Shut-Off Valves (AKA Isolation Valves)

Shut-off valves, also known as isolation valves, are able to close flow to – or isolate – loops of heads.

Shut-off valves figure prominently in golf course design, where they allow groundskeepers to eliminate flow temporarily to specific greens, fairways, etc., in order to complete maintenance. See our Golf Course Irrigation page for more information.

Shut-off valves can be used to close off a water flow to a specific loop of piped heads in an irrigation system. For example, golf course groundskeepers can use them to block flow from a given area of the course in order to perform maintenance.

For proper isolation, each flow zone requires two shut-off valves. For example, you would place a shut-off valve at each end of a loop of rotors covering a fairway, as pictured below. 

Including two shut-off valves in this group of rotors, which will become a contiguous piped loop, will allow it to be shut off in both directions. This in turn will prevent water from doubling back on itself and breaking the irrigation system when the valves are shut off. 

Shut-off valves can be set to be open or closed. Setting a shut-off valve to closed blocks all flow downstream of that valve. When you verify your connections using our Highlight Station tool, for example it won’t highlight those areas. When you size the mainline, it won’t size in those areas.

For more information and instructions, see our section on opening and closing shut-off valves.

For golf course design, we recommend setting shut-off valves to Closed in all flow zones but one (such as a fairway or green) before sizing the mainline. You can then size the mainline one zone at a time – opening the valves in areas to size while closing the rest –  and working your way throughout the course in this way.

Shut-off valves are available as an option from the Valves menu in the Irrigation Manager.

For more information and specific instructions, see our documentation on: 

• Adding valves to a project
• Placing valves in a drawing
• Working with shut-off valves (AKA isolation valves)