Excellent demo. Now I'll go to your site to get some supplies - replacing rusty valve knobs. Thank you.

I was out today looking at the sprinkle supply lines next to the house. You just answered my questions. Off to Lowe’s to buy insulation and tape. Thanks! By the way, excellent presentation.

I come back to your video here every year. Thanks!

Nicely done. Great tutorial

Great explanations, thank you very much.

I put in a water spigot about 6 inches above the ground on the inlet side to keep water from sitting in the pipe. Worked perfectly for the cold weather a few weeks ago here in Houston. The bleed valves only drain so much but this definitely keeps the water out of the back flow.

Nice Video. I learned something, getting ready for a 6-inch snowstorm with 27 degrees... I feel much more confident that I have beaten nature this time around! Thanks

Oh boy... ice storm of 2021 in Houston Texas...I had the EXACT SAME crack on the supply side valve that you showed here. The ice storm of Houston Texas 2021 got me. Like you said...I did everything (shutoff the valves, drained the two small valves, wrapped it the whole thing with 2 Beach towels... put a trash bag over it) except insulate the the supply valve.... and still a CRACK at the valve.

As another mentioned below, you must drain all the water from the supply line into the PVB, and leave the valve half open. This will allow you to shut off water to the supply and the water can drain out of the supply line and prevent freeze damage. Not draining the supply line, this routine will probably only work in USDA Freeze Zone 9 and maybe 7 and 8, but any of the others you really need to drain the supply lines.

Very helpful. Thank you.

Great educational video!

Great vid. Very informative

Shouldn’t an isolation valve and a valve for draining be installed below the back flow preventer valve on the inlet line? This would insure that all the water has been drained out of the ball valve directly below the back flow preventer valve. We have had many cracked casings on that ball valve in the area where I live because very few systems have the drain-bleed off point installed.

Winterizing is extremely easy by having two unions & just remove the PVB. If you have a isolation valve close to your meter for the irrigation that should also be shut off. All irrigation lines from upstream supply & downstream of PVB should be drained.

Thank you!

Intelligently articulated. Well done! Thank you.

very helpful thank you

Your videos content are amazing. Your videos have helped me a lot in my home sprinkler system. Can you make one video about how to replaced FEBCO 765-1 ball valve (600 cwp). I looked everywhere about how to replace the ball valve, but I couldn't find any video.

This kind of advice is really good for Spring repair business!

I've seen some videos that say you should leave the valves a quarter of the way open during winterization rather than closing the input valve and leaving the valve to the sprinkler box open?

Also, excellent video, btw.

Here in New Jersey it is common to blowout for the winter the entire sprinkler system, zone by zone, through the PVB. In looking at many posts people believe you should not do that for the reasoning that you can damage the internals of the PVB. In my installation there is a hose bib on the supply side piping of the PVB and another on the outlet side to the valve box(s). So, I can do a system blowout either way. My winterizing guy has always said that a complete blowout of the piping and PVB can really only be accomplished by blowing out through PVB. He has done this for the last ten years with no apparent PVB damages. (Watts Series 8004M 1") I do not see any recommendations from Watts or Febco concerning this in their instructions if blowing out through the PVB is a bad thing. Insulating the pipes in a harsh winter environment is not going to work if there is any standing water in the system or in the PVB.

I'm here due to the Freeze and mine was gushing into the air. Merry Christmas to me. Mine doesn't have the two blue valves though. It's just a brass bell thing with the two white PVC pipes going into and out of it. Should I go buy one like this? Thanks! My house is like 1960's.

I have seen some videos that have a water bib on the pipe to release any standing water.Do I really need this? Also, do they sell something to just cover the PVB unit excluding the pipes?

If outside temperature is below freezing piont isolation will NOT help you, because nothing will warm your pipes. Pipes are not alive and don't have energy sources. It will freeze anyway after couple of days. The only way to keep pipes in working conditions is to remove the water completely from all irrigation system components before freezing season.

I did this and my pipe below the shut-off valve on the water supply side cracked! I did have insulation cover the whole thing, all pipes/valves above the ground.

One fail point in this video: ALWAYS wrap UP vs down. The point is to deny water getting under the tape adhesive.

Very nice explanation…

What’s the point of this insulation? If it is not heated, or doesn’t have continuous water flow from the inside, it will freeze anyway. Maybe not in 10 minutes, but in an hour, but it WILL freeze.

What about the blow-out procedure. This setup is missing a blow-out port.

Does this get ‘blown out’ as well via compressor?

Oh my goodness, thank you. This was very helpful. Do you have to do anything about the golden bell piece at the top?

Nice video Only problem Most valves and lines are close to wall of house Making it difficult to wrap with a roll of tape. Thank you

Is it necessary to also shut off the main line by my water meter, or will shutting off the valve on the supply side pipe be sufficient? Thx.

Does the valve and Bell need to be insulated or covered? I'm in West Texas and lots of wind blows sand everywhere, and I'm thinking sand will get into the bell area.

Alfred!! I have a ton of your shirts and wear them in my new home in FL. How can I get more?

What do you do when you don't have any blead valves on the back flow preventer?

I am another ice storm of the Houston Texas 2021. I had all the proper insulation and additionally a winter cover of all the backflow preventer and still the same crack. One of the days we had -8deg F. For the looks of it, sprinklers are not made for those temperatures. Your thoughts?

NOT accurate for northern climate. There is NO source of heat that insulation is retaining, and it won't effectively keep out the cold. As others have stated, just do not open the bleeder valves all the way, that allows any little bit of water behind the valve to evaporate to the atmosphere.

This got my hopes up on not having to blow it out, nope, the comments say get rid of the water

Why not just add two sch 80 unions and everybwinter just take down the preventer?

