Hi Hammer... You don't mention where you live or the soil conditions you have. How a soil holds water can also be a factor as well as those mentioned above. Here in sandy central FL, I water 30 minutes per zone twice a week and start at 5 am. The St.Augustine grass and the rest of the weeds seem to like that schedule. I used to water less time but more often but have found that getting the roots to grow deeper prevents a lot of the between waterings wilt and burn I was getting even on the hottes...
Ur probably long gone as your post is almost a year old but I had the same problem and solved it by installing a riser pipe to my choice of lenght and mounting the sprinkler head on top. I used a piece of rebar plastic tied to the extension to provide stability and then spray painted the entire thing black. It's next to invisible amongst the bushes. Bob <BLOCKQUOTE id=quote><font size=1 face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote> I bought a house with an existi...
<b>Final Update (I hope)</b> All the above convinced me it had to be in those two valves so I went back out and removed the solenoids, removed the cover of the valve and really cleaned the diaphams and other parts up with a toothbrush. After reinstallation, I used a rubber mallet hammer and rapped each of the valves on the outside as well. Voila! Next time system check everything worked perfectly! I don't know if it was that aggressive cleaning or frustrated rap that got me back in business but ...
Update: 1. Pulled the valve covers and cleaned for zones 1-2-3. I did zone 3 just to see if there was any noticable diference...there was not. Zones 1 and 2 still coming on when zone 1 activated but now zone 2 goes off when it should while only zone 1 keeps running. 2. At the controller (as drpete suggested), I hooked zone 3 to first the zone 1 connection and then the zone 2 connection and it worked fine. From this, I think I can eliminate the controller as the problem? 3. But, with the wires fo...
Thanks again, Alex. The valves are in boxes and I picked up and installed new solenoids in valves for zones 1 and 2. Problem still there. I've got Hunter HPV type valves in there and while I've never opened one up before, it looks to be pretty straight forward with the four philips head screws on top of the valve. That will be next. I did notice that there is water spritzing out of the valve seal on zone 1 and zone 2 so I'm hoping it's a dirt problem and I'll have good news to report in the next...
Thanks for the response, Alex. I checked out the controller box and yes, there is an "MV" connection with a wire going to it. I'm guessing that means I do have a master valve. As these zones (1 and 2) have always shut off in the past, I'm confident that that's the way the system should work. I'm a good student but hardly an informed one when it comes to this stuff and appreciate your help. The valve you feel may be stuck is the master or the one in the ground with the solenoid attached? Where wo...
Soggy Saga Part II What I did: 1. After some searching, I found the access to the valves and having removed all the dirt out of them, first washed then reset all solenoids(zones 1-2-3). 2. Tried it...problem still exists and I note that Zone 2 comes on and stays on with Zone 1 now (it may have before and I did not notice.) Zones 3-6 are working fine. What I did next: 1. So I've got what I believe to be one good spare solenoid (Hunter by the way with a Rain Bird ESP 8 controller) so I replace the...
Keith; Sorry I don't -- but how large a field are you going to be irrigating with one zone? Before having my six zone system installed, I ran four zones off a single manifold at an external bib with a simple in hose-line type timer as well as a manual off-on capability. It was cheap and worked quite well with up to five sprinkler heads on each zone. Then I got rich and lazy.... Bob
I've got 6 zones on my system and recently, zone 1 keeps running throughout the cycle (other come on and off okay.) Do I have a control valve problem? Note added: The zone does shut off at the end of the entire cycle...it is not running continuously as in a failed valve. Thanks for being such a great resource! Bob Edited by - Bob on Feb 17 2003 07:45:12 AM
