# Low Pressure to 1 Sprinkler in 1 Zone



## SilentRebel (Jun 11, 2019)

I am relatively new to irrigation and I bought a house about a year ago with a 4-zone system. When I moved in the backyard was setup with 11 sprinklers on 1 zone (even though there was a spare valve setup but not connected to an output line) and all of the sprinklers worked without issue. This year I noticed that 1 sprinkler wasn't getting enough pressure to fully pop up. To reduce the number of sprinklers on each zone, I hooked up the spare valve so that now the backyard was split into 2 zones. However, the sprinkler with low pressure is still acting the same as it was before. I put a pressure gauge on the spigot in the line just before the valves and it showed around 70-75 PSI. I am not certain how the underground pipes are run, but it appears that the weak sprinkler is in between two sprinklers that are working as expected. I am thinking that maybe there is a crack in the riser (or sounding area) on the sprinkler getting low pressure, but I am not 100% sure. Before I start digging up my yard, could the low pressure to just 1 sprinkler in 1 zone be caused by something else? I appreciate the help.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

It could be that the head has a problem. You can unscrew them from the pipe connection without digging to check it.


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## SilentRebel (Jun 11, 2019)

Sorry, I forgot to note that I had tried that. Initially, I thought there may have been an issue with just the nozzle or the whole head itself. I tried changing just the nozzle and the entire head and neither fixed the issue.


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## SilentRebel (Jun 11, 2019)

Just a quick update on this in case anyone else is following along. I dug up around the sprinkler head over the weekend and there were not any cracks in the riser elbow. I disconnected the sprinkler head and turned on the zone and very little water, at very low pressure, was coming out of the elbow. It looks like I need to do some more digging to see if there is a crack in the poly line, or if it is just getting pinched by something. Unfortunately, since this system was already in place I have no idea exactly how much digging I need to do. :sad:


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## JoeyDonatelli (Apr 4, 2018)

@SilentRebel You might try cleaning out the pipe in some way. It sounds like there is something clogging the line.

You might get lucky and unclog it if you do it while the system is running. I would use something like this

https://www.harborfreight.com/3-16-...MI3peR-bz04gIVEbbACh3Q4gBwEAQYAiABEgLBBvD_BwE.

Good luck!


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## SilentRebel (Jun 11, 2019)

Thanks, @JoeyDonatelli! I thought about the idea that it might be partially blocked, but couldn't think of something I could run through the poly line to see if I could clear it. Trying that kit would probably be worth a shot before I do any major digging in my yard. Thanks again for the idea.


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