Is a rewire the right move for our course?

By Alistair July 24, 2024 06:21

If your course needs a new irrigation system, but it is unaffordable at the moment, then a system rewire could improve your current system, with minimal impact, giving you a few years to raise finances and plan ahead. John Kidson reports.

This month I’m going to cover if a course rewire is the right move for your club.

More than ever we’re quoting course rewires, new controllers and decoders.

As we know, a full new system is costly and your club may require time to source the funds to undertake such a large investment.

A method to consider is a course rewire to allow for automated irrigation during this waiting period.

The big question is… is it worth the outlay?

This would depend on the condition of your existing irrigation. We recently undertook a few surveys for different levels of clubs and used this method to obtain an answer:

1. Do pipe breaks occur often?

If yes, then a rewire may waste funds. Consider new mains and cables if you’re low on funds.

2. Does your pump set cope with current irrigation needs?

If it doesn’t due to low flow, then a rewire could introduce more valves and a more modern controller can introduce settings to help with lower flow issues.

3. When irrigating at night, does your cable network fail?

If yes and this is the key reason your irrigation lets you down, then a rewire could be perfect.

4. Have you had issues with cables or have products such as solenoids failed?

Quite often we install new coils on solenoids at the same time, as the coil, in most cases, causes the biggest issues after failing cable joints.

5. Is your existing pipework poly?

If yes, then the pipe work itself will have plenty of life span. The fittings need to be judged on a case-by-case basis, depending if metals have been used and buried.

If no, and it’s PVC, then judge how many blowouts you’ve had. If it’s more blowouts than cable issues. then invest in new pipe work.

6. Would you like to use your system from your phone?

More modern controllers allow phone use to control the irrigation, having internet at the controller location is best rather than sim card setup. And consider your own phone signal out on the course, if you can’t make a phone call then don’t waste funds on phone control.

The main thing to ask yourself: can you manually turn solenoids and sprinkler heads on and create the irrigation you require. If yes, and it’s the cable causing you the most issues with buried joints, internal cables starting to fail and eroding cable joints, then a rewire is worth considering, even if used as a five-year plan before a full course installation can be obtained.

The key thing about a rewire is the little impact on the course, in most cases fast in and out of each area.

If you’re in the waiting game of asking for a new system, gathering quotes and trying to keep your existing system alive, then a rewire could be the answer for the short term. It allows for automated irrigation while giving you a few years to plan for the future.