Irrigation Leak

adoucette · Aug 9, 2023

Hi,
My irrigation system appears to be leaking. The valve wells fill up with water when the supply / feed line is turned on, even if I don't run any sprinklers by opening the valves for a few days. When turned off the wells don't fill. By this I have to assume the problem is somewhere in the feed line part of the manifold.
Given the setup, see picture, water comes in from the top left, I'm assuming that I'll need to dig up the whole thing, cut out the manifold and valves, and rebuild it with new PVC pipe. While I'm at it, are there any tips? E.G. pipe thread connectors were possible instead of PVC epoxy? New valves or re-use old? Different valves? Different backflow preventer type or location? Anything else?

Thank you for any input.
Ari

enforcerman · Aug 10, 2023

Dig it out. Then turn it on. You'll see where the leak is. If your lucky it might be a small fix.

herein2023 · Aug 11, 2023

I agree with @enforcerman it might be something simple, but if you do decide to dig it up and redo the whole thing below are some improvements you could make:

Prebuilt Manifolds - I would use something like this but reuse your existing valves. They sell the kits without the valves since you already have the valves.
New Valve Boxes - I would separate the valve manifolds into 3 separate boxes, those look too tight to get any real work done if needed.
Wiring - The current recommendation is to use these for the wiring.
Filter - I think I see a filter in there. I would definitely replace or clean it while I was at it.
Pebbles - Plenty around the boxes but none below the valves, I would add some pebbles below the valves and a layer of weed block below the pebbles (to keep them from sinking into the ground), that will keep the dirt from washing over your valves.

Irrigation Leak

Top Contributors this Month

Recommended Communities