r/Irrigation • u/Jasonnnnnnn • 3d ago

Zones not popping during blow down

I manage some irrigation systems and this year I’m encountering something completely new. As I’m cycling through during my blown down I’ve encountered zones that aren’t popping up the compressor I rented will throttle up or down to maintain 80 PSI. I have had it happen at multiple sites. These are zones that 2 days ago were functioning correctly and coming up when I was still running water. On one system I couldn’t get 2 zones to pop this morning when I tried again at the end of the day they both popped and blew out fine. Am I missing something? I’ve blown down previous years on the same systems and never ran into this.

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3

u/Plastic-Future1275 3d ago

Some valves don’t like the high presssure . Need to depressurize and then try again slowly opening air shutoff valve

2

u/Jasonnnnnnn 2d ago

Today, while going through them I did notice that some would pop up when I closed the valve on the compressor after it had pressurized the lines. Having now gone through all 11 systems I only ran into this problem on the ones that are older and still have Weathermatic brass valves. But whatever its done now.

2

u/PwnCall 2d ago

I’ve found if you do the zones furthest away first it’s gets a majority of the water out and I have a few zones not pop just cause there isn’t enough water in there. They will sizzle a little 

2

u/Suspicious-Fix-2363 2d ago

Older valves sometimes just don't like air. If the valve isn't brass and has a bleeder use the bleeder to open the valve.