A good guide is to irrigate to the point when the water starts to run off OR you have got 1/2 inch of irrigation, whichever occurs first. You can determine the inches part by setting out some straight-sided cans or jars, running the system for 30 minutes and measuring the height of water in the jars with a ruler. The reading expresses, as inches of rain, how much irrigation has occured. If there is a significant difference in any of the containers, this would point up a "dry/wet" spot or malfunctioning head. When the system is running, it should look like a light rain.

It's common, all right -- you messed up the common wire. It needs to be connected to each of the valves, and all the valves need to be connected to each other. If I had to guess I'd say you lost a wire in the splice with the common, or you cut the common wire that runs away from that valve to the next one in the line.

deb, Are you willing to do the troubleshooting? Run the first zone manually by the controller. Does the zone run thru the full time without stopping? If it stops, how many minutes go by until it happens? Now run the zone manually by turning on the solenoid counterclockwise slightly until the zone 1 water comes on and run it for the full zone time. At the end of the run time turn the solenoid until the water stops, do not over tighten, just enough to shut the zone off. Does the unscheduled shut-off still happen? If all the other zones work fine and zone 1 works fine from the solenoid, there is probably a loose wire somewhere. Check the wire connection at the controller (redo do it). Then check the screw cap wire connections (hot and neutral) at the zone 1 auto-valve (should be in its valve box) (redo them with a waterproof screw cap). JMHO Aloha

All of his solenoids are working with timer's manual operation, so the issue has to be timer internal or with the automatic programming. I read the directions on Permanent Days Off. If they are set to OFF watering will not occur on any days. They all need to be set to ON. "In some areas, watering is prohibited on specific days of the week. If you are using an ODD/EVEN or CYCLIC watering cycle, you can set these days off so you wonâÂÂt violate watering restrictions. 1. Select a program that has an ODD/EVEN or CYCLIC watering cycle (not a CUSTOM cycle). 2. Turn the dial to the day of the week you want to turn OFF. 3. Press OFF. âÂÂDAY ALWAYS OFFâ scrolls across the display. Watering will never occur on this day of the week, regardless of the watering cycle or program. 4. To turn the day of the week back on, press ON. 5. Turn the dial to AUTO."