Single Leaking Head on Toro System

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wkneis@optonline.net

New Member

Posts: 2

Location: USA

Sunday, April 9th 2006, 5:53pm

Single Leaking Head on Toro System

Aplogies in advance for my lack on knowledge on this issue (and for cross-posting this) - I'm posting this for my 75-year-old dad. He's got a 5-zone Toro system. After the timer shuts the system off, a single head continues to leak a small volume of water. The leaking head is the 2nd head, and the highest placed head in its zone, with none of the other heads in that zone leaking.
Suspecting the master solenoid had gone bad, my dad (who's pretty handy) replaced the entire master solenoid valve with a new Watts dual valve. He showed me the problem, and I can't make any sense of it, either.
With a new master valve installed, NONE of the heads should continue to get any flow of water, even if a zone solenoid went bad. And why an elevated head would be leaking with system shut off, I can't understand. But sure enough - that one head has got water leaking out of it that only stops when the gate valves on the master solenoid are shut off.
Does ANYBODY have any insights into what might be causing this problem and how to fix it? Feel free to e-mail me directly in addition to posting.
Thanks in advance-
Walter Kneis

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wk
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Bill Painter

Advanced Member

Posts: 59

Location: Phoenix Az USA

Thursday, July 6th 2006, 10:35am

The water obviously has to pass thru both valves assuming the water source IS passing thru' both... and the chance of TWO bad valves with one of them being NEW is off the scale.
Are you SURE the water is coming out of the head? Muddy the water on top of it and see if, in fact, it is, or might it be coming up from the SIDE of the head. A flow of clear water amongst the muddy water will tell the tale.
Is the mainline under the leaking head, or is there a hot line under there? Might do a bit of exploratory digging cuz the water must be coming from another source.
Good Luck.... B.

The Irrigation Specialist Mfg' Az.
Please check my website and you'll find what I do and the unique tools I make and market.
Real timesavers, especially the Suck-Tube and Krik-It.
http://www.tismaz.com

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Dianne Tanner

Starting Member

Posts: 1

Location: USA

Sunday, July 30th 2006, 1:17pm

One of the sprinkler heads was leaking during its watering cycle: and it kepr a stream from the top after the cylce ended (same when I turned off the system).

I replaced the sprinkler head thinking that the head was worn out.

Theleaking during watering stopped, but after the cycle is finished the stream of water coming out of the top persists: thought the stream fades and then stops after a few minutes.

Thanks so much for any advice you can share.

Dianne

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Bill Painter

Advanced Member

Posts: 59

Location: Phoenix Az USA

Monday, July 31st 2006, 7:23am

OK Dianne... Assuming you have only ONE valve and not a master valve, the valve you have is a slow closer. MOST valves close in 1 to 5, or 6 seconds, but I've seen a lot of them take considerably longer. The lesser the amount of water passing thru' valves, i.e., only a head or two on that perticular zone, the longer they can take to close. Is this your case? A flow control often stops this problem if the valve has one.... If the amount of water and time bother you, get a complete valve top WITH a flow control if it isn't already there and replace it. It's really a judgement call. If you DO get a new valve top, crank down on the FC until the sprinkler heads' flow drops just a little. This also helps control fogging, which also wastes considerable water... especially here in Az.... It also lessens the closing time of valves.

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