Midwest Sprinkler Service & Sales Publishes Winterization Pricing and Warns About Freezer Damage

Midwest Sprinkler Service & Sales has published its winterization pricing for residential and commercial sprinkler systems, urging Omaha-area homeowners to take action before the first hard freeze. The company offers a $104 blowout price for systems with up to seven zones, including backflow draining. Additional zones cost $10 each. For commercial properties, rates start at $130, based on backflow size and number of zones or stations.

Erik Fester, who founded Midwest Sprinkler in 2013 and has worked on Omaha sprinkler systems since 1994, emphasizes the importance of proper winterization.

The company warns that water expansion due to freezing can cause significant damage.

Damage underground takes longer to manifest but follows the same pattern. Water that sits in low spots through the winter can crack valves and split fittings. Repairing a cracked line runs about $165 when the damage is limited to one small area, while valve work runs about $229 per valve, compared with $104 for the winterization.

Fester recommends asking any company four questions before booking: 1. "Do you blow out every zone?" 2.

Midwest Sprinkler recommends winterizing "self-draining" systems anyway. The part that makes a system self-draining usually costs less than $5 and is made of plastic. These drain valves don't last forever, and they don't always work if they were installed wrong. One bad drain valve can erase a lifetime of savings from skipping winterization, and it never fails at a convenient time.

Even when the valve works, 98% of companies install a drain in only one valve box, not in every low spot in the yard with gravel-filled boxes that let water drain everywhere. Owners of these systems often lose a few heads every year and chalk it up to bad luck. Once a drain valve fails, there is no way to know until the system is turned on in spring, and by then it's too late; in many cases, the system is shot. The company recommends that every owner of a self-draining system have it winterized at least once to see how much water is still left in the pipes, then make an educated decision from there.

A licensed company knows how to winterize a system at a safe pressure, so the water comes out and the system stays intact. Homeowners should ask their sprinkler company what PSI they use, and the company should be able to show its gauges. If it can't, the air is very likely unregulated. A typical unregulated rental compressor runs around 150 PSI, while manufacturer guidelines recommend a maximum of 80 PSI for lawn sprinkler systems.

For those who have already missed a freeze, Fester advises shutting off the supply, draining exposed piping, and scheduling a winterization for the rest of the season. In spring, homeowners should watch for zones with low pressure or wet spots that should not be there.

Full winterization pricing, including a zone-by-zone price table, is available on the company's website.