Inspecting a flooded centre pivot (sprinkler package) - video transcript

Pat Daley from Daley Water Services shows how to inspect the sprinkler package of a flooded centre pivot in a case study video.

[Pat Daley from Daley Water Services]

So what we are looking at here is a typical situation where the debris has built up around the spray – this is a static type spray and they are very susceptible to these sort of blockages.

If you did not go through and do some checks on all these sprays and try to run it like this then the debris, there is a good chance that the debris would not clear so it would have a big impact on the uniformity of the sprays and possibly be the cause of some wheel ruts forming because we are not getting the wetted footprint that we normally would achieve.

So it is very important to go along – these sprinklers are relatively easy to pull apart – that is the static plate, clear the debris out of there.

This is the nozzle housing, there is the nozzle there, so we go through and clear all this debris out of there. It is a good idea to check the nozzle as well to make sure there is nothing inside. Quite often being this low you might get insects and things up inside.

Also the adaptor that that screws onto, most people stop at this point but it is a good idea to bring some spanners and undo this regulator. It is a good opportunity to check that there is no debris inside the regulator.

Whilst the nozzle may be clear, if the regular is blocked it will have some effect on the operation of the sprinkler... so you see it goes back together relatively easy.

There are some other types of sprays that have moving plates and they are in danger of any sediment build-up there grinding away at that moving plate. So any sprinkler at all I advise that you go through and clear the debris away from them after a flood event and check the inside as well. Don't assume that everything is going to be on the outside.

Watch the Inspecting a flooded centre pivot (Part 2: the sprinkler package) case study video.