Most sprinkler systems waste water in ways you can see once you know what to look for. These are real problems we found on customers’ lawns around Spring, Texas, and what each one is doing to the yard.
Licensed Irrigator, TCEQ LI #29456
Problems you can see
Broken head (the geyser)
A snapped head or a missing nozzle sends water straight up. It dumps gallons in one spot, and every other head on that zone loses pressure.
Leaking at the head
Water is running along the ground instead of going through the nozzle. A cracked body, bad seal, or broken fitting underneath is usually the cause.
Crooked head
A leaning head throws its water into the air or into the dirt, not across the lawn. Mowers, tires, and settling soil knock them out of line.
Sunken head
The head sits below the grass, so the turf blocks the spray. Water puddles at the head and the lawn a few feet away stays dry.
Blocked spray
Plants grow, heads don’t. Once a shrub is in front of the nozzle, everything behind it goes without water.
Misting
When pressure is too high, the water turns to fog and drifts off before it lands. You pay for it and the lawn never gets it.
Watering the sidewalk
A head aimed wrong, or set to the wrong arc, soaks the concrete and sends water down the street.
Spraying the wrong thing
This head is misting across a walkway instead of covering the bed. The wrong nozzle or a head in the wrong spot waters everything except the plants.
One hard stream
A worn or wrong nozzle throws a single jet instead of an even pattern. It washes out soil where it hits and leaves gaps everywhere else.
Problems you can’t see as easily
Clogged nozzles
Dirt and grit in the nozzle or filter give you a weak or lopsided spray and dry patches in the lawn.
Seeping after shutoff
A head that keeps dribbling when the system is off points to a valve that isn’t closing all the way, or a line draining out at its lowest head.
Electrical faults
A zone that won’t come on, or won’t shut off, is often a bad solenoid, a cut wire, or a failed splice. We trace it and fix it.
Controller problems
Blank screen, skipped zones, or a timer that won’t hold its program. We diagnose, reprogram, or replace it with a Rain Bird or Hunter controller.
Bad schedule
Running too long, too often, or at the wrong time of day causes runoff, fungus, and high water bills. We set run times zone by zone for the season.
Not sure what’s wrong?
We run every zone, flag each problem head, and tell you what it needs before any work starts.
