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FREEZE ALERT INFORMATION: (and see WARNING below)      October 10, 2018

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For all the Highlands Ranch neighbors who couldn’t get a sprinkler system blowout scheduled before this weekend’s forecast hard freeze, this is something you can do to try to prevent damage to your system until you can get the system fully blown out and drained. 

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The main point of weakness and damage is the back flow prevention device outside your home. Water trapped inside this device will freeze and break the pipes or housing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first thing to do is to turn off the water supply to your sprinkler system. In most Highlands Ranch houses, the turnoff is in your basement. Find your water pipes with the water meter attached. There are most likely one or two turnoffs on the main pipe and then a branch of that pipe runs outside to your sprinkler system. On that branch close to the main pipe, find the lever (may be red or yellow) and turn the water off. The handle will be perpendicular to the pipe when it’s off.

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It could also be a round turnoff.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note: if you have no water in the rest of the house after you turn it off, you turned off the wrong one.

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Then go outside to find the other end of that same branch of pipe. It connects to your back flow preventer. With a flat head screwdriver open the two ports on the side of the device.

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When the slot in the port is lined up with the port opening, it’s open (as shown above). You’ll probably get a brief flow of water when you open it. Leave both of them open without any plastic caps.

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You have now provided openings for trapped water to escape when it starts to freeze. Water will expand before it freezes and will then flow out these openings instead of breaking the pipes around it. To be extra sure, you can also remove the vacuum breaker from the back flow preventer. You need a crescent wrench or pliers to remove the small nut on top of the mushroom looking cap.

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Then unscrew the round plastic vacuum breaker. It’s in two parts.  

Take all these parts inside for safe keeping until you can get a blowout. The vacuum breaker is often just hand tight and can be removed by twisting it with your hands. Lefty Lucy, etc. If it’s too tight for that, you need a channel lock wrench to carefully grip only the plastic edge to unscrew it. You might want to cover the open back flow preventer with a plastic bag to keep out snow and debris.

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The cover might also look like this and will need a Philips screwdriver to remove it. 

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WARNING: this is not a complete protection for your sprinkler system. It’s only a temporary and emergency type measure you can take to try to prevent expensive damage until you can get a better solution. Other professionals/experts reading this, please add any comments or other suggestions you have in the Nextdoor system to help our neighbors at this time.

 

As much as I want to help everybody avoid expensive damage, I obviously can’t take responsibility for systems I haven’t seen or worked on. I hope everyone can accept these ideas in the spirit they are offered, and I hope these ideas help.

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All the best, Jim Craig, The Highlands Fixer  720-295-5814                                                                                                                         

 

 

Okay, final recap:

 

STEPS:

  1. Turn off sprinkler system water supply in the basement.

  2. Open the ports on the back flow preventer with a screwdriver.

  3. Remove the vacuum breaker.

  4. Store all the removed parts for safe keeping.

  5. Get on someone’s schedule for a complete blowout and system drain.

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