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

I'm working on a Rain Bird system, very basic setup. It has 3 zones, 5 sprinklers per zone, 3 years old. This spring when I turned them on all 3 zones will start for about 30 seconds then lose pressure until they just seep. Tried turning the valves manually and they all do the same thing. Bleed valve shows good pressure. I can hear the valves clicking when they are supposed to be working. Also, I disconnected valve wires and touched each to the terminal of a 24 volt battery and then they worked fine, which leads me to believe it's something in the controller, possibly the transformer is bad but this also confuses me as to why they wouldn't work manually. Any suggestions? It's about to get very hot here and am desperate to not fall behind on watering right off the bat! Thanks.

yes it is on a well. It feeds the city swimming pool an also this sprinkler system, although the swimming pool isn't using it yet this year. I have been watering from a hydrant that is hooked to the same line just to try to keep up and it seems to work although the pressure is a bit low.