Found to be very helpful and easy to understand. Only improvement would have been more of an explanation on connecting the station wiring. One of the better ones I have seen in a long time.
Nicely done, Kerry. I just moved into a home with an existing system similar to yours, and I was watching your video just as a heads-up attempt at solving problems down the road. You have a great teaching manner. Thanks.
From Christy's website: A primer is used to penetrate and soften the surfaces of the pipe and fittings so that they can be fused together. Good solvent cemented joints can be made without a primer in certain pipe applications if local codes permit. We recommend that joints being made without a primer only be used for pressure water systems below 4" and for DWV or low pressure applications 6" or smaller. You are correct but I still prefer using primer.
Good point. I almost did cut out the manifold but cost was a big issue for the homeowners. If it would have been faster and cheaper to cut out the manifold and rebuild it I would have done it that way. The fittings in the manifold looked good so I went with replacing the valves.
Good luck! Rain Bird has discontinued the union valves shown in the video. I've gone to using Action manifolds and Rain Bird 100DVF sprinkler valves. Here's a link to a video using this type of setup and affiliate links to parts used. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-WpetroPws10.html
Or $92 for each diaphragm (scrubber for reclaimed water) on the rain bird 100PGA lines that's why I'm replacing them all. Even the non-scrubber is $50 and they all leak at the diaphragm after about 7 years.
I agree to a certain point. Normally I would cut out the whole manifold and start over, but in this repair cost was a major issue for the home owners. They wanted the repair done as cheaply and quickly as possible so I used the minimum of parts to get the job done.
They are right that if a pipe is full of water and freezing that the poly would do better because it could expand a little bit and not break. PVC is more rigid so if the same situation occurred it would fail sooner. You are correct that if a system is winterized properly it wouldn't be an issue with either the Poly or the PVC. Given a choice between a sprinkler system installed with Poly pipe versus one with PVC pipe, I would take the PVC sprinkler system every time.
Thank you…I find , when I’m…not feeling quite.. so , at my best, a little down.. we’ll I just re-play your video, and my day becomes brighter..thank you , until we meet again..
Good vid! I do irrigation too. Rainbird's are my go to valve... I was taught they are the best on the market and 5 years later I still agree... never tried those threaded union style though, that's pretty tricky I like it. Typically I will glue everything, then use a 1" female threaded DV-100, with a 1" male adapter , but there's "no second chances", a lot of the time anyway... it's kinda set in stone, with those, if they drip slightly your still in the game....interesting... thank for sharing
Unfortunately Rain Bird discontinued the 100DVF-UU valve. Not sure why because it was my favorite valve. I like having unions on the valves in case there is a valve problem, so I'll probably look into the Action manifolds.
iScaper1 Really huh? That's too bad, I rather like how the o-ring based union is right on the valve... with Action manifolds... I'm still on the fence. I did a re&re last season with them. Well, I tellya what it WAS SLOW. And awkward trying make a configuration match the crazy set up in the field I was revamping. I thought it'd be a snap, but turns out when I got the pre-made manifold all together, it did not align well with the original main line, cause it was never made plumb, so it was tough... Had it have been a new project, from scratch, it would be different. I'm not set in stone but, so far my line of thinking of is, for a 2 or 3 maybe even 4 zone job, I am going to stick with building my own manifolds spacing valves with enough distance between for 1 cut & repair. For larger jobs, 5+ zones, maybe start going with manifolds. The thing that kind of bothers me, is, that - o rings DO FAIL. One should source out the exact o rings compatible with a valve set, and provide the customer with a second set, as a bonus value added service. Can you even buy o-rings for them, specifically? If so, for how long? Are they standard? Everything has it's pro's and cons. If you think of how many valve jobs you've done, and how few of them were Rainbird DV valves.... most of the time when a Rainbird fails, you simply rebuild it from the outside, in... and you're good to go for another ten years, the bodies rarely warp, especially if compared to a 4 bolt Nelson... so, with that said, if you build a brand new manifold with o-ring style valves, what will go first, the o-rings in the manifold, or the base body of the DV valve?
