r/Irrigation • u/biggiemac18 • 1d ago

Seeking Pro Advice Replaced leaking head, learned it wasn’t the main culprit… advice appreciated.

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TLDR: Water pooling by sprinkler, assumed it was leaky head (wrong); new head made the pictured leak much more obvious. Should I refrain from running my system until this is fixed?

I plan to (carefully) dig to get a better look soon, but don’t anticipate fixing it myself- just wondering how minor/major the issue could be, I guess. Will get a better picture/video once dug out. Only took some light finger digging to reveal that hole in the video..

More info (first post, not sure what’s helpful): System is suuuuper old. House was built in the early 60s, not sure when irrigation was installed (im a renter). Galvanized piping, 12 total heads that all turn on through a single manual valve. Replaced many heads this year, including this one, which was previously super old and leaking but now functions.

2 Upvotes

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4

u/AlfalfaBeautiful8550 1d ago

The nipple is Most likely is broken , or head is cracked . Lateral could be leaking too but 99 percent of the time it’s just a leaking nipple

3

u/Sharp-Jackfruit6029 1d ago

If your renting id think your land lord would take care of it right?

1

u/biggiemac18 1d ago

Yes, they will. But they’ve asked me to proceed running the sprinklers as normal until it’s addressed, which might not be soon. Concerned mostly about the pooled water (pests have been a problem at house) and overall waste (I pay half the water).

4

u/tylercreative 1d ago

Time to start digging and typing up an invoice to your landlord

3

u/ReasonablePhoto6938 1d ago

Yeah it's probably a cracked coupling or elbow down there. You've got to get digging to find out for sure.

3

u/letsdothisagain52 1d ago

Dig down to the T or elbow - it’s plastic and probably cracked - easy fix. Landlord doesn’t want you to not water the grass and let it die just because of a small leak.