Themp
Active Member
The city requires me to have a back flow valve on my sprinkler system. It has to be inspected every three years. They also at the time I built my house required me to have back flow preventers on the outside faucets.
The three year inspection on the sprinkler system back flow value is very important to them, has to be done by a licensed plumber or your sprinkler system is shutdown. Will not get into those sprinkler systems on a separate meter that the city locks, and those that are on the main house meter that they just see that the homeowner turned off using the shutoff valve from the main. Meaning those that are not on a separate meter can turn on their system again without the city really knowing. Thus, their inspection process is so full of holes, anyone can get around them. Or a neighbor can put in their own sprinkler system and bypass the backflow valve all together because no one knows about it.
So, my questions are:
Why is this backflow valves(outside faucets/sprinklers) really needed? Most neigbhors backflow preventers on the house faucets have failed and the city does not care about this. They only care about the sprinkler system backflow valve. If would seem to me that a backflow on the outside faucet is more important than the sprinkler system because the faucet can be left on and water sucked back from the hose. Where in the sprinkler system that is not leaking, no water is past the turn on valves for the zone(unless the zone is running at the time). It just seems to me the city makes a mountain out of a mole hill on the sprinkler system backflow valve. How often does this backflow happen in a city system? What is the difference between the outside hose backflow and a sprinkler system backflow. Which can be worst? The city sends me very detailed letters about this hazards in the sprinkler system but overall does not really care to make sure a backflow cannot happen from the outside faucets. The chances of me leaving the outside faucet on is high too, so this makes it worst in my mind.
Sorry for such a long post on this, just been bugging me...
The three year inspection on the sprinkler system back flow value is very important to them, has to be done by a licensed plumber or your sprinkler system is shutdown. Will not get into those sprinkler systems on a separate meter that the city locks, and those that are on the main house meter that they just see that the homeowner turned off using the shutoff valve from the main. Meaning those that are not on a separate meter can turn on their system again without the city really knowing. Thus, their inspection process is so full of holes, anyone can get around them. Or a neighbor can put in their own sprinkler system and bypass the backflow valve all together because no one knows about it.
So, my questions are:
Why is this backflow valves(outside faucets/sprinklers) really needed? Most neigbhors backflow preventers on the house faucets have failed and the city does not care about this. They only care about the sprinkler system backflow valve. If would seem to me that a backflow on the outside faucet is more important than the sprinkler system because the faucet can be left on and water sucked back from the hose. Where in the sprinkler system that is not leaking, no water is past the turn on valves for the zone(unless the zone is running at the time). It just seems to me the city makes a mountain out of a mole hill on the sprinkler system backflow valve. How often does this backflow happen in a city system? What is the difference between the outside hose backflow and a sprinkler system backflow. Which can be worst? The city sends me very detailed letters about this hazards in the sprinkler system but overall does not really care to make sure a backflow cannot happen from the outside faucets. The chances of me leaving the outside faucet on is high too, so this makes it worst in my mind.
Sorry for such a long post on this, just been bugging me...