Draining your sprinkler system
| First, turn off your sprinkler system at the main control panel, where you set the timer. Then look for your sprinkler cutoff handle, which is usually a white PVC pipe with a red or blue handle in a hole in the ground near your water meter, between the water meter and the house. (You may not have a sprinkler cutoff handle.) |  |
| If you have a sprinkler cutoff handle: 1) Turn the red cut off handle so that it is perpendicular to the white pipe, not parallel. This will cut off the water from going from your meter to the sprinkler system. Then see diagram to the right. 2) Remove rubber valve release covers if they're attached. 3) Turn two handles and two valve release screws to 45-degree angles. Water should run out of the valves for only a couple minutes; if water continues to run, then the irrigation cutoff at the street is not fully closed. Leave the valves in this open position until spring. |  |
| If you don't have a sprinkler cutoff handle, or can't find it, see diagram to the right. 1) Remove rubber valve release covers if they're attached. 2) Turn the lower handle on the backflow system at a right angle so it's perpendicular to the pipe, not parallel. This will cutoff the water supply. 3) Turn the upper handle on the backflow system to a 45 degree angle 4) Turn the two valve release screws to 45-degree angles |  |
| In the spring, follow the above steps in reverse. See the diagram to the right to view the sprinkler backflow in its usual configuration, not winterized. |  |