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

I tested the system and everything looked fine. I shut the controller off since we were
expecting rain and I didn't want to waste water. Several days later we noticed a puddle
near one of the valve boxes. Being in a hurry I shut off the main. Today I tried opening
the solenoid. Water came out and didn't seem to be ending. I checked the main valve
and found it closed ???
I guess I'll try again tomorrow and check at the meter to see if this is drawing from my
line or if it is just draining the whole system and will take a long time.

I also noticed that when I turn the water on, the area downhill from the valve gets wet
and the box seems dry, but 10 minutes later there is water in the box. I'm thinking maybe
it is hard to see where the valve is leaking from since it is down in the box. Maybe tomorrow
I'll try using a mirror and flashlight.

No heads are weeping that I've noticed which makes me wonder if the leak could be on the inlet
side of the valve. Although unlikely, it is an old system, so I guess a joint could suddenly break.
I'm glad I have a valve box there (one of my valves is sitting under a stone), but it is hard to get
a good look down there. What am I looking at ? Is the valve box just a hollow tube ? It is surrounded
by rocks in a flower bed area. Maybe I just have to dig out the rocks and the whole thing will come
up ?

Then I guess I could get a better look at what's happening.

With the Sprinkler Main turned off, I unscrewed the Hunter Solenoid and figured I'd let it drain while we went out. We came back 3 hours later and it was still steadily coming out of the opening. I made sure we had nothing turned on that would use water and watched the little triangle in the water meter (it spins when something is on) and it wasn't turning
(but maybe if it is a very slow usage, it would only turn a bit every many minutes ???). I finally gave up and screwed the solenoid back in. While I had it out I tried squeezing it to see if it was springy, but it didn't squeeze down at all. Maybe it is stuck in the open position ? I've never played with one before.

I figure that my sprinkler main shutoff must have minerals blocking it from shutting down completely, hence there is still a small amount of water coming to the valve and while there is no visible leak now, there would be if I turned the Main back on.
I figure I can't service the valve while there's water running thru it, though I could research and find the parts. But I don't think I'm up to taking the sprinkler main apart. So I'm stuck for now.