KyleCarrington Excellent points. There's also the matter of cost. I agree with you that if the whole manifold has to be rebuilt, that then it would be a good time to use a manifold system like Action or Dura, but if the customer has cost restraints and only one valve or two needs to be replaced that is a good time to use the existing manifold with a new threaded valve or build a manifold with male adapters. I have built my own manifolds just to save a customer money. I also agree with you that if you have Rain Bird valves most times you don't have to mess with the manifold to complete the repair, it is just a matter of replacing the faulty valve parts.
iScaper1 We think a lot alike, I enjoy your videos and pick up little things here and there, it's great. Keep up the vids! I'll probably make one or two this season too.. I'm doing an interesting project... it's gonna be Eco-Lawn, that'll be left to grow long... interesting stuff. My first time. www.waidy.com has some great photos of what it looks like - no connection/affiliation top me whatsoever, just a good example, online. I've been scratching my head over it... cause the grass WILL be substantially taller... I thought about using RB 5006's their 6" popup, but at the end of the day, after talking to the guys at Wildflower Farm the folks that make Eco-Lawn.. I'm going to go with 5004's but I've told the customer that if it doesn't work out well, we'll be putting coconut fiber disks around each head to improve things.
KyleCarrington What kind of grass is used in the Eco-lawn? Do you ever mow it or just let it grow? In my area people are trying Buffalo grass as an alternative to common grass types. My sod supplier is developing varieties of Kentucky Bluegrass that are more drought tolerant and water efficient.
I live in Salt Lake City and the temperature ranges from below zero to 100 degrees. The only valve I've seen temperature affect is the Hunter Jar Top valve. Cold weather affects the tightening collar on this valve to where it won't seal the top half of the valve with the bottom half.
You open the valve manually by twisting the solenoid a 1/4 to 1/2 turn counter-clockwise. This opens the valve manually and is done with no power from the timer. The small knob your referring to is either the flow control in the center of the valve, or the manual bleed screw. I'm not sure which one you're referring to. With the flow control you can shut the valve off, and with the bleed screw you can also open the valve manually.
Adding in valves is not to difficult if you're working with PVC pipe. It can be more difficult if you're working with galvanized pipe. Do you have spare timer wires to work with in your current configuration? If not it can turn into a project getting the extra timer wires needed to the new valves.
Sounds like you know what you're doing. Most of the under performing systems I've worked on have too many heads on zones and will often have mixed heads, rotors with spray heads. I haven't had good luck with the Irritrol valves. You might want to try the Rain Bird 100DVF valve the next time you need to change out a sprinkler valve.
Yup,old Rainbird valves. I often take off the top so they spin off easier. Those union valves aren't available from our supplier where I work, seems a lot easier to use... Nice to see a video where the guy knows his stuff, seen a lot of bad info on the tube. Been at to 30yrs...
They were my favorite valve until Rain Bird discontinued them. They still make the 100DVF but not the 100DVFUU. Thanks for the comments and the feedback.
@Signguyaz It could be that the valve with low flow isn't opening completely. First make sure the flow control (if the valve has one) is completely open. Next open the valve manually and see if you have good flow in the zone with the sprinkler valve opened manually. If you do, it could be that the solenoid isn't opening the valve completely when it receives power from the timer. In this case replace the solenoid. Let me know if this works.
Is your valve an anti-siphon valve? Does the valve leak? You hit the valve with a hammer because? What make and model valve is it? You should be able to find the info on the top of the valve.
How would you do this? Wouldn't you just end up with a bunch of mud and rocks getting back into the system if you turned on the water without anything attached to the manifold?
If your sprinkler line is shaped line a "U", it wouldn't be too difficult. You would make a cut on either side of the tee and cap the lines so that you isolate one line from the other, then add the new valve to the side without the existing valve. If the sprinkler line is a straight off the valve, then it becomes much more difficult. You would have to run a new line from the new valve and connect in somewhere behind sprinkler head 3.
You suggest rainbird? Shoot....I replaced all my sprinkler heads with Orbit. I have not touched the valves yet but I need to since the box is full of water
I'm sure if it is Poly pipe you don't hammer the Poly pipe into the valve. The inlet to the sprinkler valve is probably female IPS threads or slip for gluing PVC pipe. You would need to make a transition from Poly pipe to a Poly male adapter if the valve has threads, or from Poly to PVC pipe if the valve is a slip inlet. This could be why the valve is blowing off if I understand your problem correctly.
