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Loss of Water Pressure

hmarx

Unregistered

1

Tuesday, July 31st 2012, 9:47am

Loss of Water Pressure

I'm having issues with the water pressure with my sprinkler system.
When the system turns on the heads barely trickle any water out on any of the 5 zones but my water meters red triangle spins like crazy. I have turned the system off and rechecked my water meter and the red triangle does not move so I don't believe there is a leak on the main supply to the sytem. I manually turned on each zone and none of them come on other than a slight trickle of water that bubbles up from a few heads. On Zone 3 there was a very large puddle of water at the lowest head so I was thinking it was possibly a bad valve. My assumption was that if the valve on zone 3 was bad my system is trying to run two zones at once when the other zones are on. My other assumption was if I just turn on zone 3 that would be the only one that would work since that was corrupting the water pressure but no luck. I've turned my system completely off inclucding the main water supply and my yard was completely dry within 36 hours. Any troubleshooting tips to determine the issue?

hmarx

New Member

Posts: 2

2

Tuesday, July 31st 2012, 9:53am

I forgot to register first so I am replying to make sure I get notiifcations on responses.

GatorGuy

Moderator

Posts: 458

3

Tuesday, July 31st 2012, 10:30am

A few guesses.
Do you have a master valve?
If so, you have a main line leak somewhere after the master valve but before the others. If it were after the zone valve then the other zones would work. Since none work and the red triangle spins rapidly while water barely trickles out then the break is before the zone valves.
That puddle at the end of zone 3 could be as simple as low head seepage or could be an indicator of where your leak is.
Since you manually turned them on with no improvement you eliminated the solenoids as potential problems.

I guess I should ask if you are in a free area and if your system was winterized. If so and the bleed screws are still open then trying to feed all 5 zones could result in the trickle you see.

Your system won't try to run two valves at once unless you wire it that way or the wires crossed somehow.

hmarx

New Member

Posts: 2

4

Tuesday, July 31st 2012, 11:02am

I'm not sure what "free area" means but I live in GA and other than shutting of my system at the panel and the master water supply I don't hire anyone to winterize my system. I am not the original home owner so I'm unsure if there is a master valve or not. I can see all 5 of my valve box covers for my 5 zones but don't see a 6th anywhere. They are divided into two groups (3 in the front yard and 2 on the other side of the driveway). What's weird is that the leak is by the side of the house which is not even close or in-line with the main water supply and either set of valves. If I turn the main water supply on again and look for the pooling water I'm assuming that will at least give me an idea of where to dig? Any other suggestions?

GatorGuy

Moderator

Posts: 458

5

Tuesday, July 31st 2012, 11:20am

sorry about the typo.
"free" should have been 'freeze'.
Look in your controller.
You should have 1 wire for each zone and one common wire.
See if you have another wire hooked up to a connection labeled either PUMP or MV or MASTER or P/M.
If you do and you are not running off a pump then you have a master valve.

Your leak could be several feet away from where the water bubbles up. People on this forum have said they found them 20 to 30 feet away from where the water shows.

Do you have a backflow on the system? It would indicate where at least part of the main line runs. The main line for the system doesn't have to be anywhere near the main line to the house.

A couple of the pros will probably come in on this later today with other ideas. Might be worth the wait.

Unfortunately sometimes turning it on and waiting for the swamp is the only way to find them.

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