# Sprinkler Winterization Blowout



## jwill (Jun 12, 2018)

For those that blowout their own lines, what are the stats of your air compressor? How many gallon tank?, how many CFM? @ what PSI?, etc. The below picture is my air compressor. Any chance something like this would work? I am thinking it may be underpowered. Let me know your experience. Thanks!


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## JDgreen18 (Jun 14, 2018)

jwill said:


> For those that blowout their own lines, what are the stats of your air compressor? How many gallon tank?, how many CFM? @ what PSI?, etc. The below picture is my air compressor. Any chance something like this would work? I am thinking it may be underpowered. Let me know your experience. Thanks!


I'm no expert but the resesrch Ive been doing on this tells me its not enuf. The higher the cfm the better. If you have a smaller system you can get a away with a smaller cfm but need a big tank. Its all about having enuf air flow to push all the water out. I have been reading 10 cfm or greater is a good number to shoot for (@ 50 psi)only thing is most of these units are pricey or are very big stand up 220 volt. I just watched a video of @grassdaddy on YouTube he does it with one at around 6 cfm and looks like it worked Ok.


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## ABC123 (Jul 14, 2017)

If your valve boxes are a decent distance away with 1in pipe I'd think the extra .0331 gallons per ft would help. My two valve boxes are 65 ft total so that would be about 2.15 gallons plus the tank. Or is this just silly?


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

There are a lot of variables for this cfm. If your heads are up stream (higher elevation) than your valves, then you will need more cfm to push the water up. Larger pipe id will also need more cfm.

I designed my system to have all the heads down flowing. So I barely need any cfm to clear my system.


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## chrismar (May 25, 2017)

I blow mine out with a 30 gallon compressor that can do 7 CFM at 40 PSI (IIRC). I've used this setup for 3 seasons and I haven't had a problem (so far).


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## jwill (Jun 12, 2018)

Thanks guys! Great info, as always.


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## ryeguy (Sep 28, 2017)

I have a similar air compressor.

Is there a way to know for sure if it's underpowered? Will the heads not come up? Or worse, will it look like it works (heads eventually start misting), but leave a bunch of water left in the lines?


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

ryeguy said:


> Or worse, will it look like it works (heads eventually start misting), but leave a bunch of water left in the lines?


This. It will be a risk. At worst a line is cracked and you need to dig, find and replace.


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## JDgreen18 (Jun 14, 2018)

ryeguy said:


> I have a similar air compressor.
> 
> Is there a way to know for sure if it's underpowered? Will the heads not come up? Or worse, will it look like it works (heads eventually start misting), but leave a bunch of water left in the lines?


In my opinion why take this risk, either pay to get it blown out or get a compressor that you know can ha del the job.


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