The Most Common Problems Found During Sprinkler Tune-Ups

Every year, we head out to hundreds of properties across Central Texas to get sprinkler systems ready for the watering season ahead. What we find is rarely dramatic. Most systems don’t need an overhaul. They just need the small stuff caught and corrected before the Texas heat turns a minor issue into a major one. Here’s a rundown of what we run into most and why it’s worth paying attention to even when a problem seems small.

The Sprinkler System Issues We Find Most Often

Ranked from most to least common, here’s what our team typically finds during a tune-up.

1. Broken Heads

This is the most common issue by far, and it’s often the easiest to spot. A cracked or snapped head usually shows up fast, either as a geyser when the system runs or as a dry patch where water should be landing.

2. A Broken Lateral Pipe

This cuts off water supply to one or more heads and can be harder to diagnose without digging. Unlike a broken head, there’s often no obvious visual clue above ground, so a soggy patch of lawn or a zone that just won’t pressurize is usually the first sign something’s wrong underneath.

3. Control Valves Not Opening Correctly

A valve that won’t open means a whole zone can go without water, sometimes for weeks before anyone notices. These issues can come from debris caught in the valve, a wiring problem, or a solenoid that’s simply worn out.

4. Buried Heads, or Heads at the Wrong Height

If a head isn’t sitting at the right height for the area it covers, it can’t do its job. Heads settle over time, get buried under mulch or soil buildup, or end up too low or too high after landscaping work, and any of those throws off coverage even when the head itself is working fine.

5. Heads Modified With Larger Nozzles

Sometimes a previous repair installs a nozzle with a higher flow rate than the water meter can actually supply. It might look like an upgrade, but if the system can’t keep up with the demand, it usually just means weaker pressure across the rest of the zone.

6. Pressure Regulator Issues

The pressure regulator on the water meter or plumbing supply feeding the irrigation system can cause problems, too. A loud, vibrating, or hissing sound when the system runs is often the first sign, and this one usually needs a professional to diagnose since it involves the plumbing supply rather than the sprinkler components themselves.

7. Debris in the Water Meter

This happens more often than you’d think. If your system worked fine last year and won’t come on this year, this is a good place to look, since sediment or debris can build up gradually and eventually block flow enough to stop a zone from running at all.

8. Mower and Weed-Eater Damage

Sprinkler heads and lawn mowers have been fighting each other since the beginning of suburban irrigation, and the mower almost always wins. If you’re seeing this often on your system, check that your heads are cycling up and down correctly. 

The most common cause of mower strikes is actually heads that aren’t lowering when they turn off, or heads that were installed too high in the first place. No component of an irrigation system should sit high enough to get hit while the system is off. If a head is worn out, it tends to stick up more, so if you’re seeing several heads sticking up, that’s a sign it may be time to replace them. Replacing them all at once can make a noticeable difference in how reliable the system is going forward.

9. Leaks

These are sometimes obvious, but not always. A leak at a fitting or valve can show up as an obvious puddle, but plenty of leaks stay hidden underground for a long time, quietly driving up a water bill before anyone spots a problem on the surface.

10. Controller Issues

One thing many homeowners overlook is the sprinkler controller itself. Controllers are basically the brain of the irrigation system, but every year, we find timers still set to winter schedules, outdated watering days, or run times that don’t match current weather conditions. Some controllers lose their settings after a power outage or freeze, while others get reprogrammed incorrectly. Your annual sprinkler tune-up should include a review of start times, watering duration, rain sensor operation, and scheduling for current temperatures, as well as seasonal adjustments. 

Small Fixes That Make a Big Difference

Some of the issues we find aren’t dramatic. A head might be leaning slightly, or it might just barely clear the grass after mowing. We understand not wanting to spend the money or deal with the digging that some of these fixes require, and we hear “the heads are working fine” a lot. But with sprinklers, small tweaks can substantially improve coverage:

• Leaning or low heads: Straightening a leaning head or raising one that’s sitting too low are two of the simplest adjustments that make a real difference in how evenly a system waters.
• Heads knocked out of alignment: Mowing crews or foot traffic bump heads out of position more often than people expect, and they’ll slowly start watering the sidewalk instead of the grass (and no, your concrete driveway will not widen because you keep watering it). 
• Unnecessary tree bubblers: That tree that’s been in the ground for twenty years and gets watered by the heads in the lawn doesn’t need a separate bubbler soaking its trunk, too. Once a tree is well established, that bubbler can be capped, since the water already reaching it from the lawn heads is more than enough.
• Low pressure: This is another issue that comes up regularly and is worth having a professional take a look at, since it can point to a problem well beyond the head itself.

Why Regular Tune-Ups Save Money

Many homeowners think sprinkler tune-ups are mainly about keeping grass green. Honestly, they’re just as much about avoiding water waste.

A single leaking valve or broken nozzle can waste an incredible amount of water over time. Because irrigation systems usually run early in the morning, many leaks go unnoticed for weeks. We’ve seen customers get water bills that looked more like truck payments because a hidden leak stayed active through the summer.

Small inefficiencies add up fast, too. A tilted sprinkler head might not seem like a big deal, but if it causes dry spots, homeowners often compensate by increasing run times across the whole system. That means the healthy areas get overwatered while the problem area still struggles, which leads to fungus, runoff, shallow roots, wasted water, and stressed lawns during the Texas heat. A properly adjusted irrigation system waters more evenly while using less water overall.

Signs Your Sprinkler System Needs Maintenance

When turning your system back on in the spring, here are a few signs it may need attention:

• Unusually high water bills
• Soggy areas in the lawn
• Dry or crunchy patches
• Low-pressure zones
• Sprinkler heads not popping up fully
• Water spraying onto concrete
• Zones that keep dripping after shutoff
• Inconsistent coverage
• Visible leaks around valves

Even small symptoms usually mean something underneath needs adjustment, and the earlier those issues are found, the easier they usually are to fix.

Final Thoughts

Most sprinkler systems don’t need a massive overhaul every year. Usually, they just need attention. A few adjustments here, a repaired head there, maybe a valve cleanup, a nozzle replacement, or a controller update. Those small corrections are what keep a system running efficiently through the brutal Texas summer ahead, because once July arrives in Central Texas, small irrigation problems tend to become very noticeable very fast.

Trust us, it’s a lot more fun finding a small leak during an annual tune-up than discovering it after your lawn starts crunching under your feet in August. That’s why yearly irrigation tune-ups remain one of the smartest preventative services homeowners can invest in.