Step-by-Step Guide
Understanding Regional Differences in Winterization
Winterization means different things depending on your geographic location and climate. In colder regions like Colorado and areas north, winterization involves full system blowouts—a process where all water is removed from irrigation lines using compressed air to prevent freezing and damage to the irrigation system.
In warmer climates such as California or Florida, the process differs significantly. Some regions maintain year-round irrigation and don't require winterization at all. Others, like California, experience what's called a cold season or rainy season where temperatures are cool enough to stop irrigation but not cold enough to require blowing out the system. In these areas, systems are simply turned off for the season without the need for compressed air blowouts.
Regardless of your region, the WeatherTRAK controller itself requires specific winterization steps to ensure proper operation and avoid unnecessary alerts during the off-season.
Winterization Timing and Planning
In Colorado and similar cold climates, winterization season typically begins in the second to third week of October. The exact timing depends heavily on weather conditions—particularly the onset of freezing temperatures.
For maintenance contracts, it's common to establish a 30 to 45-day window for completing winterization work. The process involves communicating with clients a couple of weeks beforehand about the planned timeframe, then nailing down exact dates as the window approaches. This flexibility allows teams to respond to weather conditions while maintaining clear expectations with clients.
Putting Your Controller in Winterized Mode
Whether you're in a cold climate requiring full blowouts or a warmer region simply shutting down for the season, you should always put your WeatherTRAK controller in Winterized mode rather than simply turning it Off. This is a critical distinction that affects how the controller manages station data during the off-season.
You can set your controller to Winterized mode from three locations:
- From the Manage page at WeatherTRAK.net
- From the WeatherTRAK Mobile app
- At the controller itself
Why Winterized Mode Matters: The key difference between Off and Winterized modes is how the controller handles depletion tracking. WeatherTRAK calculates depletion for every station—essentially monitoring a "glass of water" beneath each station to determine irrigation needs.
When a controller is in Off mode, it continues to apply depletion to every station even though no irrigation is occurring. This causes the system to believe stations are getting progressively thirstier, which triggers numerous alerts that you cannot act on during the off-season, including:
- Station high depletion alerts
- Water window alerts
- Water day alerts
In Winterized mode, the controller suspends depletion tracking. Depletion levels remain where they are, and you won't receive unnecessary alerts throughout the winter. When you reactivate the system in spring, you can simply turn it back on without dealing with accumulated alerts or artificially high depletion levels.
For water managers overseeing multiple sites, the Winterized status provides an additional benefit: it serves as a quick visual checklist when reviewing all controllers across an account. You can easily distinguish between systems that are simply turned off and waiting to be blown out versus systems that have been fully winterized. This status tracking also helps with scheduling, allowing you to monitor your team's progress in real-time and adjust work schedules accordingly.
Protecting Your Flow Sensor During Blowouts
The primary hardware consideration when winterizing a WeatherTRAK system is protecting your flow sensor. This is the main difference between winterizing a WeatherTRAK system and winterizing any other irrigation controller.
Why Flow Sensors Are Vulnerable: Flow sensors contain an internal component called an impeller that spins as water flows through it, creating pulses that the controller converts into gallons-per-minute readings. This mechanism exists in both T-style flow sensors and hydrometers.
When compressed air is blown through a flow sensor instead of water, the impeller spins approximately 20 times faster than it does with water pressure—essentially acting like a pinwheel in high wind. This extreme speed can cause several problems:
- Physical damage to the impeller components from excessive spinning
- Nicks and damage if any debris is present in the line
- Long-term wear and tear that affects sensor accuracy
Recommended Protection Method: The manufacturer recommendation is to install a blowout port after your flow sensor. This allows you to connect the compressor downstream of the sensor, avoiding blowing air through it entirely.
Real-World Considerations: In practice, many systems don't have dedicated blowout ports, and the standard process involves attaching the compressor to the backflow at the very start of the system. This means air will flow through the flow sensor as part of the normal blowout process.
Whether or not you can avoid blowing air through your flow sensor, you must turn off all flow monitoring before beginning the winterization process to prevent false alerts and system interruptions.
Preparing the System for Blowout
1. Shut off the water supply to the irrigation system.
2. Drain as much water as possible from the mainline before introducing compressed air. Getting water out first makes the blowout process more efficient and effective.
