Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Irrigation Controller Lightning Strike






I've had "sprinkler repair" techs tell me that they shy away from installing digital controllers (which save water and money) because they are often ruined by lightning.

I'm here to tell you, mechanical or digital, when lightning strikes, they all get ruined. Blown to bits is blown to bits.

After this sprinkler controller problem, the surge traveled down the wires, burnt those and shattered the mainline. All four Rainbird solenoids were fried as well.

After repairing the mainline and lateral, I replaced the burnt section of wire and placed the splices in two valve boxes for ease of maintenance later.

Because the 120 volt outlet was burned as well, meaning the new controller would not run the valves, I used my sprinkler valve solonold activator to determine which wire ran which zone.

Click the link for more diy sprinkler system information.

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