Freezing Temperatures and Your Drip System
The cold season brings freezing temperatures with it in much of the country, which always brings people to us asking how they can effectively winterize their drip irrigation system. Properly winterizing your system will prevent damage due to freezing during the long, cold winter months, leaving it ready to go once spring comes around. In this blog post, we will discuss how freezing affects your system and what steps to take to best protect your system.
How Cold Weather Affects Drip Irrigation Systems
When water freezes, it expands. This isn’t a big deal when you’re making ice cubes in your freezer because the ice can expand upwards, keeping it from cracking the cube molds even if they’re rigid. In a closed or otherwise constrained environment, the expansion of water as it freezes exerts force on the walls of its container, which can cause cracks. Letting water freeze in your drip system is a good way to crack sensitive components. Once things thaw out and you turn your system on again, those cracks become leaks. You can always replace any damaged components, but it’s a lot less expensive to keep them from getting damaged in the first place.
Not All Components Are Equally at Risk
A drip system is made of many different components, and not all of them are equally at risk of freeze damage. How susceptible to freeze damage a component is has to do with the material it’s made of and how constrained the water is within the component. Think about it in terms of bottles and cans: the most damage you’ll get to a plastic water bottle if you freeze it is some deformation, but if you freeze a can or a glass bottle, you better be prepared to clean out your freezer!
Most susceptible are drippers, timers, and head assembly components. Both of these components tend to retain water after the pressure is turned off and are primarily made of rigid plastic. Drippers, in particular, have a lot of small passageways inside them that don’t leave any space for water to expand as it freezes
Less susceptible are tubing and tubing fittings like couplers, tees, and elbows. Drip tubing is made of flexible polyethylene, which helps prevent cracking. Small tubing (like ¼” and ⅛”) is typically oriented such that it drains easily once the ends of the system are opened. Larger tubing may still have some water pooled at the bottom, but since the tubing is full of water, the ice has somewhere to expand to without exerting pressure on the tubing walls
The least susceptible are pipes that are buried beneath the frost line and insulated pipes. Pipes in these situations will not freeze at all!
How to Winterize Your Drip System
The idea behind winterizing your drip system is to get the water out of the danger areas, like the inside passageways of your drippers. The best way to do this is to disconnect your system from the water source and open all the line ends. As long as you do this a couple of weeks before the first freeze, the system will naturally drain out. If a freeze sneaks up on you, then you can drain the system, close the line ends, and use an air compressor to blow water out of the drippers. Either way, make sure to drain and bring your head assembly components inside to keep them from freezing. When spring returns, be sure to flush your system to remove any debris before pressurizing it and checking for leaks. Check out our Winterization blog post here.
Keep Your Garden Safe Through the Cold Season
Preventing freeze damage in your irrigation system is simple; it just requires a little forethought. If you plan ahead now, you’ll spend less time fixing damage and more time getting your garden ready for the growing season!
If you ever run into trouble with your drip system or just want help preparing for colder weather, we’re here for you. Give us a call at 877-597-1669, email us at [email protected], or schedule a free phone consultation.