Awesome video!!! I live in Michigan, and we have pretty cold winters. My understanding is that PVC is ok for the manifold, but the preferred method for lateral lines is POLY. I read several of your comments, and you prefer PVC pipe for the entire system. Can you please explain why?
Schedule 40 PVC pipe has a higher psi rating than poly pipe, 480psi vs 160psi. In my experience poly pipe that has been installed for a number of years has a tendency to become brittle and fail. Hose clamps and pinch clamps used to attach fittings to pipe also tend to rust and fail over time.
Ok good to know, thank you. I'm up in Canada and I've never used schedule 40 but I hear from some other contractors that doesn't fare as well in the cold... but couldn't that be because they're just not winterizing properly?
No! Don't file the threads. From what I can gather from your comments you have a Weathermaster 57624 sprinkler valve with threaded inlet and outlet. I'm guessing it's 1" female threads. Buy 2 Poly insert 1" male adapters and thread the male adapter portion of the fittings into the sprinkler valve. One in the inlet and one in the outlet. Then push the insert part of each fitting into your 2 Poly pipes. Then clamp the insert part of each fitting.
@JACQUESFAUST1 As the man said, replacement is for when you can no longer get diaphragms for old obsolete valves, which is pretty often. I for instance have a 15 yr old system that has Richdel R-201 valves that must have been sitting on the shelf for years before they were even installed. Find me diaphragms for those.
Thanks for posting. What is your advice for troubleshooting a sprinkler system that hadn't been turned on in in years? The timer is from the 80s and is not working which will be replaced, but I'm at a loss for what to do to get it ready for the spring. I'm also not sure where all the heads are at! HELP! Thanks.
Look at the timer and see how many station valves are wired up. Then go out in the yard and see if you can find the valve boxes. Valves in the boxes should equal stations wired up. Finding all the valves is good for future maintenance. Then turn water on. If your new timer is in manually start each station and this will pop up the heads and show any problems with each zone/circuit. If new timer isn't in you can open each valve manually and check the heads and general condition of the sprinkler system.
Definitely Schedule 40 pipe. Poly tubing requires insert fittings and clamps which are time consuming to work with. Also, Schedule 40 pipe will operate at much higher pressures than poly pipe.
Great video. I have a leaky valve. I tried replacing the diaphragm yesterday but the valve is still leaking which is also making one of the valves in that system leak as well. Do you recommend trying to replace the valve next? Not sure what to do next.
I would first try buying a new valve the same model as the old valve and taking the top half parts from the new valve and installing them on the bottom half of the old valve. I've had good luck doing this. If this step doesn't work you'll have to cut out the old valve.
2 questions: 1) did you map this out on paper first before building as the design is so clean compared to what i normally see, the second question is was freezing a problem in the past?
It's all PVC but i'm thinking of adding valves to existing line. Example: Valve 1 has 6 sprinklers. I want to have a valve control 3 of those sprinklers instead of all 6 on one valve. Make sense? I'm wondering if I have to dig up all the lines. Then how to add the valve to the control box. My rain bird timer has space for more valves and probably wouldn't be to hard to do that part.
Thank you for the video I have a question about my irrigation system I do not use it at all and right now there is a small leak on one of the valves I’m not sure out of the four which one it is. would it be safe to takeoff the valves and just cap off all 4 right there
Yes you could do it that way but the easiest way is to shut off the valve that supplies the sprinkler system. You'd need to do that anyway to cap off the sprinkler valves.
In this video did you conected each vlv individually or they run in secuence.....meaning one vlv supply electricidi to yhe next vlv.....I just put pavers inbmy house and I cap the end of the sprinkler heads, but I am concerne they leak.....If I didsconect that zone from the cables the rest of the sprinklers would work? Thanks
Each valve is wired separately except for the common wire. The timer waters each valve in sequence. You can disable any valve by removing one wire connected to the solenoid.
You'd need to make at least one cut downstream from the sprinkler valve. Another option you could try is to buy a new valve identical to current valve and replace top half of old sprinkler valve with top half of new sprinkler valve.
