Wilkins vacuum pressure breaker issue?

[mantsop]

Hi,

to give you a background, I have a hunter system, 12 zones, well water . The system is fed with a wilkins vacuum pressure breaker 720.

The system use to work perfect. I had it off for 2 season's for some lawn issues but had the water blown out right before. I tried to start her up yesterday and none of the zones are firing up. A few heads kick on but only shoot water about 2 ft or so. Some heads don't even budge. The vpb is making a rushing water sound, which sounds normal when the system is working, but continues making it even when the controller is unplugged. It turns off when i manually shut off the valve that is attached to the vpb. Water is also leaking from the bonnet, more then it used to at a constant rate. When i use a screw driver to turn the cock testers, water shoots out, which i think is normal. Before the vpb, i'm getting a reading of 60lbs of pressure.

In addition, I called my sprinkler guy which will come out on saturday. On the phone, he thought the valves dried up but even if i manually turn them, water still does not come out of the heads. Does it sound like my wilkins vacuum pressure breaker is shot? If so, would I completely lose pressure to the entire system?

thanks

[Gary Swart]

This is a simple device to prevent cross contamination of your domestic water from the irrigation side. There a many types of these devices, but all of them should be tested and certified each year. They are a mechanical device and will need to have repairs made occasionally. If your city does not require these inspections, they are not following EPA guidelines. Cross contamination puts the entire community at risk. The following is the Wilkins web site. You can find your particular device listed there. http://www.zurn.com/pages/catalog.as...OperationID=11

[mantsop]

Hi, i know what the purpose of the pvb is but would a faulty one effect the pressure going to the heads bad enough where the heads would not pop open?

[johnjh2o1]

It sounds like you have a broken line . Could be you didn't get all the water out after draining the system down, a line may have frozen and broke.

John

[BRD]

You should be able to charge the water up to the master valve(if you have one) or the zone valves and the water should stop and the BFD should seal with no leakage. That will tell you weather or not you backflow and connecting piping to the valves is ok. Close the outlet ball valve on the BFD and open the inlet side then open your main water supply. If your BFD seals tight then the BFD is ok, if not you need to check the poppet assy within the unit. If it does seal tight, then slowly open the outlet ball valve to fill the main, if that continues to run then, you probably have a cracked mainline and you will have to locate the leak.