoff back to the OPEN (parallel) position which will allow water to flow through the system.

Warranty Information