Burned 3 hours trying to get a broken sprinkler head out of the ground

I spent yesterday afternoon fighting with a stuck sprinkler head in my backyard in Phoenix. The thing was buried under rocks and dirt from the last owners, and I tried twisting it off with channel locks for an hour before giving up. Then I dug around it more, found a PVC joint I didn't know about, and snapped a pipe. Ended up having to cut everything out and glue in a new connector, which took another 2 hours. Anyone else ever run into sprinkler repairs that turned into a whole plumbing project?

2 comments

2 Comments

wood.faith1mo ago

The exact same thing happened to me last summer in Tucson. Those old Rain Bird heads get cemented in by dirt and minerals over time, especially if they weren't installed with the right Teflon tape. A trick that saved me later is to spray some penetrating oil like PB Blaster around the base and wait 15 minutes before trying to twist it. But if you already snapped a PVC joint, you did the right thing cutting it out and gluing a new coupler in place. Just make sure you use primer on that PVC before the glue or it'll leak on you next season.

bennett.evan1mo ago

The Tucson thing makes sense, that water is brutal on anything metal. I've seen guys put a little anti-seize compound on the threads of a new head before screwing it in, that way next time you're not fighting the same battle. Saved me a full dig last spring when I swapped out three heads in my own yard.