Test Your Sprinkler System Monthly and Save the Water Bill

After years of walking properties, I can tell you the most common irrigation problem nobody knows they have: broken heads dumping water where nobody sees it. On a commercial job recently we counted more than twenty busted heads at one store, running wide open.

The monthly check

1. Run each zone for two minutes while you walk it with a coffee in hand.
2. Look for geysers (broken riser), heads that don't pop up, streams hitting the sidewalk or street, and puddles that say a line is cracked.
3. Flag the bad heads with a little landscape flag or a stick so you can find them with the water off.

Most heads unscrew by hand and cost a few dollars each. While the system runs, also check the timer — if the clock has drifted or the cover is broken and weather is getting in, that's the next failure coming.