Irrigation sprinkler only comes on for a moment?

Question

I recently had a tree removed, and in the process of grinding the surface roots they broke one of the irrigation lines. I dug out around it and fixed the pipe with a slip fix, but now I'm having an issue with one of my sprinklers.

When I turn the system on, this single sprinkler comes up normally for a second or two, then as soon as the other sprinklers pop up it drops back down and just bubbles a little bit. Here are the facts:

• When I turned the system on before I fixed the break, all of the water poured out of the pipe and no sprinklers came on in the yard
• When I removed the sprinkler head (thinking something might have been wrong with it), the water just bubbled coming out of that location. Almost like air in the line, but it never seemed to clear up or even change at all
• Standing on one of the other sprinkler heads (putting more pressure back into the system) has no effect on this head
• The whole system was working completely fine before the break and the fix

Any ideas what could be causing this head not to work correctly?

Answer 1

You most likely got dirt or other debris in the line going to the faulty sprinkler head during the repair job. I would suggest removing the faulty head and then turn on that sprinker circuit to flush the line out. If there are other heads down stream from this head you should also remove those one by one and flush them as well. Finally take a good look at the "faulty" head and make sure that dirt did not get inside and cause it to malfunction. Most pop-up heads can be disassembled to permit inspection and removal of dirt and grit.