Of all the components in a residential or commercial irrigation system, the backflow preventer is the one homeowners understand least and think about the least, right up until a municipal notice arrives saying it’s out of compliance. Unlike a spray head or a valve, a backflow preventer isn’t there to make your lawn greener. It’s...
Plenty of homeowners are comfortable with basic home maintenance, and a fair number of irrigation issues really are within reach of someone willing to spend twenty minutes with a shovel and a small parts kit. But irrigation systems also have failure modes that look simple on the surface and are not, and knowing which category...
Your irrigation system works quietly in the background. It runs before dawn, shuts off before you’re outside, and cycles through zones while you’re at work. That invisibility is part of its value. But it also means that when something goes wrong, you might not notice until there’s a dead zone in your lawn. A doubled...