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I have a newly installed irrigation system that includes 13 zones of Rainbird 5000 series rotors. Two zones either do not fully deploy (pop-up)at all or take 7 - 10 minutes to fully deploy. The problem seems to be water flowing out of the outer casing at the top when the inner casing partially deploys. This seems to allow too much water flow and prevents the "pop-up" from fully deploying. If I push one of the head down and hold it, that produces enough flow in the zone for all to properly deploy. These zones seem to be the only sprinklers that do this (10 sprinklers total). Is this a wiper seal problem or should I check for some other problem ? How do I correct problemmanually holding the pop-up down is not really a solution - is it)

<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote><font size=1 face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote> Steve - thanks for the info - I'll spare you the pain and suffering already inflicted by the highly recommended (and licensed) contractor who installed it. I have enough info now to flog them again and see if they can fix it. BTW - all other zones are 5 heads (identical 5000 Series Rainbirds), so the nozzle angle sounds more likely...

Boy, I hate to tell you this but it sounds like those two zones may have been underbuilt. What I mean by this is that there is not enough flow to run those heads. We see this sometimes when the total GPM of the zone is larger than it should be. i.e.....5 heads at 3 gallons per minute each and 3/4 cl.200 pipe. Whoops!

Check the nozzles on the sprinklers and make sure they are the right size. http://www.rainbird.com/popCharts.asp?Page=5000_chart

Find out what nozzle you should be using for the distance the heads are spaced. Maybe the nozzles are the wrong ones and you can change the nozzles to smaller ones. Might help.

Or better yet.........call the LICENSED CONTRACTOR who installed it?

Sprinklersolutions.net


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Edited by - rbgore on Apr 05 2002 08:39:52 AM

<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote><font size=1 face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>Didn't mean to confuse... I have 13 zones of Rainbird 5000 series rotors - each (and every) zone has 5 sprinklers in it. Only two of the zones don't operate properly. In these two zones, water gushes out of the sprinklers (particluarly in the first sprinkler downstream from the control valve) in the gap between the outer casing and the partially deployed inner casing. If I hold one of the heads down to reduce the "leakage" all of the heads fully deploy (including the one I am holding down, when released) and the zone works fine. Since the water pressure / flow is sufficient to run the other 11 zones properly and the radii are all approximately the same on all heads - the nozzle selection for those zones seems to be the place to look. The control valves on this system do not seem to have any pressure / flow adjustment features.

So far, the contractor has missed some installation appointments, caused a flooded basement, had to rework part of the installation, one group claiming the other group didn't finish their part and rescheduling their work... The irrigation engineer that quoted and designed the job seems top notch - the Keystone Cops that installed it on the other hand...

I know, too much information...


huh??????

Sprinklersolutions.net


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