Performing a Lawn Sprinkler Audit

If you own a lawn sprinkler system, you already know about all the great advantages connected to using a sprinkler system in your yard.

You want to make sure your lawn sprinkler system stays running in top condition. After all, repairs can be costly and you certainly don’t want to end up replacing the sprinkler system.

This is why it can be helpful to perform a sprinkler system audit.

One thing a sprinkler system audit will do is determine if your lawn and garden are receiving enough water. Here is one way to do this:

• Turn on the sprinkler system so that all the sprinkler heads are operating.
• Place plastic cups in various range of all the sprinkler heads.
• After allowing all the sprinkler heads to run for the same amount of time, turn the system off and check the plastic cups. The amount of water should be roughly the same in each cup.
• Do this for all the zones in your sprinkler system.

If there is less water in one or more of the cups, check the sprinkler heads in that zone. You want to check for things like a crack or a leak.

It's also a good idea to just observe your sprinkler system while it's running. Make sure the sprinkler system is delivering water to the proper areas in the zones. You don’t want water hitting the driveway or a sidewalk. This is just water waste. This means your lawn and garden are not getting as much water as they need and you are likely paying more than you need to on your water bill.