Are the hose nozzles in the vegtable garden open when you're trying to close down the zones?

 

No I was doing one zone at a time. Seemed to be fine on everything but the sprays.

 

Can you hear air going through the spray heads even though they haven't popped up?

 

I think so. They are gurgling. Eight of them are up high and the remaining two are below with check valves. When I removed the heads with check valves a ton of water poured out. But I think with the pipe layout I can't necessarily drain all of it (workarounds due to bedrock/rocks 1-3 inches below the grass so the pipe goes in weird directions).

 

Seems like you just don't have enough air volume and pressure to get the heads to pop.
If you hand dug this entire system you know how much work is involved. You also know the price of the material. I'd say give a local irrigation company a call and ask what they would charge you. I guarantee it's less than you going out and renting (or buying) the proper compressor and the time involved to do so. And for the cost you can rest assured that the investment you made (and work you did) are protected.

 

I will ask around. It probably doesn't help that the system is 1" PVC (from master valves to sub-valve boxes) and 1" poly from there to all the heads. Thanks.

 

yes alot of my customers are like i have a compressor and it goes to 125 psi... its the cfm that matters... i had a handful of customers try to close their own either they realize they don't have enough air and call me to finish the blowout or others sweat out the winter hoping they did a good enough job and then call next year for me to close out since the amount most companies charge is worth the peace of mind...

 

Many of the systems I service are all pvc and they must be blown out completely or else. Some have poly laterials and it is much more forgiving to freezing. Most of the poly systems even have automatic King drains. I never see any systems with poly main. Heads with check valves and hi-pop sprays using the side inlet are more prone to freeze damage.

 

My grandfather lives in Bismarck ND, and he's never done the blowout thing. I'm guessing the air is so dry there, the water just evaporates from the lines fast enough before the frost line reaches the pipes. Been like that for 30 years! Amazing when you think about it.