Depending on your location a spring tune up could be as early as February or as late as May but no matter when spring is happening for you here are the simple steps to take and make your system ready for daily use.

Drip System Repair and Spring Tune up Kit

1) If you live in a location that freezes during the winter you normally will drain your system of water to keep freezing water from bursting components. This could be valves, filters and pressure regulators.

Before starting up your system check all the connections to make sure they are tight (hand tight on most parts). Visually check to see if any components might have been cracked by frozen water you could have missed.

If you have filters this is the time to open them and flush them out or even better to take out the screen and clean it off under clean water.

2) Flush the system. Open all line ends and turn on the system. Let water flow out of the open ends for 10 to 15 seconds and start closing them one by one starting with the closest open end to the water supply and ending with the farthest. This will get rid of any sediment collected over the last year.

3) Check drippers and sprayers. With the system still on walk along all the lines and visually check each dripper and or sprayers to see if they are working correctly. Some drippers might not have the diaphragm seated correctly after the winter and spray too much or too little. If so try holding your finger over the water outlet blocking the flow and then releasing it a few times. Most often the back pressure from blocking the water flow will seat the diaphragm correctly and solve the problem. If this does not work replacing the dripper is the best option.

Once you have checked all the parts you can see leave the system on for a cycle and visually check to see is hidden drippers are working by wet areas around the dripper location. Is it too wet or not wet at all? If so find the dripper and see what the issue is.

If you need to replace drippers or sprayers sometimes using the same hole in the main line will cause the hole to expand and leak. This is pretty normal so don't worry. Just use a goof plug to seal the existing hole and using a punch make a new hole right near the original.