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wingnut

Unregistered

1

Thursday, July 9th 2009, 10:29pm

The unusual and unintentional

I'm having an annoying problem. I have a Rain Bird ESP 16LX+ controller (2001 date code), zones 1-12 installed mid '90s by previous owner and zones 13-14 installed in '03. A few weeks ago zone 13 began running when the controller was set to off. At first it was as if the valve was partially open and the pipes inside and outside the home were vibrating. Closing the main water valve stopped the water but wouldn't correct the problem when turned back on. So I pulled the wire inside the controller from that zone and it stopped the water flow. I replaced the solonoid and all seemed normal again. Fast forward a few weeks... Zone 4 comes partially on without being turned on. Heads come up and down while the pipes vibrate again. During this time zone 8 is periodically vibrating and one head is leaking water and zone 13 also comes on (the one that I just replaced the solonoid a few weeks earlier). After several minutes of watching this madness, zone 8 remains vibrating and leaking water so I pull that wire from the controller and it stops. I didn't remove any other wires. After 20-30 mins I manually went through several zones, including those that came on by themselves (with zone 8 disconnected) and didn't have any problems. What is going on? Is the controller causing this?

mrfixit

Moderator

Posts: 1,510

Location: USA

2

Friday, July 10th 2009, 2:31pm

I'll give this a stab. It sounds like the controller to me. The fact that the problem stops the moment you disconnect the wire tells me the controller is probably sending some sort of signal to the valve. Are there spider webs inside the controller? Sometimes those can cross circuits. Sometimes controllers just go bad.

You could try moving the number 8 wire an empty spot. Like number 15.

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