Irrigation water continues after water is shut off

[justrelaxing]

I had a bad sprinkler head and it was leaking causing low pressure to rest of the heads in the zone. Dug down and repaired it with a new Hunter head. I ran the zone and worked. I shut off the zone only to notice water coming out of head. I do know it may have been due to being the low end, but continued for 10 mins. Then I turned the water flow off at the spicket on the outside pipe that runs from the house. The water continued, so too the sprinkler head off and there still is a slow rate of water coming out. Any suggestions what to do, would be helpful

 

[Terry]

It takes 35 minutes for a tub spout to quit dripping after a shower.
I guess it depends on how much water we are talking about. If the water to the irrigation has been shutoff, it's still going to take some time to slowly drip out. If it's faster than that, then maybe the shutoffs aren't working.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[WorthFlorida]

Terry is right that this zone is draining after the water is turned off. Most sprinklers do not have any check valves and it allows air to enter from every sprinkler head. If your zone is feed with 1" pipe that is 4.1 gallons of water per 100'. 3/4" it's 2.8 gallons per 100'. You be amazed how much pipe gets buried to do a yard and you can easily have at least 100 feet of buried pipe, maybe more.

This particular sprinkler location leaked because water may have remained in the sprinkler over the winter, froze and split the sprinkler. I would tee off the irrigation pipe at the lowest end of the yard and add a ball valve. Before winter hits, open the ball valve to allow any raiming water to drain. Usually compressed air is used to purge the system but it still requires a fitting of sorts to connect an air hose.

This video describes your situation.

 

[RichMoney]

I had a bad sprinkler head and it was leaking causing low pressure to rest of the heads in the zone. Dug down and repaired it with a new Hunter head. I ran the zone and worked. I shut off the zone only to notice water coming out of head. I do know it may have been due to being the low end, but continued for 10 mins. Then I turned the water flow off at the spicket on the outside pipe that runs from the house. The water continued, so too the sprinkler head off and there still is a slow rate of water coming out. Any suggestions what to do, would be helpful

The head you replaced most likely did not have a check valve installed in it. If it was a rotor head, they usually have little rubber pieces mounted to the bottom of the filter that seals the head when it is in the ground and not popped up.

rich@sprinklerresource.com