When temperatures go up and the ice begins to thaw, yard lovers are itching to get their turf green and blooming again.

When is the best time to have your sprinkling system de-winterized?

As eager as you are to get spring underway and your sprinkling system going, make sure you don’t do it before you are sure that winter is really over. For Colorado, this is generally not until after Mother’s Day. Some people do the start-up as early as April 15th. However, we don’t recommend that unless our customers will monitor the weather and know how to do a quick drain in advance of a possible freeze. Test your ground. If it is melted a foot down, you can consider it safe to have your sprinklers de-winterized.

Should I call a professional to do Spring Start UP?

Doing this yourself is not very difficult, but there are some important things to consider before you decide to do it yourself. The fact is that some companies will not guarantee their winterization, unless they also do the start-up in the spring. This is because Start-up can break sprinkler components if done carelessly. If the customer does the start-up, it will be hard to tell if the components broke because the winterization was not done right or because the start-up was not done right.

• Efficiency

The fact is that turning the sprinklers on, checking that each zone is working properly and that the sprinkler heads are tuned correctly can be a fairly time-consuming job for the homeowner who does this only once a year. Technicians who do it all the time are going to be more efficient. This is especially so if there are parts that need to be replaced. They also have an eye for signs of possible underground breaks. If in-fact parts need to be replaced, he is likely to have the needed parts in his car, or if not, he will know where to get the right parts and how to install them.

• Monitor

Of course, it would be cost prohibitive for the technician to stay an entire day to make sure the programmer is functioning as it should or that there was no programming “typo”. So be sure to monitor the first watering on all zones. If you notice a problem, call the technician, so he can correct it.

If it’s time to turn on your sprinkler system, why not your local Sprinkler Doctor?

1. 1.  Call us at 303-800-7011. Our office hours are Monday through Friday from 8 am to 5 pm.
   2.  You can write us an email 24/7,
   3.  Or you can hit the Contact Us button right here on the website. Just click, scroll down and fill out the contact form.

You will be glad you did!