Irrigation problems

Dry patches usually mean coverage, not water volume. Sprinklers are designed for head-to-head coverage, meaning spray from one head reaches the next. If a head is tilted, sunk, blocked by grown-in turf, or fitted with a nozzle that doesn't match its neighbors, you get a dry crescent that no amount of extra runtime fixes. Longer watering to cure a dry spot just drowns everywhere else.

A whole zone that won't run is electrical or valve-related far more often than it is a pipe problem. The usual suspects are a failed solenoid, a broken wire splice, or a controller output that's died. This is diagnosable in an hour by someone with a multimeter, and it is not a reason to replace a system.

Soggy ground, a permanently wet patch or unexplained water use points to a leak or a valve that isn't closing fully. WaterSense's own inspection guidance is to look for pooling at the surface as the sign of an underground leak, and to check the joints between sprinklers and pipes.

Finally, the invisible problem: overwatering. WaterSense estimates about 50 percent of the water used for residential outdoor irrigation is wasted through inefficiency, and homes with clock-timer systems use roughly 50 percent more water outdoors than homes without irrigation. A system that looks fine can still be costing you far more than it should.

How to choose

Run every zone and watch it

Five minutes per zone with your eyes on the yard finds most problems. Tilted heads, blocked nozzles and misting from high pressure are all visible.

Don't fix coverage with runtime

Adding minutes to cure a dry spot overwaters the rest of the zone. Fix the head or the nozzle.

Treat a dead zone as electrical first

Solenoid, wiring or controller output — cheap parts. Digging should be the last step, not the first.

Do the can test

WaterSense suggests placing empty tuna cans around the lawn and timing how long the sprinkler takes to put half an inch in them. It exposes uneven coverage instantly.

Check the water bill, not just the lawn

A jump in summer usage with no visible symptom is a real signal. Leaks underground often show up on the bill before the surface.