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Wires Between Valves Cut

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CAWahine

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1

Saturday, May 7th 2011, 7:34pm

Wires Between Valves Cut

Our son cut the wires between the sprinkler valves in the backyard. :wacko: How do I repair? Do I just try to reconnect them at the cut? Never done anything like this but with some help I think I can do it. Thank you!

Wet_Boots

Supreme Member

Posts: 4,102

Location: Metro NYC

2

Sunday, May 8th 2011, 7:57am

The repair is a very exacting task. Less than perfect will not do. Is there any slack in the cut cable?

CAWahine

Unregistered

3

Sunday, May 8th 2011, 9:19am

Wires Between Valves Cut

Yes, there is slack. He cut 5 of the 6 valves for the back yard, both the ground and the valve wire. The house is only 9 months old so everything is very new.
Thank you!

Wet_Boots

Supreme Member

Posts: 4,102

Location: Metro NYC

4

Sunday, May 8th 2011, 11:13am

What makes this exacting is that the usual result of such a repair is a buried splice that no one will know the location of, and should it ever become faulty, it will be very difficult to diagnose and repair. If you have enough slack, you can reconnect the individual wires with the appropriately-sized wire nuts (smaller, rather than larger) and to "pot" the group of splices in silicone caulk. Potted wire splices have a pretty good track record in the field. For future serviceability, I would place a small valve box over the splice location, so there is no question where it is.

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If you have any doubts about doing any of this, better to run a new cable in place of the old, and have no splices in the field.

CAWahine

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5

Sunday, May 8th 2011, 11:38am

Wires Between Valves Cut

Thank you so much for taking time to respond.
The wires are cut near the solenoids and the valves are atleast 12" tall each from the ground. After reading on here some more, can I splice and use a dryconn connector near the solenoids and not bury as you describe?

Wet_Boots

Supreme Member

Posts: 4,102

Location: Metro NYC

6

Sunday, May 8th 2011, 3:41pm

Are you saying that these cut wires are in a valve box? (which begs the question of what was going on)

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Dry-conn wire nuts just buried in the ground? Abso-freakin-lutely not! You make this splice as though there was 500 volts in the line, and you are going to walk barefoot over the repair.

CAWahine

Unregistered

7

Sunday, May 8th 2011, 5:44pm

Wires Between Valves Cut

Thank you again for your help. A neighbor who is more familiar than I was able to help me fix everything and they are working.

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