SPRINKLER TALK FORUM - You Got Questions, We've Got Answers

Hi guys. I recently bought a 20-year-old house here in Albuquerque, and I am now getting around to trying to troubleshoot the sprinkler system. It's a five zone system, with a relatively new controller (Hunter Pro-C). The first two channels are fine, which control the front yard. However, the backyard (three zones) does nothing. Clearly this isn't a new development, as the backyard is also completely dead (I'm trying to change this) and clearly has been for a long, long time ... across at least two owners the best I can tell.



In the backyard I could see a valve cover for the three non-working zones, but couldn't physically get to the valves as this was some 3.5 feet or so below the surface. (This is extreme overkill for depth here in Albuquerque, by the way) As it is not in the easiest location to dig I succeeded in removing about 20" or so of depth so that I can now touch the valves. Here is a picture:




With the controller supposedly turning these zones on, I have fiddled with the valves to little/no avail. I am hearing a relatively loud vibration noise coming from the first two zones, but turning the "big" (outside) valve doesn't seem to do anything. If I turn the inside (small) valves counter clockwise I actually can get a very, very slow drip of water out of the center of them (basically from underneath the small valve I'm turning). The third zone doesn't seem to be doing anything (no noise), and its inside valve appears to be stuck due to debris.



Here is another picture:







I have other issues with the backyard irrigation at this point (my own dog contributing some of that) but I want to at least get water flowing in this first step. I consider myself a pretty handy guy, and the electric stuff is no concern to me (I'm an electrical engineer). Am I in over my head at this point, should I just call in an outside guy to accomplish the initial start up?



Thanks for all of your help!



Brett

Thanks for the insight as to what the valves do. I did as you described and can't get any water out of it. Still just a trickle coming out of the inside valve, but seemingly only when the controller has them on (this could be an incorrect assumption by me, however). I'm guessing this trickle is just a bit of back flow from the zones - again, these valves are significantly below the elevation of the sprinklers.



So I guess I've got to go digging for a master valve for this box. I'm guessing it might be down that PVC pipe you can see in the first picture, as I haven't figured out anything else that could be in there yet. It is filled with years of debris (maybe even some dirt) so this may take me some time. But the other odd thing about all of this is that the first two zones (not serviced by this box) work fine. I actually have not discovered their control valve box yet, I think it might be hiding behind some bushes and under some rocks (their two regulators are in these bushes).

mrfixit - not sure that there is a (remotely-controlled via control box) master valve. That zones 1-2 work - which are not controlled by this particular valve box - would tell me it's not an issue, plus the wiring in the box looks pretty standard (I see 1-5 channels and a common coming out).



I dug sideways to the bottom of that PVC pipe to find ... a buried manual valve in the off position! Basically it was your standard plumbing size valve and handle, so I guess this PVC pipe was nothing more than a marker for it (it was not in any position to be turned on or off through this pipe).



However, this still doesn't seem to change anything. Turning this on, I did not feel any vibration or anything in any of the valves, or see any other signs of water. I plan to go digging around today for the zone 1-2 control valve box, to see if there's anything weird going on (another valve upstream of the one I just found and turned on?). At the same time, I have to wonder if there's something bigger wrong (like the feed for this valve was detached for some reason). Basically, it would seem to me that somebody burying that valve in the off position either had a good reason or they were just crazy (which is a real possibility given some of the things I've discovered with this house).



But it's a start. I'm determined to figure this one out by myself. I called a local sprinkler company and they want $80/hr for a service call. Unless they know some critical piece of knowledge that I don't, my guess is they would show up and spend two hours ($160) just digging around, exploring as I am. I'll gladly do the digging to keep this money in my pocket!



Sorry for the big pictures. I thought I scaled them to 1024x768 on imageshack, I didn't realize the width of this forum's text was forced to basically 640 or so ...