My experience with a crappy DIY system is not worth discussing.
BUT:
Why on earth, given the expense of a decent system, are there no drains at the lowest part of the system?
.25"/ft is standard plumbing for water drains.
Why not spend another day and use a surveyor’s transit or a modern laser level to set the high and low points.
The lowest point (s/b at sidewalk for most front yards?) is routed into a box like the utilities have in the sidewalks and has a simple valve (or use another electrically controlled valve like the one the controller operates to turn on the system.
Open the drain, leave it open all winter, close in spring and not have to blow the system out.
Gravity: pulling water downhill since before recorded history!
My dad had his sprinkler put in by a plumber. He did sprinkler systems as a side line business.
Dad did a lot of the routine maintenance. All the work requires paying someone now that he’s gone.
I guess it’s worth the hassle. A well cared for yard adds significant curb appeal and property value. Mom is 84. It makes sense to keep everything maintained and easily sellable.
The yard alone is easily a half acre. The lot is 2 acres. Much of it (in the back) is woods and there’s a ravine along the back property line. The ravine is a natural barrier for any thieves trying to approach on 4 wheelers or tricks.
Yep, and you only have to have drains in the main lines and in each valve box. And take care of the backflow preventer. I have never had a problem doing it this way. Never needed a transit.
We have that too, but only for about 8-9 months of the year. The other 3-4 are bone dry and hellishly hot. (literally; it usually doesn’t rain significantly from about June 15 through about Sept. 15, and the average high temp during that stretch is probably 94 or so, with excursions up into the 100s).
Back to the OP… my house came with a in-ground sprinkler system. It’s been pretty trouble-free, for the most part. For whatever reason, the backup battery circuitry seems to have gone belly-up, so whenever the power goes out, I have to go reset the thing, but other than that, it’s pretty reliable. Most of the sprinkler heads just work fine, and the thing goes on and goes off like clockwork.
The only gripes I have about it are where the previous owners chose to plant some shrubby things; they planted one such that you can’t get to one of the sprinkler heads, and since I have a chain-link fence, it’s got a little out of kilter, and started spraying the alley in part. Of course, our nosey, busy-body neighbor who goes walking at like 6 am cornered me one morning and pointed it out, and vaguely threatened to set code enforcement on me, so I just moved the time for that segment about 3 hours earlier, before his morning walk. (problem solved!)
Parts are standard- I can go to any Home Depot and get a sprinkler head, riser pipe, connectors, etc… so that’s nice.
The only real gripe I have is cost; it gets EXPENSIVE when you run it a few times a week.