There are 3 possible reasons that backing off the coil helped. 1. The coil's plunger has a rubber piece on the bottom that has become deformed. Sometimes the rubber swells out and closes the gap between the plunger and the hole it covers when the coil is not engaged. Take a very sharp razor and trim the swelled out part. Be sure to trim it very level or it may fail but this time in the open position. 2. The diaphragm is bad. When the diaphragm goes bad it begins to allow more (or in some cases less) water to pass by it than the coil can handle. Small micro holes in the diaphragm, plugged holes in the diaphragm or the metering hole in the diaphragm are reasons this may happen. When I said before your diaphragms were bad this was a broad statement. Taking apart one valve and checking the diaphragm may have fixed your problem by removing sediment or dirt that was causing too little water to bleed past the diaphragm. 3. This one is rare and hard to fix but in rare cases (happened to me the other day for the first time in 2+years) the hole the plunger covers has moved up. This hole (in most valves) is a plastic or stainless insert that the plunger closes off. For some reason this insert moves up just a tiny bit. Now when the plunger gets pulled up by the coil there isn't enough clearance between the hole and plunger and the valve will not open. My guess is your diaphragm(s) will fail on you again sometime soon, one day to 2 years, and will need to be replaced. The job is very simple just be careful to not let any dirt get in the valve or screw holes. Good luck, Tom

Try the following irrigation forum posting for some ideas: Where are the valves? Â Posted by: SreeRam_TX Z7 TX on Fri, Jun 17, 05 at 10:28

This is my second year using drip irrigation products. I have forty 4 gallon pots on three seperate systems. I turn the pump on every other day for about 6 hours. Moisture is checked often by a moisture meter I bought and IT WORKS. My irrigation equipment came from Drip Depot, on the web, no catalog. I have improved my system by usung more 1/2 inch leader hoses with quarter inch coming off for individual pots. I used four 1/2 Gal. per hour 180 degree sprayers for my short row crops, beets, swiss chard, collards and turnips. I did find buying cleanable emitters helps considerably. The cost is negligable, a few cents.The small dripper type have a tendency to clog up with my well water in spite of filters. The cleanable emitters have a removeable disc that cleans well in hot water and dish washing detergent. I hope this will help you.

I just became confused on this too. You should have a line in and then at each sprinkler valve a line that goes to that zone. Where does the line on the out valve lead to? Do you have another set of valves somewhere? Could that be used to siphon out the lines? (being in florida Im not familiar with set-ups to drain the lines)