I have a Rainbird system with 4 zones: 2 in front and 2 in
back. Each zone has between 5-6 heads. The 2 zones in back work just fine. The 2
zones in front are the issue—the pressure has dropped recently. When each of
the front zones is on, a couple of the heads pop up and put out a little water while most of the other heads
don’t pop up at all. The ones that don’t pop up still put out water. And on the
ones that don’t pop up, if I manually pull them up, they just drop right back
down when I let go.
I tried to test this weekend for any leaks. I ran each zone
for several minutes but didn’t see any obvious wet spots. I also ran each zone
manually via turning the solenoid and still saw the same low pressure. So my
next guess is a tree root. Before I go digging up my yard, I just want to make
sure there’s nothing obvious that I’m missing. Is it still possible that it
could be a simple replacement of the two valves and/or solenoids? Thanks for any help!
Just for visual aid, here’s my valve control box (the water is from opening the bleed screws):