Can a longer runtime fix a dry spot in the lawn?

Usually not. A dry spot is most often a coverage problem: a tilted, sunken or blocked head, a mismatched nozzle, or low pressure at that head. Adding minutes waters the rest of the zone more without reaching the gap, and can push water onto pavement. Fix the pattern first, then set the time.

How do I know if a sprinkler problem is a repair or a leak?

Watch the timing. Water that appears only while a station runs and stops when it ends is a coverage or head problem. Water that pools between cycles, or seeps while the controller is off, can mean an underground leak or a valve that will not close. That timing decides which check comes next.

Sprinkler Repair

Address dry spots, leaking heads and uneven spray with a repair based on the whole zone.

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A sprinkler fault shows up as a pattern, not a part

A brown crescent at the edge of the lawn, a head that geysers, a sidewalk that is wet every morning: each of these is a sprinkler zone missing its target, and each points somewhere different. One snapped head leaves a small gap. A whole station that stays dry points back toward the valve, the wire or the controller. Several weak heads beside a soft patch usually mean a cracked lateral line under the turf.

So the first job is to run the zone and watch it, head by head, before anything is dug up or replaced. Note the time the station runs, because in Glendale that matters: the city says household pressure depends on which of its four pressure zones a home sits in, and that it can dip during the 6 to 8 a.m. demand peak. A zone that looks weak at 6:30 a.m. may be healthy at mid-morning.

What a finished repair should look like

When the work is done, the station should start on command, reach the plants it was laid out for, and stop when the controller ends the cycle. Check the first and the last head on the line, and every edge where turf meets concrete. EPA WaterSense suggests walking every zone for broken or tilted heads, leaking connections and spray landing on pavement.

Then look at the timer. If the runtime was stretched to make up for weak spray, the old program will now overwater a zone that works, and the extra water ends up in the gutter. Separate the repair that is needed now from upgrades that are optional, such as matched nozzles, so the choice stays yours. The Glendale sprinkler repair page covers the local rules that apply once the water leaves the yard.

Source: City of Glendale Water Services, Your Water, Checked Oct 1, 2026