More irrigation woes

What should have taken 5 minutes took 2 1/2 hours.  Earlier in the day I finished moving all the pipes for the next area to irrigate.  At 7 pm I went to open the valves to the next lines and close the valve to the old line.  Then I removed the old line's valve and carried it to the location for tomorrow's line.

I then saw the gusher.  The riser pipe for a sprinkler in the newer Wade Rain line had come out.  I walked back and reinstalled the valve for the original line and reopened it, then closed the line with the gusher.  I need a certain amount of sprinklers active else the water pressure can get too great and loosen the weaker connections.

I walked home and got a pipe wrench. At the riser I discovered the pipe's threads were shot.

I walked home to get another riser.  I had no 'free' risers, that is a riser without a sprinkler on it or a riser not in a connector.  I did have two risers with no sprinklers on them.  I wanted to use the sprinkler from the bad riser as I knew that sprinkler worked.

The first riser would not unscrew out of the Wade Rain connector.  The second riser unscrewed out of it's connector but I then discovered the riser's end was for a different type of sprinkler.

I found four risers with sprinklers on them and went back out to the irrigation line.  I put the first riser/sprinkler in the pipe.  Opened the valve and saw water come out of the sprinkler.  I then closed the original valve and removed it.  When I got to the sprinkler line I saw the 'new' sprinkler was not turning.

I went back and put the valve back on and reopened the line.  The second sprinkler I used was also bad.  This time I hadn't removed the original valve opener.  The third sprinkler worked.

Then I noticed the first sprinkler in the line wasn't throwing the water as far as the other sprinklers.  It may have been partially clogged.  I didn't have a wire to clean the opening.  But, hey, these are Wade Rain connectors.  One can switch connectors without switching pipes.  So after closing and opening the valves I did.  With the 'shorter' sprinkler in the middle of the line the adjacent sprinklers would cover for it.

But then now the third sprinkler I had just replaced, then moved, quit working.

I tried the fourth sprinkler to discover the riser pipe was bad and would not screw into the connector.

I went home and got another connector with a riser and sprinkler.  I was leery about using it as the connector's gaskets appeared dry.  Yup.  They were.  The pipe leaked bad at the connector.

I went home and switched risers and sprinklers to the original connector that had new gaskets.

The connector now worked and the sprinkler now worked.  But remember when I switched connectors because the one sprinkler didn't throw the water as far?  That connector was now leaking bad.  I went home and got some wrenches and tried adjusting the pipe position into the connector.  Didn't help much.  Tomorrow when I switch irrigation lines I will take the time to replace those connector's gaskets with my last two new gaskets.

And remember all the closing and opening of the valves?  Last year I replaced most, but not all, of the valve gaskets.  I only replaced them when they leaked.  Well... all this opening and closing over and over caused one of the old gaskets to start leaking.

So I had to replace that gasket.  Not an easy job when the water is flowing.  I walked home and got a board to block the water when I removed the valve without the valve opener.  The water gushed four feet high.   I quickly stood in lake.   Once I switched gaskets - and thankfully did not lose the cotter pin - I had to reach into the geyser to screw the valve back into the pipe.


All the above took over two hours to complete.


Then I walked the rest of the line. The previous time I used this line I had everything working.  Now one other sprinkler wouldn't work correctly.  The sprinkler would have a spot where it would get stuck each time after I helped the sprinkler past the spot.   The sprinkler worked the last time I irrigated with it but now the sprinkler location was on a slope and not on level ground.  The unlevel ground was enough to make a bad sprinkler worse.

So back home to get the sprinkler from the bad riser that started this entire mess.  I knew that sprinkler worked.  It did once I removed the sticky sprinkler.

One other sprinkler seemed suspicious but I decided it worked enough for me to wait until tomorrow to recheck it.

Why all the bad sprinklers and risers?  I had bought all of them used.  The previous owner didn't have the decency to toss their bad sprinklers and mixed them up with their good sprinklers.


By the time I was done I was soaked from head to foot.  While working on the sprinkler I was getting really annoyed and was swearing up a storm after a while.  What should have taken 5 minutes....