When should you blow out your sprinklers in Colorado Springs?

Blow out your sprinklers once you have finished watering for the season and before the first hard freeze. There is no fixed date in Colorado Springs, so watch the overnight forecast and book ahead. Water left in the lines can freeze and crack pipes, valves and sprinkler heads, and the damage usually shows up when the system is turned back on in spring.

Why sprinklers need a blowout

Water expands as it freezes. After you shut an irrigation system off for the year, water still sits in the underground lines, the valves and the heads. If it freezes there, it can split pipes and crack fittings. The system looks fine all winter, and the problems appear in spring as leaks, soggy patches or zones that won’t come on.

A blowout pushes that water out with compressed air, so there is little left to freeze.

How to time it

The deadline is the first hard freeze, and the start is when you no longer need to water lawns and plants for the season. Fall weather along the Front Range can change quickly, with mild afternoons and much colder nights, so a calendar date is less useful than the forecast.

Book before the cold arrives instead of calling after the first freeze warning. Google search data for Colorado Springs shows interest in sprinkler blowouts peaks in October.

• You have stopped watering for the season
• Overnight lows in the forecast are heading toward freezing
• Your blowout is booked before the first hard freeze, not after it

What a blowout involves

In a typical blowout, the water supply to the system is shut off and a compressor is connected to the irrigation line. Air is run through one zone at a time until the heads stop spitting water and only air comes out.

The air pressure has to be controlled. Too much can damage pipes, fittings and heads, and skipping a zone leaves water behind. If you are not sure how your system is set up, have a crew do it.

If you manage several properties

CRM’s landscaping crew does fall blowouts for commercial properties, HOAs and property managers with several sites. Sending every site in one request makes them easier to schedule. For each property, include:

• The address and an on-site contact
• Where the controller and the shut-off valve are, if you know
• Gate codes, locks or access times
• Any leaks or broken heads you already know about

After the blowout

Leave the system off until spring. When you turn it back on, run each zone and look for leaks, dry patches and heads that don’t pop up, since that is when any winter damage shows.

Fall is also the time to plan the rest of the winter. CRM’s property services include snow removal for entrances and walkways, and agreeing the details before the first storm saves a scramble later.