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drhod

New Member

1

Friday, April 15th 2011, 7:20am

Valve won't turn on

Hello, I am a relative noob to irrigation and I am trying to chase down a gremlin in my new installation. Any help is greatly appreciated as I have already stumped the technical assistance at Rainbird. I installed a 4 zone system. 2 rotor zones and two spray zones surrounding my home. All but one of the rotor zones will turn on with the controller. This zone will turn on when I manually turn on the valve or open the bleeder valve. However, when I turn the controller to that valve and enter a few minutes and press 'start', I hear the solenoid working, but no water is coming out of the rotors = no flow. This zone is 5 rotors and is situated about +/- 2'-3' higher than where the valve is located. My controller is a Rainbird ESP indoor Modular. The valve is a "standard" Rainbird 1". I do not have the model information with me at the moment...but these valves seem to run the spray zones and one other rotor zone just fine. In an effort to this problem I have taken the following measures.

-Switched the wire at the controller from a different zone to that one, did not work.

-Switched the solenoid at the valver from a different zone to that one. The solenoid was fine, but that particular zone still will not fire.

-Switched the "guts" from a different zone into that one. The other zone fired just fine, still nothing on the problem zone.

-Tested the current being delivered to the zone. If I remember correctly, I was getting approximately 27.5 - 28 V. The rainbird tech. assistance said that was well withing the operable range. Still nothing

-Hooked that valve up to a new piece of wire incase there was a short somewhere....? No change, zone will not fire.



All that being done already, what am I overlooking here? What could it be. I am, truly stumped and could really use and advice offered. Thanks in advance for the assistance!

-

drhod

New Member

2

Friday, April 15th 2011, 7:52am

oops...

Sorry, I just realized I posted this in the wrong area. I have re-posted this to the troubleshooting portion of the forum. Thanks!

Mitchgo

Supreme Member

Posts: 502

Location: Seattle

3

Friday, April 15th 2011, 7:56am

What rain bird valve is it?

Well , you've done an awesome job troubleshooting.

There is nothing left other then the valve body, something is wrong with it and not letting the diaphram to pull up when turned on electrically. Sorry but I think you should take out the entire valve and replace it with a new one.

drhod

New Member

4

Friday, April 15th 2011, 10:50am

ughhh, I was afraid somebody was going to come back with that. It's glued into my manifold. I truly hate to take it apart...bummer. I looked it up on the rainbird web site. I am "pretty sure" it is a 100DV/DVF. That is the valve that looks the most similar to what I have installed. I will verify this evening when I get back to the house but I think that is what it is...

mrfixit

Moderator

Posts: 1,510

Location: USA

5

Friday, April 15th 2011, 12:21pm

I don't know what will happen with this valve if it's installed backwards but maybe that's the case. Look to see what side the solenoid's on compared to the other valves.

When you said you swapped out the guts did you swap out the entire bonnet? If not try that.

Could be a piece of debris clogging a port in the valve body.

Could be the pipe itself is totally clogged. Rare but Ive seen it done. I found a plastic bag inside the pipe once.

drhod

New Member

6

Friday, April 15th 2011, 1:22pm

Mr. fixit, I am positive it isn't a water flow problem or a clogged pipe because I can turn the valve on manually. The valve is definitely installed in the correct position; with water coming into the correct side. I have not switched out the entire bonnet yet. Good suggestion, I will give that a try this evening. Thanks!

mrfixit

Moderator

Posts: 1,510

Location: USA

7

Friday, April 15th 2011, 3:29pm

While you have the bonnet off look at the port below where the solenoid would sit. On the valve body itself. If that port is clogged the valve wont function and you will still be able to turn it on manually. The water gets to the solenoid differently than it does for the bleeder screw.

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