You made that look easy! I have a question though, I have 5 valves in the box. 4 we just got replaced with new ones. My question is if I have 5 valves shouldn't I have 5 modules working in the sprinkler system box? I have a rainbird.
If you have the ESP Modular timer, it comes out of the box able to run four valves. You would need one module installed to run the 5th valve. Check that you have 5 stations/valves wired at the timer, and check that you have a common wire from the valves connected to the common terminal on the timer. Whoever replaced the valves should have checked that everything is wired correctly and works.
iScaper1 thank you for the reply. It did take me all day to figure out that in fact, there are only 4 zones connected in the timer box! (before yesterday I knew absolutely nothing about sprinkler systems and how they worked. I had to look on here to figure it out!) I looked at it closer and I think the reason why they didn't hook up the 5th one is because the first 'cluster' only has 4 slots to put 4 zones on it. Basically I will need to buy a new 'cluster' to add the 5th valve. Another thing is, all of the zones wires are yellow, and the only wire left (I am thinking it is for the 5th zone) is grey. So, I'm not even sure I want to try to plug that in if I do buy a new cluster. What if it isn't for the 5th zone and I totally break the box haha. At least I know what the problem was even if I don't fix it. I will just manualy turn on the valve for the 5th one to water the flowers I have in the yard.! Thank you very much for all of the help. your video was very useful!
The person who replaced the valves did check the valves and water and timer. He didn't speak good English and I tried to explain to him the situation. Oh well, at least he did a good job on the valves.
DejBlankC There's a couple of ways you can go here, you can buy another module and hook the 5th valve up or you can wire two valves together. I would go with the first option and buy another module. That way you can water that zone independent of the other zones. Often you don't have enough flow to wire two zones together. The grey wire at the timer is probably the valve/zone wire for the 5th valve. Can you go to the valves and see if there is a spare wire that is grey? If that doesn't work you might want to get a multi-tester, hook up the grey wire to the 5th valve terminal, manually start valve/zone #5, and check the grey wire in the valve box for power.
Thanks for your videos ! I have a 7 zone system tat runs off city water now, can I run these valves off a 1" supply line from a newly installed pump or do I have to use an indexing valve ?
Is the pump increasing the pressure from the city water or are you using a different water source? Either way, I don't see why you would need an indexing valve. If your pump is for a secondary water source you'll probably want to install a filter before the valves.
I'm pretty sure my Valves are Rain Bird. They look just like the ones in this video. My question how can I tell if I have 3/4 or 1 inch valve??? I can't see any marking on the valves for size. The sprinkler system was installed by others and , it's new but; it's a mess. Station 2 won't turn off. I am making a big assumption it's the solenoid. But; since it's an assumption I want to just replace the whole shebang.
+John Smith Station 2 make have rocks or debris in the valve that's keeping it from shutting off also. To identify valve size you could take a tape and measure across the supply pipe in the manifold. If it's a little more than 1" then you have 1" valves. If it's a little over 3/4" then you have 3/4" valves. Or you can wrap a string around the pipe, measure the string length, divide by 3.14, and that will give you pipe size also.
+Kabawe Eliam Sakala Unfortunately Rain Bird discontinued the 100DVF union valves that are used in the video, but you can still buy 100DVF threaded and slip valves. Here's a link for Rain Bird dealers in Africa: www.rainbird.com/worldwide/Africa.htm
If you have to dig it up, then why not cut out the inlet side of the manifold along with the valve and then replace everything new?? You can also use a much easier valve made by Quick Valve - the EXT100 and not have future leaking issues with using an "o"ring sealed valve connection that will leak every year and need tightening.
Rainbird Union Valve? I've searched all over the web and no such thing? What Rainbird model are you using? Is the Union and add on can't find that either? cheers
Rain Bird quit making the union valve a few years ago. I've been using Action manifolds since then. Here's a link to my video with an Action manifold: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-WpetroPws10.html
Rain Bird quit making the union valve. I've been using Action manifolds since. Here's a link to my latest video using Action manifolds and fittings: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-WpetroPws10.html
Clamp screw system? Do you mean Black plastic (poly) pipe and hose clamps? If it is poly pipe you don't want to glue it. Can you send me a photo? Just go to my website and use the form on the contact page.
