Catastrophic vacuum breaker failure and brand

Recently I was taking care of a neighbor's house, and their Febco 1" vacuum breaker (for their sprinkler system) let loose. Three different plastic internal parts (poppet, bonnet, and check valve) all broke. Fortunately it was caught within a couple hours so not too much water came down the foundation into the basement.

Febco makes a repair kit so we can overhaul it easily - but got me to wondering...

What is your experience with this - how often do you see a vacuum breaker fail abruptly? And is there a difference between Febco and Watts?

Makes me think about overhauling my own vacuum breaker as preventative maintenance.

Was the top cover still in place prior to the explosion? What state do you live in? (Freeze question)

I have seen the internal plastic components cracked and damaged by what I thought was sun damage, after a top was "misplaced". Same story as what you describe, system was running one day, and when a valve closed, Pop. Un-expected water feature.

Most of the damaged BF's we deal with are owners who did not winterize because of neglect, or new homeowners who didn't even know they were suppose to. This year we got a cold snap in late spring after a week of near 80's that cost a lot of people $100 who got antsy and turned their sprinklers on too soon.

Great questions - we are in Omaha, NE, so freeze damage is a possibility, and is certainly possible that this system wasn't prepped for winter last fall.

I do think that the system was running at the time of the failure, so as you say, would make sense that it happened when a valve shut.

Yes, the brass canopy was in place, so it was shielded from the sun.

I'll go with the freeze doing the damage. I'll also theorize that you do not have a mandatory annual BF inspection by a certified inspector in your area. If you did, it is likely that this would have been discovered before it "blew-up". I've had it say to me that my practice of totally removing my Watts BF each fall and storing it inside is overkill, but there are places inside of these devices that can hold small amounts of water and it is very difficult to totally get all of the water out. It doubt that there is any blame that should be attributed to the brand of BF. I have a Watts, but that was not done be design, that is the brand the irrigation company I bought my pipe, fitting, and sprinklers carried.

Thanks, Gary.

I actually like, and may start doing myself, your idea of dismantling my own BF this fall.

Yes, you are correct - as far as I know, we have no mandatory inspection process here...

There should be businesses in your town that are equipped, trained, and certified to inspect and repair BFs. Look in the Yellow Pages. These often are businesses that install and maintain fire suppression systems, outfit fire trucks, fill and maintain fire extinguishers, and similar jobs. The instruments to do the testing are very expensive as well as the training to become certified, so not everyone can do this. In my city, we are required to have cross connection devices, aka Backflow devices) inspected and certified each spring. The city inspects the unit the first time to make sure it is up to code, then each spring the city sends the homeowner a list of private individuals and/or companies that they have authorized to do the inspections. When the unit is certified, the inspector sends the paperwork to the city. If the inspection is not done in a reasonable time, the city will discontinue water service. A few weeks ago, I wrote a recap of the Federal and State (Washington) laws dealing with this. If you're interested, you can do a search and find it.