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All four valves not working

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BladeRunner

New Member

Posts: 4

Location: Jacksonville, FL

1

Friday, April 23rd 2010, 8:40pm

All four valves not working

My system was working before the winter. I tried to operate it yesterday and none of the zones out of the four zones is working when I put my Rainbird controller (ESP-6TM) in test mode or manual mode.

Some tests that I did:
1) Controller has power and I can program it. fuse is not blown.
2) Rain sensor is clicking when I press the pin at the top and I have opened the sensor to 1" and we have had no rains in a month.
3) I opened the control valves manually and the sprinkler heads started spraying. That means I have water coming to the valves.

All four valves couldn't have gone bad at the same time, or can they?

I have the multimeter but not sure how to check the wiring from the controller to the valves. Any input is appreciated.

Thanks.

HooKooDooKu

Supreme Member

Posts: 683

2

Friday, April 23rd 2010, 9:24pm

If you test the voltage beween the common and one of the stations when it is turned on, you should be getting something around 25 to 30 volts AC (not DC).

While I don't know for sure how the typical timer is set up, it is possible that everything works, but a fuse still be blown that simply limits the current for the common. (I.e. the fuse protects the output of the device, not the device circuitry).

The other thing to do is remove the rain sensor from the loop. If it has gone bad for some reason, the would also be a reason everything went bad at the same time. Most likely, the common from the controller goes to the rain sensor, then the rain sensor goes to the common wire for the valves. If so, then you can just sort circuit the wires across the rain sensor.

While wires are disconnected from the controller, you can also test the resistance between the common and one of the valves. You should get something around 20ish to 50ish ohms. If you get an open connection, then you know the common has some how broken or become disconnected.

BladeRunner

New Member

Posts: 4

Location: Jacksonville, FL

3

Sunday, April 25th 2010, 10:52am

Thanks guys for your help. The wire from rain sensor got disconnected from all the common wires from the valves. Once I connected it back it all works now.

tenman

New Member

Posts: 6

4

Sunday, April 25th 2010, 11:04am

bladerunner congrats wish i could figure my problems out

lotusgarden

Starting Member

Posts: 1

5

Wednesday, May 12th 2010, 6:54pm

sprinklers not working

One set of my sprinklers are not working. When I go and manually bleed the value from the controls the sprinklers turn on but they will not turn on the next day. I have to manually bleed the value to make the sprinklers work. What it wrong and what should I do?

Wet_Boots

Supreme Member

Posts: 4,102

Location: Metro NYC

6

Thursday, May 13th 2010, 9:58am

It could either be an electrical problem, or a mechanical problem with the valve.

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