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Help with valve - zone won't come on

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Little Rascal

New Member

Posts: 2

1

Sunday, November 11th 2012, 7:11am

Help with valve - zone won't come on

Hi,

I have been assigned to take over our church's sprinkler system. The property is ten acres, so it's been quite a job. I have all the zones working except one. When I turn the valve on manually to that zone, I can hear water running, but no sprinkler heads pop up. When the controller turns on the valve, I also hear water, but same result...no heads pop up. I can't remember the brand of the valve right now. It has three letters and the numbers like 220-050. Any help would be appreciated.

I forgot to add that I know nothing about sprinkler systems...but am slowly learning.

I remember now, the brand is HIT 220-050.... maybe 250 or 215-050. I can go look at it again if it makes a difference.

This post has been edited 1 times, last edit by "Little Rascal" (Nov 11th 2012, 8:36am)

Wet_Boots

Supreme Member

Posts: 4,102

Location: Metro NYC

2

Sunday, November 11th 2012, 12:21pm

HIT is a fringe brand name, with little pro installer history. If the entire system was installed with the one make and model of zone valve, you will become skilled at maintaining them, and you will start by having a spare valve on hand at all times, so you can do a complete swap of all parts, if needed.

Little Rascal

New Member

Posts: 2

3

Sunday, November 11th 2012, 1:07pm

It sounds like when of these valves malfunction, the best thing to do would be to replace the entire valve? What valve would be more reliable?

Wet_Boots

Supreme Member

Posts: 4,102

Location: Metro NYC

4

Sunday, November 11th 2012, 2:30pm

HIT 220-050 looks like a copy of the Irritrol 217B valve, so they would make good replacements

PerryNZ

Senior Member

Posts: 22

Location: New Zealand

5

Thursday, August 21st 2014, 9:08pm

An ancient thread revived. I seem to have a similar problem,
even though you will have long since solved yours. In my case,
I suspect the solenoid, rather than the valve, as the manual
lever makes all sprinklers work. Water can be heard to run if
the solenoid is actuated, but only what sounds like a trickle.
And not enough to make the sprinklers function as they should.
I wonder if the solenoid is a replaceable item? If it's a cheapie,
as Wet Boots surmises, the prospects are unlikely to be good.

Wet_Boots

Supreme Member

Posts: 4,102

Location: Metro NYC

6

Friday, August 22nd 2014, 9:25am

A lever operator still leaves the solenoid in the equation, so look at the diaphragm assembly. Same advice applies, though, so have at the ready an entire new replacement valve of the same make and model.

irrigirl

Unregistered

7

Friday, August 22nd 2014, 10:27am

Valve issue

Make sure that your flow control is open. This would be a larger knob or small piece opposite the bleed screw that can be turned with a flathead screwdriver.
I would say solenoid. If the solenoid is screw-on, which usually is if you have a lever, then it is easier to fix than replacing the whole valve. The on/off lever is just another bleed, and will not activate the solenoid electrically.
You can test the solenoid using an ohm's test on a multi meter.
Checking solenoids and field wires
1) Set meter to OHMs
2) Set range to 200
3) Remove common wire!
4) Hold tip of black probe to common wire
5) Touch red probe to each station screw
**Short circuit/Bad solenoid/Wire=0-12 ohms
**12-60 ohms Good solenoid
**High numbers=corroded wire
**200+=Broken wire
Or you can test it by removing the common and that zone's wire from the circuit board and placing them on either end of a 9v battery at the same time. If the station opens, the problem is in your timer's board terminal, and if it does not you have a bad solenoid.
Switching that zone wire with a working wire in a different board terminal will also tell you whether the board is bad or the solenoid is bad.

hi.todd

Supreme Member

Posts: 417

Location: Houston, Texas

8

Friday, August 22nd 2014, 4:50pm

I am going to come at this from a different angle.
You are new to the system it is large.
It maybe that the valve is the valve can be manually tuned on and you are looking in the wrong place for the water.

It could be operating drip irrigation that would not be obvious to you where it is located on the property.
It could be operating bubblers for the trees that you may not see in operation.

It may be on the monument sign that is across the property.

It may be in an interior area of the church that has landscaping.

It may be in the islands in the parking lot with drip.

When a project is that large it is easy to miss a valve with out the history.

It may be on the auto fill to a fountain.

Good Luck.

Dan

:thumbsup:
:thumbup: :thumbsup:

jonodavidson

Unregistered

9

Tuesday, October 7th 2014, 7:13pm

sprinkler valve

10 acres is a big lot, so your main line water supply will be ran underground to the sprinkler valves for each watering zone. The sprinklers in a watering zone do not work when you open the valve manually at both the timer and on the valve, but you can hear water running through the valve. It is not an electrical problem, because the sprinkler valve is not operating manually at the valve. If the sprinklers have not been operating for some time, they could be buried in dirt or overgrown by grass and other vegetation. Turn the water on. Go to the sprinklers. Dig them out one by one following the lateral line of pipe that begins at the exit port on the valve, and try to operate the sprinklers manually. You may have a water supply problem either insufficient volume of water or the water pressure is too low to operate the sprinklers. You also may have a leak in the lateral line resulting in a pool of water somewhere in your watering zone.

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