This fall City Rain was called in to get the irrigation system together for the new Green Plate Special garden location on 25th Ave. S and S. Walker St. in the Mt. Baker neighborhood/ Rainier Valley. Ironically it’s just a few hundred feet from a McDonald’s. Green Plate Special gets middle school aged kids interested in healthy food via hands on growing and cooking food. How cool is that? In order for cool kids to grow cool food, you’re gonna […]
Why Does My System Keep Coming On?
You programmed your controller to start watering at 5am. Let’s say you have five zones and they water ten minutes each. The cycle should be finished by 5:50, right? So why are the zones still watering at 8:30? What most likely happened is you confused program start times with zone run times. This mistake is common, and understable, because the language is counter to intuition. Don’t feel dumb, the industry is slow to correct user unfriendliness the more they advance the features. It’s too bad […]
City Rain Helps Build “Water Drum” at NW Garden And Flower Show
What is this crazy thing Craig is working on? This was the first prototype of a manifold of small solenoid valves that open up to drip water droplets onto different drumheads, creating A Floral Symphony. Craig volunteered to assist Heidi Skieveski in the construction of her garden at the upcoming Northwest Flower and Garden Show. The idea was inspired by a design by Dan Corson at Cedar River Watershed Education Center.
What Are These So-Called “ET” Controllers?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4fyXWcfAb8 This is the very same controller and weather station we install here at City Rain Inc. We’ve been using this product since around 2007. There were some issues with the first batch of weather monitors we installed. They worked for about 3 years and then just stopped working. Fortunately Weathermatic has made improvements and gave us replacements hassle free. What is ET? ET is short for evapotranspiration- which is a wonderful portmanteau (man I love that word!) of evaporation and transpiration. […]
Who Doesn’t Love Dazzling Before And After Pictures?
This is an account we’ve had for years in Broadmoor. They had an automatic sprinkler system in the backyard, and an old manual zone in front. The front lawn was watered by old brass heads that didn’t pop up high enough, oversprayed, and generally wasted water. I’ve met some people that are fond of these old heads. They are brass, they seem ‘vintage’, right? Well, would you want ‘vintage’ electrical wiring in your house? Installed correctly, new 4″ (for turf, taller heads for shrubs) plastic pop-up […]
What Every Citizen Of Earth Should Know About Gate Valves
Any time you see a valve with a wheel type handle it’s more than likely a gate valve. It’s called that because it has a gate that raises and lowers inside, as opposed to a ball that rotates, or a stopper with a gasket. Gate valves are used as main shut-offs and for isolating sections of pipe or manifolds. The one thing every citizen of Earth should know is that gate valves need to be opened ALL THE WAY. That […]
Would You Mount A Thermostat For Your House In The Back Yard?
Of course you wouldn’t. It would be a little inconvenient to put on your robe and slippers and trot out there in the drizzle to crank up the heat a few degrees. The same logic applies to the irrigation controller location. It should be installed where one can see zones working, or at least within the fewest amount of footsteps. It helps to have the display reach the eye level of an average adult human. The best location is […]
Let’s Get One Thing Straight About Freezing Pipes.
One day I was winterizing a system in Laurelhurst. A young girl and her grandfather watched me as I was connecting my air hose to a double check. “Whatchya doin?” I love kids. They’re always with the “Whatchya doin?” followed by the never ending “Why?” “I’m going to hook up air to blow out all the water through the sprinkler heads so the pipes don’t freeze” I say. “Why?” And before I could respond, Grandpa misleads the small child with […]
Closing Test Cocks on the Double Check.
So you’ve turned on your sprinkler system yourself in the spring and have gotten squirted in the face by one to four full force jets. You jump up from the valve box furious at your incompetent sprinkler guy who obviously didn’t winterize correctly. Now you’re positive your backflow preventer has a freeze break. Well, let’s check the test cocks first. Take a look at this photo (click on to enlarge). The flathead screwdriver is inserted into the slot of a […]
About The Crusty Sprinkler Guy
Nick Millward is an IA Certified Irrigation Contractor and Auditor currently living in Seattle, WA. His career in irrigation began installing sprinkler systems in the Sun Valley, Idaho area after graduating high school in 1989. He moved to Boise in 1992 and worked on much bigger projects for the next seven years in the landscape construction of schools, state parks, golf courses, shopping malls, hospitals, and highway projects. Seeking a change in scenery, he moved to Seattle in 2000. With […]
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