New Sprinkler Manifold

Got a new sprinkler manifold put in this morning. The old one was leaking in a couple of places, though a tiny pinhole in one of the corners of the PVC pipe and through the left most valve. I had previously replaced every part of the leaking valve except for the bottom portion that was actually connected to the pipes, and it didn't help at all. Since these valves had been installed without union connectors, the only way to replace the valve bottom was to cut it.

The three valves were packed extremely close together, leaving no room to just cut out and replace one valve, so removing one valve meant rebuilding the entire manifold. The other two valves still worked fine, but they were very old so it was fathomable that they also wouldn't last too much longer. Plus, replacement parts were not only hard to come by but also tended to cost as much as a whole new valve, so I just went with all new valves.

To make things a little easier, I used an Orbit Underground 57183 3 Port Manifold which is a one-piece PVC section that connects three valves using unions. Then I put unions on the other side as well to make valve removal a simple procedure without the need for cutting. This Orbit manifold spaced the valves further apart than they used to be, which was significant because the inlet pipe had previously been connected to a 90-degree joint at a significant angle, so this additional spacing put too great of an angle on the inlet to make the same connection. Thankfully I foresaw this problem ahead of time and picked up two 45-degree angle joints that I could use to move the inlet pipe over.

I also installed a ball valve so I could shut the water off here rather than having to go around to the side of the house. All in all, it didn't take nearly as long as I expected. I teflon taped all the threads and hand tightened all the connections I could the night before to make things go faster this morning. It has been very hot here this past week and I wanted to get this done in the morning before the day reached up to 100 degrees. Once I got out there, it probably took about an hour to an hour and a half from start to finish.