I've had my sprinkler/drip system for 8 years. I have three zones up front (drip line, sprinklers, sprinklers) and two zones in the back (sprinklers, sprinklers). Everything has worked fine. Until now...
We had an unusual freeze a month or so back here in Arizona. The freeze damaged the anti-siphon pressure vacuum breaker (Watts, Series 800M4). I purchased replacement parts (white disk that prevents backflow, spring, O-ring). I replaced them, but had to leave out the spring for it to work. There didn't seem to be enough pressure to push up the disk with the spring installed.
Ignoring that problem, I simply left the spring out. The drip line looked to be working. I did not winter seed my lawn so I did not think to check the sprinklers.
Fast forward to now-- when I would like to turn on my sprinklers-- and they only leak water. None of the heads in any of the zones pop up.
So.. I assume I have a pressure problem, but how do I isolate it? When I manually turn on the sprinklers I can hear water flowing through the system. I can also see water rapidly dripping from the pipes connecting the main water line to the "water system box" in the ground. I assume that whole apparatus above ground is the Watts 800M4.
Could the freeze (it was only one night) have damaged the entire vacuum breaker?
Sorry for the verbosity. Here's a picture of the situation. Any thoughts?
We had an unusual freeze a month or so back here in Arizona. The freeze damaged the anti-siphon pressure vacuum breaker (Watts, Series 800M4). I purchased replacement parts (white disk that prevents backflow, spring, O-ring). I replaced them, but had to leave out the spring for it to work. There didn't seem to be enough pressure to push up the disk with the spring installed.
Ignoring that problem, I simply left the spring out. The drip line looked to be working. I did not winter seed my lawn so I did not think to check the sprinklers.
Fast forward to now-- when I would like to turn on my sprinklers-- and they only leak water. None of the heads in any of the zones pop up.
So.. I assume I have a pressure problem, but how do I isolate it? When I manually turn on the sprinklers I can hear water flowing through the system. I can also see water rapidly dripping from the pipes connecting the main water line to the "water system box" in the ground. I assume that whole apparatus above ground is the Watts 800M4.
Could the freeze (it was only one night) have damaged the entire vacuum breaker?
Sorry for the verbosity. Here's a picture of the situation. Any thoughts?