Summary

Winter is over, Spring is here... what should you do to turn your sprinkler system back on? This article shows you how to check your entire sprinkler system and re-activate your controller once it's time to water your yard again. So, in case you're wondering 'how do I turn my sprinklers on after Winter?', 'It's time to water again, what should I do?', or 'how do I reactivate my Rachio?', this article is for you!

You need to check all of the physical parts of your sprinkler system - the backflow preventer and the sprinkler heads throughout the yard, and the settings of the app - Hibernation (formerly Standby) Mode, rain sensor, and schedules. Take a look at these simple steps that will show you how to properly Spring startup!

Need help turning your sprinklers back on?

It’s been a long hard winter for your yard. While plants go dormant to cope with the colder weather, your sprinkler system doesn’t always fare as well. Cracks in the pipes can lead to costly leaks, and broken sprinkler heads can waste water and money. Now is the perfect time to spruce up your irrigation system so you don’t waste water and money this summer!

Before you ramp up your watering this spring, look over your irrigation system by remembering these steps (in case you're not a DIY-type-of-person feel free to reach out to an irrigation professional in your area):

1. Checking for freeze damage, closing the air drains, and the water valves: Check for visual freeze damages on the backflow preventer. Once you double-check the backflow device, make sure the drain plug and the air valves are close tight (marked by the red circles). Last but not least, double-check and close the water valves - those blue knobs in the picture below (not sure about the sprinkler system parts? Take a look at this article): Source
2. Turn on the water: now that the backflow preventer looks ok and all the drain, air, and water valves are closed, it's time to turn the water back on. To do so, slowly open the main water valve for the sprinkler system. By slowly opening the valve, you prevent the water pressure from breaking or damaging any parts of the sprinkler system. It is recommended to open that valve less than a quarter so you allow the pipes to be charged without any pressure. Once you can't hear the water flow anymore, it means the system is properly charged, and then you can open that valve completely.
3. Open the valves on the backflow preventer: The water is on and now it's time to open the valves on the backflow preventer. Be careful while opening the first valve at the bottom, if you open too quickly, the top part of the backflow device will spill water all over, so slowly open the valves and follow the same procedure as for the main water valve (open just a little bit so the pressure doesn't damage the system and only completely open the valves once you can't hear the water flow anymore). To open the valves, follow this order:
4. Testing the zones and checking for leaks/broken parts: Before checking the zones, make sure your controller is online, you can do that by checking the status of the controller as soon as you open the app. Once the water charged the sprinkler system, it's time to open the Rachio app and quick run your zones to check if they're watering properly. In case you don't have access to the app at the moment or don't want to test via mobile, you can always manually quick run the zones for 3 minutes. Once the controller activates the zone you prompted it to trigger, it's time to check the yard for leaks or damaged/broken sprinkler heads (If water pools in your landscape or you have large wet areas, you could have a leak in your system. A leak about as small as the tip of a ballpoint pen (or 1/32nd of an inch) can waste about  6,300 gallons of water per month).
5. Checking schedules: The sprinkler system looks good, the zones are watering correctly, and there's no sign of leaks around the yard, great! Now let's check the enabled schedules. For the mobile version of the app: Open the Rachio app, click on the 'irrigation' tab (at the bottom of the screen), then 'schedules' (at the top of the screen). In case you're using the web version of the app: Login in with your credentials, then click on the picture of the controller. Once you can see the home page, look for 'schedule' on the left-hand side menu. Once you get to the schedules screen, you'll be able to select your schedules, check if they're enabled, the interval, the zones within that schedule, and the watering duration of the zones (before making any changes on the schedule, make sure the type of schedule that you have supports those changes - here's the Fixed, Flex Monthly, and Flex Daily schedules FAQ.
6. Turning off the Hibernation (formerly Standby) Mode: In case you correctly followed our 'How do I winterize my sprinkler system?' article, the controller will be on Hibernation Mode, which prevents the schedules from running and the app from adding the usage of that inaccurate run to your usage. Besides that, the Hibernation Mode allows the controller to be online while it's not running so it can receive any eventual updates we may release while the yard doesn't need to be watered. In order to fully resume your schedules and start to prepare your yard for the Summer, the Hibernation Mode should be off. To check that, on the mobile version of the app, navigate to more and then hit the toggle button right in front of 'Hibernation Mode' to turn it off. On the Web app version, you'll be able to see the Hibernation Mode option right at the top of the left-hand side menu, once you click on the picture of the controller.
7. Check/clean rain sensor: After an hibernation season, your rain sensor might be dirty in case you have one. If that's the case, the rain sensor will be triggered and you'll be able to see a badge on the app warning you about that. If the rain sensor is triggered no schedules will run regardless of whether it's raining or not. If you're seeing rain sensor notifications right after turning off the Hibernation Mode, you might need to check that device. Here's a video that shows how to clean a rain sensor.

After you follow these steps your sprinkler system, Rachio controller, and rain sensor will be more than ready for the next Spring and Summer! In case you find anything out of the ordinary while following these steps, don't hesitate to reach out to us so we can further assist you!

Happy watering!

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