Our pop up lawn sprinklers as a part of a whole reticulated lawn watering system are designed to be a set and forget type of utility, for the most part anyway. Like everything else in this world though, our sprinklers do need ongoing maintenance and looking after and even replacing every so often to ensure they are always operating at peak efficiency to do the work they were created to do.
The sprinkler is usually easily removed from the reticulated watering system by a simple anti-clockwise turn to unscrew the sprinkler to remove.
Before starting, dig an area around the sprinkler with a small hand digging tool, so there’s lots of access room to more easily get to the sprinkler, to turn it with your hand, or to easily manage any other problem which may arise. The extra space around the sprinkler can be filled in again when we’re finished, and it’s the best time to install a sprinkler guard if we haven’t done so already.
Some problems can occur as these systems age, so the sprinkler may be a little tight in its fit, or the riser could become damaged when removing etc. A broken riser can usually be removed with the aid of a “riser tool”, though these can be a little haphazard in their success sometimes. A pair of pliers and some patiences will eventually remove a broken or stuck riser.
Lawn Sprinkler Maintenance
We may be removing and maintaining a lawn sprinkler if its shown signs of not working property, that it may not be popping up enough or at all when in operation. This sticking or jamming can be caused with age or it can be caused with soil getting into the sprinkler if it wasn’t installed with a sprinkler guard and regularly maintained to ensure the gap between sprinkler and guard didn’t become filled with soil or lawn.
Once the sprinkler is out of the ground we can easily unscrew the lid and take it apart carefully.
CAREFUL: the lid is spring loaded and the whole insides of the sprinkler can pop out when we unscrew the lid, which might make it difficult to put back together again.
Really the only thing we can do here is to take all the parts out of the sprinkler and wash everything under the garden hose. We then put the sprinkler back together again.
Before reinstalling we should be able to pull up on the pop-up spray nozzle part, to see that it can easily pop up and then retract back into position when we let go again. This will give us our first indications that the sprinkler may be okay to continue to use.
If the pop-up spray nozzle is getting jammed, or is not quickly and easily retracting back into place, then we know we should replace the sprinkler entirely. Don’t worry about replacing little parts etc, they’re not really available and the sprinklers themselves are inexpensive, and by the time the sprinkler gets to an age or becomes damaged enough then it’s time to replace it anyway.
Reinstalling The Pop-Up Sprinkler
If we’re reinstalling the same sprinkler again, we only need turn on the reticulation system to check that it is now popping up and retracting back down again as it should be. If all is working okay then we’re done, we can get back to whatever it was we were doing before, or to whatever job is next on our list for the day.
If this testing of the reticulation system shows that the sprinkler remains faulty, then it’s time to replace it and any other sprinkler which may be misbehaving in our lawns at the time. It can usually be a good idea to buy a couple of spare sprinkler while we’re at the hardware shop too, because as these things go, we know they’ll be other repairs at other times that’ll need doing too, so it’s always good to have a spare or two on hand.
Don’t Forget Those Sprinkler Guards
If we don’t already have them installed, now is also the perfect time to install a sprinkler guard, seeing as though we’re already in the garden and we already have the larger hole dug around our sprinklers anyways, so let’s finish the job properly.
A sprinkler guard will keep the surrounding soil away from the sprinkler itself by creating a gap between sprinkler and soil, this ensures that the sprinkler can operate freely and without hindrance from the surrounding soil. A sprinkler guard will also help to stop surrounding lawn from growing over the top of sprinklers, and will help easily identify the position of our sprinklers in our lawn whenever maintenance is required.
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