3. If possible, create multiple drainage points throughout the system. Focus particularly on low sections and lower elevation areas where water naturally collects.
4. Create the largest orifice possible for water drainage—bigger openings make it easier to evacuate water from the system.
5. Access your WeatherTRAK controller's flow monitoring settings and disable all flow alerts, including:
- Low Flow alerts
- High Flow alerts
- No Flow alerts
Why This Step Is Critical: If you attempt to run the controller during blowout with flow monitoring still active, the system will trip alerts continuously. If you're running through a master valve, these alerts will shut down the master valve and stop your entire blowout process.
Even if you've isolated the system away from the flow sensor (using a downstream blowout port), the controller will still detect that no flow is occurring and generate No Flow alerts. Disabling flow monitoring prevents alerts that would otherwise interrupt the winterization process.
Coordinating Multiple Compressors
On larger commercial systems, crews sometimes use multiple compressors to speed up the winterization process. If you're using this approach, coordination between operators is essential.
If one compressor is positioned at one end of the system and another compressor at the opposite end, and both are running simultaneously without coordination, you'll simply push water back and forth between the two points rather than evacuating it from the system.
Before beginning work with multiple compressors, establish a clear game plan. Ensure all operators understand which sections they're responsible for and the sequence in which zones will be blown out. Your ultimate goal is complete water evacuation, which requires strategic coordination rather than simply applying air pressure from multiple points.
Safety Considerations During Blowout
Exploding Components: Every winterization season, you can expect to encounter heads and other components that blow out of the ground when compressed air hits them. This is especially common with components that have been damaged or weakened during the irrigation season—missed repairs create weak points that fail under air pressure.
Safety Protocol: Never stand directly over sprinkler heads when a zone is coming on. Position yourself away from the area, especially during those first moments when the zone activates and pressure hits the system.
Valve Box Hazards: Valves don't always activate automatically during blowouts—technicians often need to manually open them by turning the flow control. Valves can explode when you're working directly over them, cranking on the flow control. Exercise caution when manually activating valves under pressure.
Wildlife in Valve Boxes: As temperatures cool in fall, wildlife seeks warm shelter. Snakes—including rattlesnakes in areas like Parker and Castle Rock, Colorado—commonly take refuge inside valve boxes. Always visually inspect and sweep valve boxes before reaching inside or touching components.
Running the Blowout Process
Once the compressor is attached and the system is prepared, run through each station systematically. The typical process involves:
1. Activating each zone in sequence
2. Watching for the initial 30 seconds as pressure hits the zone—this is when components are most likely to blow out of the ground
3. Allowing each zone to run for approximately five minutes to ensure thorough water evacuation
4. Monitoring the air output to confirm water has been cleared from the lines
Each station activation involves about 30 seconds of excitement followed by five minutes of observation while the compressed air clears the lines.
Post-Blowout Controller Configuration
After you've completed the blowout process for the entire system, return to the controller to finalize winterization settings:
1. Confirm the controller is set to Winterized mode
2. Re-enable all flow monitoring settings that you disabled before the blowout:
- Low Flow alerts
- High Flow alerts
- No Flow alerts
Why Re-Enable Flow Monitoring: Turning these settings back on immediately after winterization ensures the system is ready for spring activation. If you forget this step, you'll miss an entire portion of the irrigation season without leak detection and flow monitoring—losing valuable data that's critical to water management.
This is the most common mistake in the winterization process: disabling flow monitoring for the blowout and then forgetting to re-enable it. Some water managers don't realize the oversight until halfway through the following summer, after missing months of flow data and leak detection capabilities.
3. Leave all valves in the open position after disconnecting the compressor
Documentation and Communication
Thorough documentation during winterization prevents surprises and facilitates smoother spring activation:
Document All Damage: As you work through the system, you'll inevitably discover broken components—heads that blow out, damaged valves, cracked pipes, and other failures. Create a detailed list of everything that needs repair.
Repair Decisions: Determine whether repairs will be completed immediately during winterization or deferred until spring activation. Document which approach you're taking for each issue.
