# Blu-Lock Irrigation Install



## SCGrassMan (Dec 17, 2017)

Description to follow later. Doing an irrigation install - all Blu-Lock with a Rachio gen 3


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## SCGrassMan (Dec 17, 2017)

So I'm replacing a broken irrigation system, that was on well. For various reasons we are switching to city water.

In the first pic, that's the output from the backflow preventer. One leg goes to a hose tap and automatic fountain fill valve, the other goes to the valve box.

Since the Blu-Lock fitting was screw in, and I happened to have a 1" brass valve, I decided to put it in here, so I can turn off the irrigation if needed but keep the fountain fill on. Such as blowing out the lines in the fall, etc.

For the third pic we have the valve box and valve manifold. I bought a pre assembled one which is really nice. I wish I had gotten a larger box so the valve input could be in ther, but I'm just going to reuse a small round box for that purpose.

Last we have some gigantic tree roots we had to weave under - this is where the flexible pipe is really handy. We did kink it really bad once, and had to cut the line short, but we have some new rolls to make the run uninterrupted. Trying not to have junctions buried, but we will have that anywhere there is a tee or a sprinkler head anyway, so trying not to worry.


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## SCGrassMan (Dec 17, 2017)

Rachio Gen 3 all mounted up and connected to WiFi.

Had a fun couple of runs under sidewalks and driveways and things, but we were replacing a system that already had conduits in place. The tough part was digging everything out to find the crossings and remove the old.

Also here's what the tees look like.


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## sanders4617 (Jul 9, 2018)

Nice! Looking good. Is that the 3/4" or 1" pipe?


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## SCGrassMan (Dec 17, 2017)

sanders4617 said:


> Nice! Looking good. Is that the 3/4" or 1" pipe?


It's the 1", but honestly 3/4 would probably be plenty. But I have some long runs in the 100-200 foot range so I wanted to minimize friction loss.


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## Ballistic (Mar 19, 2018)

Looking good, that Blu-Lock stuff has always interested me.


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## SCGrassMan (Dec 17, 2017)

Ballistic said:


> Looking good, that Blu-Lock stuff has always interested me.


It's pretty good. It's a little more kink prone than PEX line for household water. But it's a hundred times better than PVC, especially the 1120 thin wall stuff everyone loves here.


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## raymond (May 4, 2018)

@SCGrassMan why do you say that blu-Lock pipe is better than PVC? Do you mean ease of install, performance, etc...?


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## SCGrassMan (Dec 17, 2017)

raymond said:


> @SCGrassMan why do you say that blu-Lock pipe is better than PVC? Do you mean ease of install, performance, etc...?


Performance, resistance to freezing, lower friction loss, flexibility, ease of installation - no gluing. It's better at everything but price.


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## SCGrassMan (Dec 17, 2017)

Valve box is plumbed, and holding pressure! Took a second try as the slip fitting Blu Lock for the supply line didn't want to be glued. Fortunately I had a spare threaded one. Which wanted to leak. So I glued that one, and now all is well.


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## SCGrassMan (Dec 17, 2017)

Back filled all the trenches, and soon to begin smoothing for sod! May have to split one zone into two. We are gonna put the heads on the pop ups and run it and find out. Didn't look like fantastic pressure out of the sprinkler body built in grey nozzle thing.


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## SCGrassMan (Dec 17, 2017)

The dirt is getting wet!

This is the zone I was contemplating splitting in two. It runs all the heads, at the appropriate flow, as long as no other major water usage is going on.

The zones with 4-6 heads on them definitely run a lot better as far as all of the heads popping up right away, etc. but this will work.

Did more backfilling or trenches, etc and some smoothing in the area here (after this pic was taken).

Dialed in all of the heads, and looks like I've got pretty good 3 head coverage for most places, and at least head to head coverage on the rest.


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## LowCountryCharleston (Jun 21, 2018)

Looks really nice. I need to get mine fixed. Like a dumbass when we bought the place last spring I didn't even think to have the irrigation tested ( so preoccupied with the home inspection) and of course when we tried to use it we found that the pump had a crack in it and was unusable. Now this year I need to get that fixed and hope that it's all in working order.


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## SCGrassMan (Dec 17, 2017)

Pump as in well pump? If so I have two to choose from - one two years old, and one two months old and only run for 5 minutes, available to you.

My home inspector checked all that kind of stuff fortunately - the house I almost bought had irrigation issues.


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## Ecks from Tex (Apr 26, 2018)

I'm going to do an irrigation rehab and will use pvc for my mains and convert to blue lock for laterals.


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## SCGrassMan (Dec 17, 2017)

Ecks from Tex said:


> I'm going to do an irrigation rehab and will use pvc for my mains and convert to blue lock for laterals.


I order from sprinkler warehouse in Houston.

For another install I'm also trying their valves and manifolds as well - we shall see how they work. I normally use Hunter, but the manifold was expensive and I had to glue in inserts anyway to make it work, so I thought why not just get their valves?


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## LowCountryCharleston (Jun 21, 2018)

SCGrassMan said:


> Pump as in well pump? If so I have two to choose from - one two years old, and one two months old and only run for 5 minutes, available to you.
> 
> My home inspector checked all that kind of stuff fortunately - the house I almost bought had irrigation issues.


Yeah took a few pics of it and zoomed in so you can see the crack. Such a pain so when I had the irrigation guy come out last summer when we moved in amd do routine maintenance on it that's when he saw it and that it needed to be replaced or "fixed" by him. Still kick myself for not testing it out first and hope this year it won't be a big issue.


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## SCGrassMan (Dec 17, 2017)

Dude I have this exact pump for you lol. It might be a 15. But I think it's a 10. PM me.


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## LowCountryCharleston (Jun 21, 2018)

SCGrassMan said:


> Dude I have this exact pump for you lol. It might be a 15. But I think it's a 10. PM me.


Ha no way!! Fingers crossed. DM on the way.


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## TSGarp007 (May 22, 2018)

Interesting, it looks like you chose to plug the Rachio transformer directly into the 'in-use' outdoor outlet box. My outdoor enclosure calls for you to hardwire to the outlet inside the enclosure. What made you decide to do it the way you did? I wanted to hardwire both the enclosure and outlet portion, but I know one of my screws on the outlet box is holding by a thread so I didn't want to mess with it. So I'm using an appliance cord (one plug end).


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