Hi rmo87, I have never lived in freezing winter climate. So this advice is more my common sense with working with newly constructed systems. After you believe any prolonged freezing is past. Intermittent cold at night will be thawed during the day. Remove all the sprinkler heads. Open the auto valve manually one zone at a time and then open the main shut off and then close off the main shut off flushing each zone until you see clean water coming out. It shouldn't take that long. Do this for each zone. Now you can be sure anything that has crawled into you pipes during the winter has been removed. When your done, your pipes are filled with water, you auto valves for each zone are shut and the main shut off is on. Your system now can be operated with your controller. Check that your controller operates all zones and set time and duration less than you do in the summer heat. That should do it. May your yard grow well this season, especially the tomatoes. JMHO Aloha.

Wow, great minds think alike. I have several underground hoses, because I hate rolling up the hose for my DH to mow. So --we rented a trencher for another project for a 12 volt elect line, and used it dig the 4" deep trench from the house to the first bed 90 feet away. At the house there is a 'Y' splitter. I installed a regular garden hose in the soil. There I have it connect to a above ground hose to water that 80 bed (just coil that hose on the ground). If I want to water the annuals, there is a 50 foot soaker hose just under the mulch, but remember it only wets the soil for about 8" wide, I use a quick connect to attach the soaker hose. At the end of that bed is another underground hose of 50 feet, with a 'quick connect' to the second bed. In that bed, I used a box hose reel and use it as a chair when I'm tired over there. The 150 feet of hose on that reel, waters that whole bed and then must go over the grass to reach another bed in the yard installed recently (very seldom water it though). I don't even blow out the hose before winter, and they are dong fine after 4 years, I just disconnect it from the faucet and let gravity drain it. I have a similar set up up the other side of the house, but only have one bed to reach over there. We are on a well, and pushing that much water uphill gives me low pressure, but the system works great and the old hoses were free--salvaged and needed to just fix the ends. Yes I have cut the hoses in a different project and used the hose repair kits, even used those kits on soaker hoses too. I wish I had done this at other houses. By the way, the end of the underground hoses are 2 feet from the bed edge with a rock/board over that area (or ran it through a salvaged piece of downspout-to protect it from the shovel and lawn mower.

Hi Geoff, In regards to the foot valve and filtration, yes, I would suggest the use of a filter, why? Because small bits of algae, sand and other debris over time will build up in the valve diaphragm. The sprinkler heads can pass a small amount of debris fine (they have filters under the nozzles) it is the valves you should be most worried about. For your application, the use of a disc filter would be most appropriate. Disc filters use a series of screen discs that the water is forced through the amount of filtration is measured in mesh. The recommended mesh for a irrigation system is 100 mesh. Most disc filters need to be cleaned on a annual or bi-annual basis by unscrewing the filter top and hosing it off well. Disc filters are not as easy to come by as their cousin the screen filter. However a trip to a local irrigation supply house, like Ewing, should produce some nice results. Oh, a regular irrigation valve should NOT be used on a system running off lake water. You need a "Scrubber valve" which incorporates a very heavy duty diaphragm and stainless steel hardware (like molded stainless bonnet studs for easy service) The model is suggest using is the 100-PEB from Rain Bird. Once again, not going to find it at home cheapo, go to a irrigation supply house. About the sprinkler heads. I would suggest going with the same brand of sprinkler heads as long as they are not orbit or toro. Hunter makes a wonderful rotor as does Rain Bird. I will assume you have Hunter PGP rotors (they are very common) and they work great, some of the guys have complained they stop rotating as you mentioned, but it's luck of the draw. Because of the rotating issue, many have switched to the Rain Bird 5000. I haven't tried the 5000 but Rain Bird makes excellent products so it couldn't be half bad. Both the 5000 and PGP come with a nozzle tree and adjustment key. You can match the numbers on your old nozzle with the new when changing it out. And again, go to the irrigation supply house. Moneypenny: Any irrigation system running from a lake should incorporate disc filtration and scrubber valves. These will pay for them selves over time and will give you peace of mind. The pop-up rotors are personal taste but I like the PGP's just fine. With a filtration and care you will be good to go. Don't opt for the cheapest stuff out there, you get what you pay for and I can say this from experience. Cheap brands include: Orbit and Toro. Don't go to the big box stores like home depot, they won't carry the products you need, it's the professionals choice and why not support the local business? Links to products mentioned in this tutorial and other helpful links: Arkal-Amiad filtration: Mfrs. of manual disc filters. 322 Rolling Hill Road Mooresville, NC 28117-9920 http://www.arkal-filters.com/pro_manual1.html Rain Bird Corp: Mfrs. of high quality irrigation components. Rain Bird Corporation 1000 West Sierra Madre Ave. Azusa, CA 91702 http://www.rainbird.com/landscape/products/valves/PEB_PESBseries.htm Irrigation tutorials/help: Jess Stryker, professional irrigation system designer with 30+ years of experience. http://www.irrigationtutorials.com/ I do not endorse any of these manufacturers or people. I simply know good products.

As far as I know, you can do this, but you may get some water hammer. At home my well is 200 feet from the house. The bladder tank is in the basement. I open the tap, tank drains. Pump kicks in. Now I close my tap. Water is no longer exiting the system but there is 200 feet of water moving at 7 feet per second or so in the pipe from the well. The bladder absorbs the shock of that water, and slows it down. Now I put a T in at the well. One end of that T goes out to the nursery. I turn off the water at the nursery. 1000 feet of water in the pipe are still coming toward me, but there is no bladder where it can go. Oh, sure the bladder at the house end will absorb some of the shock, but the bulk of the water is moving away from that bladder, not toward it. net result is that all the bits of hardware at the end of the pipe have to absorb the energy. In my case this isn't much of a problem. I've done two things. One is that the end of my 1000 feet of pipe is about 50 feet from my last hose bib. This end of the pipe tends to collect air, and so acts as a buffer. Secondly, I don't have automatic valves, so the normal operation of turning off the valve is slow enough not to do damage. Thirdly, its black poly pipe, which has a certain streatch to it, and I've laid it out in a somewhat snakey manner. This allows the excess energy to wiggle the pipe. Most of the time water hammer in plastic plumbing is not a big problem, especially outside. In inside systems it is primarly a nuisance due to noise. It may be a problem if you use electric valvues.