Client Communication: Maintain ongoing communication with clients about system condition and any issues discovered. It's far better to have documented conversations about known problems than to surprise clients with unexpected repairs in spring.
Status Tracking: Use the controller's Winterized status as a project management tool. When reviewing your entire account, you can quickly see which systems have been completed and which are still pending, helping with crew scheduling and client updates.
Using WeatherTRAK Mobile for Efficient Winterization
WeatherTRAK Mobile includes features that can streamline your winterization process and make productive use of the time spent observing each zone during blowout.
Navigating the Updated Mobile Interface
A recent update to WeatherTRAK Mobile reformatted the page navigation to improve clarity:
Previous Design: The interface had two buttons—a small button on the left that accessed the page function, and a large button on the right that displayed information and advanced to the next screen. This layout confused some users.
Current Design: The large button now takes you directly into that application or function. A separate forward arrow button advances you to the next screen in the sequence.
When you scroll through your sites, selecting the large button takes you to that site's details. The forward arrow advances you from sites to controllers to stations in a logical progression.
Changing Controller Mode from Mobile
On the controller screen in WeatherTRAK Mobile, the large button displays controller-level information including alerts, pause status, and controller mode.
This is where you can switch the controller between On, Off, and Winterized modes as you progress through the winterization process. This allows you to update controller status in the field without returning to a computer.
Running Manual Stations from Mobile
To manually activate stations during blowout using WeatherTRAK Mobile:
1. Select the number of minutes you want the station to run
2. Select the station you want to activate
3. Press the Start button
💡Note on the Two-Button Start: The platform now requires a two-button process to start irrigation (selecting the station, then pressing Start). This change was implemented because contractors reported that stations were changing in their pockets too easily—the previous single-button activation was too sensitive and caused accidental station changes.
Mapping Station Locations During Winterization
WeatherTRAK Mobile now integrates mapping functionality directly into the station programming pages. This is an ideal feature to use during winterization, when you have five minutes of observation time while each zone runs.
Accessing the Mapping Feature: On the updated station programming page, you'll see all station programming details along with a small orange button at the top of the screen.
1. Tap the orange button to place a pin on the site map
2. The pin represents the station location—drag and drop it to the exact location where that station's heads are positioned in the field
3. Identify which station the pin controls by selecting the appropriate station from the list
4. Choose the controller
5. Choose the station number
6. Save the location
Once saved, the station location appears on the map in both WeatherTRAK Mobile and WeatherTRAK.net. On the manual station list, a small map pin icon appears next to stations that have been located, providing a quick visual reference of which stations have been mapped and which still need location data.
This mapping data is extremely valuable for future maintenance, troubleshooting, and system management. Winterization provides an ideal opportunity to build this database since you're already activating every station and observing its location in the field.
Running Multiple Stations Simultaneously (OptiFlow Controllers)
For OptiFlow XR controllers, WeatherTRAK Mobile allows you to run multiple stations at the same time, which can provide significant time savings during winterization—especially on large systems or when using multiple compressors.
1. Navigate to the manual station control on your OptiFlow controller
2. Select Multiple instead of running stations individually
3. Instead of choosing Stack (which runs stations one after another in sequence), select the Overlap icon
4. Select all the stations you want to run simultaneously—for example, stations 1, 2, 3, and 4
5. Press Next
6. If desired, adjust the run time for individual stations
7. Start all selected stations
You can run up to nine stations simultaneously per controller, assuming your air pressure is sufficient to supply multiple zones. This capability can dramatically reduce winterization time—instead of spending five minutes per station running them sequentially, you can run four stations in the same five-minute period, effectively quadrupling your efficiency on that controller.
The time savings are particularly valuable given the compressed timeframe for winterization work. You typically have about one month to complete all winterization before hard freezes arrive and risk damaging irrigation systems. Running multiple stations simultaneously helps crews move through their workload more efficiently while still completing the process correctly.
Video Walkthrough
Video originally published April 2021.
If you have questions, here are 3 ways to get answers:
1. Search within this WeatherTRAK knowledgebase
2. Visit the WeatherTRAK support page
3. Call 800-362-8774 or email support@hydropoint.com, hours are Mon-Fri 3:00 AM – 6:00 PM PT and Sat 9:00 AM – 2:00 PM PT.