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Tuesday, July 26th 2011, 3:10am
....
I get a call from a guy. He said he installed a new timer assuming that would take care of the problem. Well it didn't. He said it's an apartment complex with 30 to 40 units. I don't like apartment complexes but I go over there.
He shows me the new controller. It's a Home Depot Toro 12 station. He had combined an 8 station and a 12 station into one 12 station. So 20 valves on a 12 station. There's a fuse warning in the window. I'm thinking, there's part of the problem right there. He didn't write down what color goes where and states that 4 of the wires might have been hooked up before.
He then proceeds to show me around to all the valve boxes. It didn't take long for me to realise he's shown me more than 20 valves. So I point it out to him. He says, each wire is running two valves. So basically, they're trying to run 30+ valves on a 12 station timer. Even 4 valves at once. It turns out that this guy built the complex some 20 years ago and they installed it intentionally with 1 hot wire per every two valves to save money.
To make things worse he fiddled with the ground wires in the boxes. Stating the some of the ground wires were white and they should be blue.
So there's at least 12 valve boxes in 5 different locations with 4 bundles of wires at the controller.
This should be fun.....
He shows me the new controller. It's a Home Depot Toro 12 station. He had combined an 8 station and a 12 station into one 12 station. So 20 valves on a 12 station. There's a fuse warning in the window. I'm thinking, there's part of the problem right there. He didn't write down what color goes where and states that 4 of the wires might have been hooked up before.
He then proceeds to show me around to all the valve boxes. It didn't take long for me to realise he's shown me more than 20 valves. So I point it out to him. He says, each wire is running two valves. So basically, they're trying to run 30+ valves on a 12 station timer. Even 4 valves at once. It turns out that this guy built the complex some 20 years ago and they installed it intentionally with 1 hot wire per every two valves to save money.
To make things worse he fiddled with the ground wires in the boxes. Stating the some of the ground wires were white and they should be blue.
So there's at least 12 valve boxes in 5 different locations with 4 bundles of wires at the controller.
This should be fun.....
