Problem with sprinkler system - Any ideas?

RichUT

RichUT

250+ Posts
So a few weeks ago, my Dad accidentally ripped off the water spout from the front of the house. We had to turn the water off at the street until we could get a plumber over to fix it the next day.

The one thing I didn't remember to do until around 5 in the morning was to turn off our sprinkler system, which started at 4. Whoops.

I left it off until this weekend, with the assumption that everything was ok. Turns out, it's not. The sprinkler system won't turn on. The control panel thinks the system is running, but the heads are not popping up and no water is coming out.

So, before I pay to bring out someone to fix it, I thought I would consult the wisdom of HornFans in hopes of an easy fix.
 
in the excitement, somebody shut off the supply valve to the sprinkler manifold, and forgot to turn it back on.
 
The only thing we turned off was the main water line at the street. We had to use the city side because the valve on our side is broken. Nobody turned off anything else.

Where would I find the supply valve to the manifold or the backflow device?

Could either of these have been turned off by the system when it tried to run with no water?
 
Ok. First, determine if the valves are getting water. They usually have a manual override to the low voltage electric clock.

Look for a small (3/8 inch diameter) screw under the larger star flow valve. OR on top of that valve. When you open that small screw, the sprinklers on that zone should turn on. Try that and report back.
 
57461_128.jpg

OK, on this one the small black screw dealie on the right is the manual override

57623_128.jpg

On this one the lever in the middle is the override. do these look like what you have?
 
Running the system without water will not damage anything. This sounds like one of two things: the plumber who repaired the outside facuet turned off the supply line to the valaves or perhaps the wiring connections to the valves from the control panel may be loose/disconnected.

Can you manually turn on the valves and verify that water is in the system?
 
BigWill, I found the thing you posted about (under lots of dirt. Valve box cover has a hole and the valve is buried) and turned the screw. Water shot out of that zone. Nice work. What now?

96 Buff, the plumber didn't show until the next day, and didn't touch the water supply at all until he had finished his repair. All the wiring looks good at the control box, and the fact that I know nothing about sprinkler systems prevents me from knowing where else to look. As mentioned above, the manual override did make the zone go off and water did in fact come out.

Blain, found the backflow device and it looks just like the one pictured. (Both hadles running parrallel with the pipe looking thing) Live in NW Austin, no clue when it was installed, and I don't know why the owner's water line valve is broken, but there is no handle to turn that would shut off the water. I'm perfectly happy to use the city's shut off valve.

Thanks for the advice so far. Would be great to get this solved without hiring a professional.
 
If you have water in you system, and can get the zones to run by manually turning the valver, it is your controler. I would go to Home Depot and get a new controler. Power iut up with only one zone and if it works, there is your answer. My girlfriend had this problem with her system and this fixed it.
 
Yeah, that's what I was referring to, the programmable box. I would look to make sure that there wasn't any damage done to the wiring while the repair was being done to the broken faucet.
 
Can you manually turn on each valve to see if you truly do have water in the system? There should be a (typically) black cylindrical object on the top of your valve that you turn by hand which will turn on that zone. If you turn that and water comes out, then there's something wrong with the controller itself or with the wiring.

Was the system functioning properly prior to the faucet problem?
 
Like stated above, you have a bad controller or faulty wiring.

Try running as temporary jumper wires to a zone. Disconnect existing ground and control wire from valve and controller and run a new wire above ground to test controller. If zone comes on you have faulty wiring, if same problem as before get a new controller.
 
Rain guage? It should keep the system from turning on and you said the electronics act like they are on, so it is probably not the issue, but make sure it is not causing the problem.

Intake valve? My controller has a control for intate valves as well that can be set to ON or OFF. I don't know if it is for wells or is just another way to keep water out of the system, but make sure tthat yours is set to ON if you have one.

I don't believe the controller is fried if it shows that it is turning each valve on at the correct time and keeps time, etc.
 
Did you run the sprinkler system ths year before you had the water problem? Try to power the controller box off for a while then power it back on again, then try to run an individual zone from the control box.

As someone mentioned above, if you have a rain sensor it could be overriding the controller if you have been getting a lot of rain lately. If your controller is a newer one it may have a switch to disengage the rain sensor, try flipping it if you have one, then try to start a zone from the controller.