Some people put the close valves at 45 degree angle. Why? Is this necessary?

Maybe this works in the South, but I would need to drain both pipes. Everything outdoors will freeze down to the freeze-line.

No. Blow the water out. Trust me on this. The only thing the foam can do is buy you a little buffer time if the temperature outside drops below freezing overnight for a few hours before warming above freezing again in the morning. But if you live where the sun doesn't shine much in winter, and the outdoor temperature stays 10 degrees below freezing for a half-day or more, the foam isn't going to prevent the metal from eventually freezing.

what kind of tape do you use to tape pipe insulation?

To me this is all for show (you may do it, but not really need to). What is important is the water supply side MUST have a water draining switch to let all water out, and kept it open but turn the main supply OFF preceding to the switch. Let's think for the moment, just because you wrapped the the so called cold preventing isolation, the exposed water pressure breaker is made of metal. If you are high school graduates, you should know that metal is 'high level' heat/cold conductor. It will literally transmit the heat/cold nearby section of the pipe. So, does the isolation really do the justice? Have you measure the temperature difference between the exposed and covered sections?

If you need to winterize, insulating the PVB does nothing at all. Insulate that all you want. When it's 20* outside, go outside, pull that insulation off and measure the temp of the pipe. Guarantee you the pipe is also 20*. Sustained temps below freezing will not be mitigated by insulation. Insulating is only to get you through moderately cold temps at night if you have not drained the pipes and if temps are going to rise above freezing the next day.

Insulating the line coming into the PVB IS CRITICAL but if the system is winterized, meaning all water has been removed from the output side of the PVB in the actual sprinkler pipes, there should be no water in it to freeze and therefore NO POTENTIAL LEAKS. Appearance may be a consideration but not possible frozen water.

I can't even turn the valves on. Stuck in 45 degree angle.

Question if anyone can help me with an answer. Can I just leave it wrapped all year?

Still wrong .. you have to close the main cut off valve close to water meter and leave all valves open on backflow

Well done Alfred. Our back flow preventer assembly is located about 1" away from the outer wall of the house. Wrapping tape around that is quite a challenge. Do you have any suggestions about how to do that? There's not enough room to pass a spool of tape between the preventer and the wall.

It's called two unions and take inside. Problem solved.

Following these instructions provides homeowners w false security. The only people that this advice benefits is sellers of PVBs and the guys that come out to replace them after they freeze and burst 😀.

Please let me know What size pipe insulation in this video?

Lol that's why you put the valve at 75% angle not all the way open or all the way close you don't get cracks.

Take a shot every time he says "particular"

This works ok but not in a bad Houston winter. You might save the bell but your inlet brass ball valve will split. The folks recommending unions and a plastic ball valve (to rig so you can remove it and take it into to the garage) have the right idea. But this common sense is rare.

He’s very particular

That’s what happened to my valve. I guess pool noodles and duct tape and towels wasn’t enough. Maybe heat tape would work.

That insulation wont save the internals up top, you have to cover the top end or it will mess up the plastic internals

My valve is so close to the house there's no way I could get that pipe taped like that.

Morons that installed mine in OK made no...zero, nil, nada....provision to shut off water supply. They tapped into the well feed to the house. And don't get me started on the other plumbing. Anyway, it was, generously, a shitty install. So, dug out the supply line well below grade and cut the pipe and removed the supply side PVC (they used a pipe thread PVC fitting on the back flow preventer (BFP) straight cut threads...I don't even know where you get a pipe thread PVC fitting...). Get an empty plastic pail that has a snap on water tight lid such as premixed drywall mud or something similar, 12 to 14 inch diameter works nicely. Your hole should be deep enough to spread maybe an inch of gravel around the supply pipe stub. Use a hole saw to cut a hole at least 1/4 to 1/2 inch bigger than the supply pipe in the base of the pail. Slip the pail over the stub. Install your PVC shut off ball valve on the stub ensuring you have room enough to swing the valve lever to the closed position. Glue in some vertical PVC to a height that will allow cutting it to accommodate a PVC disconnect fitting near the top of the vertical before it makes the 90° to the BFP valve. The disconnect allows you access to the remaining water in the vertical after you shut off the supply ball valve....I use an air powered parts washer suction spray gun to suck the water out then reconnect the disconnect fitting. From here plumb the rest of the vertical and 90° elbow and horizontal screw fitting into the BFP inlet. Fill the space around the outside of the pail with material removed making the hole. To winterize you can use some glass insulation bats wrapped around the pipe and shut off valve. Take the snap on lid and hole saw a hole just the size of the supply pipe. Using tin snips cut the lid from the outside to the hole. You can now warp the lid and slide it over the pipe and down to snap onto the pail's rim. You can then place some more dirt material onto the lid to insulate if you need to depending on your lowest expected temps. My whole above ground BFP and piping is covered by an insulation muff that you can buy commercially and this is all covered by one of those fake rock items. I've also taken a cheap trouble light and used a 15 watt incandescent bulb (doesn't require much heat) and placed them in the muff and plugging it in for really cold temps or long term below freezing. I also have two wireless remote temp senders in plastic zip locks, one at the bottom of the pail next to the pipe and another just above the ball valve. The top one is the alarmed sender. The senders were both checked before install and were within a half degree. In use the temp at the top of the pail is about 6° warmer than the bottom sender with the light plugged in and about 1 degree difference without heat. The advice here to use foam to insulate...why are you insulating an empty pipe supply, BFP and outlet? All the water should have been removed when you blew the water out of the sprinklers and (in my system) sucked the water out of the below grade vertical above the shut off ball valve.

wow... So much of this is wrong