Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Sprinkler Valve Repair Problem


Hi Craig. Found you via Google search. So here goes.

I have a system with 5 stations. 2 on the front yard and 3 on the back.

The front box has 3 valves (2 are direct wired to the timer) and the rear box has 3 valves.

Here is the issue. The 3rd valve in the front box is not getting a signal to allow the water to run to the back box to run the 3 separate stations, hence no rear sprinklers.

I know the 3rd valve connects to the white or common wire, but where does the 2nd wire connect?

All three valve wires are direct from the box through this box to each valve in the back box.

What am I missing?

Appreciate your help.

-->Eric

Hi Eric,

Every solenoid valve requires two wires to open electrically. One wire is the 'common” which connects to each solenoid, and a 'terminal' wire which connects to one of the numbered station terminals.

Except for the last valve on the electrical run, each common connection is a “3-way” splice, This means that the common brings power into, and out of, each valve until you reach the final valve where it ends.

If you have only one common wire in the controller, than this common will connect to all of the valves, front and back.

If the common wire goes to the front valve manifold first and then goes to the back valves, the problem is likely that the splice where the common wires leaves the front boxes and continues to the back is bad. If you don't know from which direction the common enters and leaves the front box, re-splice all the valves in the front box.

If that does not work, you may have a bad splice where the common enters the rear manifold so re-splice that as well.


If you still are not getting power to the back valves, depending on where the controller is located, you could run a new common from the front valves, or run a second common from the controller to the rear valves.

I hope this helps with your sprinkler valve repair.

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