Try to start every zone individualy from the controller. All valves have solenoids that can go bad and when that happens the controller cant start them. You may be unlucky and just trying the one that may have a bad solenoid(if that is your problem).

Check the wiring. Every valve should have an individual wire that goes back to the controller and a common wire (usually white) that goes to every valve. Usually there are splices in the common wire. I would check all of the connections at each valve and at where the common wire splices together. Also check the controller where the wiring attaches to it for a good connection.
 
Here's a third for the rain sensor, mine has a manual override switch that stays that way until you reset it. About 3 weeks ago I had the same thing (controller acted like zones were on, they weren't) and just had to flip the switch...
 
Good bet that the rain sensor is real close to where the leak occurred. The cork inside the sensor is probably waterlogged.
 
My controller has no rain sensor switch, so I'm guessing I have no rain sensor on my system.

Checked a couple of different valves and was able to turn them on with the little screw thing inside the valve box. System has water for sure.

Yes, I have run it this year prior to the water incident, and it worked fine. However, I did notice a few weeks ago that the settings on my controller were all out of whack. The day/time was wrong, the system was set to water every day, and the times were too short. I fixed it all and it worked after that, but still found this to be odd.

I'll try unplugging it for awhile and plugging it back in.

Thanks for all the help guys.
 
Have you verified that the wiring is connected at all the valves? It's possible that they may have been damaged during the repair, like stated above. Or, it could be a faulty although it's odd that it went wacky around the same time as repairs were being done.
 
On the repairs, the only thing he did was cut a hole in the sheet rock on the inside bedroom wall behind the faucet location. He ran a new piece of copper pipe to the exterior of the house (maybe 9 inches worth) and attached a new facuet. Then he turned the water back on at the street.

I can't imagine he came anywhere near any of my sprinkler valves by doing that. He was inside my house 95% of the total time he was there.
 
Ok, here is a simple way to check you clock and your underground wiring:

Get a digital readout multimeter from Radio Shack or Home Depot for about $30.

Turn off or unplug your controller and open it to where you can access the wiring.

Set the meter to read resistance, the lowest, or most sensitive, level is what you want, usually 0-2K ohms.

Place one lead on the common terminal (COM), it's usually a white wire. One by one test the station wires with the other lead. You should get readings of between 20 and 60 ohms depending on the brand of valves you have. If you get a 0 or OL reading on any of them, you have an open line on that zone. Note any readings that aren't in the above scale. I have a funny feeling you might get open line on all of them.

While you are in there, check to see if there is actually a rain sensor wired into your system. Just because you don't have a rain sensor switch on the control panel doesn't mean you don't have one anyway. It will be two terminals next to each other with sensor or SENS or something like that with wires on them. Lots of times these wires are speaker wire, clear. Test the resistance across that too, if you have. Should NOT give an open line reading. If you do get an open line reading here, just disconnect the wires and put a short jumper on the two terminals and try again. Some newer systems are installed with wireless rain sensors, but those are usually high end enough systems to have the override switch on the console.

Now, go to ACV for AC voltage, turn the clock back on and manually go through the stations using the same approach. You are checking to insure the clock is sending out the appropriate voltage to each zone when it should. There is a step down transformer from 110 to 24 volts, so you aren't dealing with voltage that could be fatal, but a zap from it might make your curlies curlier.

You should be getting 26.5 or so on each station. If you aren't, check your fuse, if your clock has one.

Lots of things can be going on here, but its most likely electrical in nature, since your main line is charged, or you wouldn't have gotten water through the one valve you have. I also doubt the system has a master valve, being equipped with a double check valve, and since you were able to manually get results without having powered the system to activate a master valve.

If I had to guess, its either the controller is bad, bad fuse, or you have a break in your common between the clock and the closest valve to it wire wise.

Let me know the results of your test. And what kind of clock you have.

Lastly folks...you are much better off going to an irrigation supply house for a real timer, and not getting the PC crap they sell at HD, Lowe's, etc. Rainbird LX clocks have been really dependable and available through ebay and other online sources as well for a better price than you would get as a walk in in a irrigation shop.

And forgive the outdated sig....i really should change it.
 
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