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Auto Sprinkler system HELP!! .....with photos.

18 years ago

Nancy and bought our home from the original owners last winter. Now that the rains have stopped it's time to turn the auto sprinkler system on. I'm clueless as I've never owned such a system. I had the controller unplugged for winter and though we'd never used the system, it absolutely had to be operational prior to winter since the extensive garden and all grass areas were perfectly healthy.

I figured I'd just have to power up the control and turn it on to be in business but here's what happened...

I programmed the controller to start and nothing happened. I went and checked the main water line, found it to be off so turned it on. At that time, all the many sprinklers started going though I didn't have them all programmed to. I tried to turn the system off from the control and nothing changed. I unplugged the controller and nothing changed either.

I remembered seeing some green sprinkler gizmo housings so I went to the one in the front yard and found it full of water with these solenoid looking things disconnected and water shooting out from where they should have been attached. I'm assuming that this is why the controller didn't do anything. There were also two knobs that I don't know the function of as well as on/off levers that should go between the solenoids and the rest of the assembly.

At that point I turned the main water line off and I want to get this all set correctly before trying it again. The only instructions I have are for the control panel.

Can someone please explain the settings of these knobs for me so I can save the garden shown?

http://members.roadfly.com/canyonlands/control.jpg

http://members.roadfly.com/canyonlands/mainline.jpg

http://members.roadfly.com/canyonlands/valves.jpg

http://members.roadfly.com/canyonlands/fourthofback.jpg

http://members.roadfly.com/canyonlands/thirdofside.jpg

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Comments (3)

Ron_in_Utah
Original Author
18 years ago
I got it up and running like a dream!

Thanks,

Ron
Wasatch Mountain Range, Utah
more_to_grow
18 years ago
Well, the solenoids (shown lying on the ground outside the valve box) should be threaded into the fairly obvious locations on the valves. The knobs in the center of the valves are called flow controls and will regulate the amount of water that passes through valve when it is open; more than likely these could be left where they are. The screws indicated in your picture are manual bleed screws these can be used to manually actuate your valve (turn it on/off).

As for why there are both a ball valve and a gate valve, who knows perhaps whimsy on the part of the installer or some situation where an additional valve was necessary; maybe the gate valve leaks?

I would recommend you thread the solenoids into the valves and fire the system up, it should work. The only issue I see is that the valves may not correspond correctly with the indicated position within the clock; some trial and error may be necessary to get the solenoids back where they belong.
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Merry, When you said you couldn't turn it on manually was that from the manual button on the controller or manually by slightly unscrewing the solenoid at each valve? Can you find the electrical connection points for each solenoid wire? Is there water in the valve boxes? After manually turning on all the zones at the solenoids and you are successful with that method, remove and reconnect all the terminals wires in the controller. Let me know what happens and we can continue from that point. The more precise description you can give the better. Aloha.
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tm, Hardie Controller(how old?) and Hunter heads are respectable brands. Heads can be any brand. Hunter have a very good reputation but less expensive ones will do. Check what the model # of head is and check on the internet for the flow rate for that model. You will need to know your water pressure(zone operating pressure. Are these rotor heads or regular pop ups? The head in the down position should be low enough in the lawn not to be hit from the lowest setting of your mower. Mine are about flush or a little lower than the earth. I don't want the dirt coming back in the line when the irrigation goes off and the lines start to empty. Aloha
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Let start with the easyest thing first. If you look in the controler there should be 7 wires, the six red and 1 white. the red ones will be connected to the numberd terminals and the white one will be connected to the terminal labeled comm. This wire connects all the valvesand it sounds like a bad connection at the first valve or a broken wire. There should be a main valve and backflow assembly probably near the water meter and the missing valves will be near the begining of each zone. I am also including the link to my site where I have a guide that goes into more detail about systems. I hope this helps. Here is a link that might be useful: gardenweb
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Hope this is still active. I have my sprinkler system controller in my garage. I have valves for the front yard sprinklers and valves for the back. My controller will still turn on front yard sprinklers, but not the backyard. It usedan to wor fine. The connections seem tight at the controller. Don't see any loose connections by the valves though it is somewhat complex looking at there. The valves will turn on the sprinklers if turned manually. How can I check for loose connections versus wire shortages. Not sure if relevant, but we (gardener) did change front yard sprinkler stations prior to the backyard issue started. But I can't remember if the backyard sprinklers were working after that for a short period of time or not. Thanks for any help.
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eltigre
18 years ago
Congrats!!! Nothing like a working automatic sprinkler system!

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