SPRINKLERS WON'T TURN OFF! - How To Fix Easily! - Rain Bird, Hunter, and Other Sprinkler Valves 

Thanks for sharing your success story RingMast3r. Great to hear that it helped!

If I have a water pump that turns on with a rain bird timer to pressurize the sprinklers but the water pump doesn't shut off once time is complete what could be the issue? Doing this procedure will help?

Use a shopvac, I’ve seen small pebbles keep valves stuck open. Glad this helped!

Awesome!

Thank you mluigic! So happy to hear the video helped!

How were you able to fix it bc I have the same issue with my drip system?

Big shout out to nanetteramahi2095 for such a generous donation! 🙏 Thank you sincerely for that. I’m just happy the videos are helping people all around! And happy to hear it solved your issue.

Great tip!

Great question- you have to flush it quickly as to not keep the water on more than a second or two of it geysering out of valve. That’s all that is needed, and that much water won’t flood out the box typically.

Haha, I don’t drink so some chocolate milk will do 😆

Did you do the flushing procedure thoroughly? Perhaps even a few times. Most of the time it’s a small piece of debris stuck in the incoming pipe keeping the diaphragm open when water is on.

Same problem here… @himus1 did you discover any fix?

Thank you very much @navalverma!

About $50 starting.

Did you try thoroughly flushing all valves? Sounds like something is stuck in the manifold area.

Sorry to hear. I haven’t done much with the anti siphon ones probably because in Utah we have backflow preventers at the start of the system if needed. I would just make sure that it isn’t getting voltage which is unlikely. You might be able to get the vendor to warranty this. I will research this a little more myself since this is the first time hearing this about the anti siphon ones. Maybe anybody else on here can chime in if you have a similar experience.

Noted, thanks for the feedback!

Oh also, they're new valves with no debris of any kind. I've flushed the line too. Don't know what I am missing. Please help. Thank you.

So flushing it didn’t work? Try replacing the solenoid or it might be missing the solenoid’s o ring.

As long as the solenoids are installed properly and turned to the right until snug it will keep the zone off. If you want to open valve manually then you loosen / turn left 1/4 turn (sometimes it takes more).

I would check to make sure o ring on the solenoid is not damaged and that the valve is not leaking or having other issues. The internal parts of the valve could also be damaged (diaphragm). Just make sure you are flushing the correct valve and for long enough and that the rock or debris is not getting stuck in the valve when doing so (not typical to get stuck) but I would just make sure it gets flushed really well and that it is the correct valve.

Typically you can hear or feel water running through the pipes. You can also manually turn on the others and see which one doesn’t turn on another zone thus reducing pressure to heads. Pressure stays the same at heads, then that’s the valve that is staying on. Hope this helps!

@@thesprinklerchannel Thanks for the response - so in my case when the timer turns on any station, the #6 station always comes on also. Does that sound like a valve or controller problem ?

Wire tracer tool is the key. Start at the clock if possible with the zone wire you are trying to look for then trace it from there.

Thank You

All the wire tracers I see have a red and black lead that must be connected to wires, so where do I connect the leads or can you recommend one that does not require these leads?@@thesprinklerchannel

Very unlikely but two of them could possibly have debris stuck in them.

Interesting. Did both zones become low pressure at same time? First thoughts would be making sure there aren’t two start times or multiple programs running same time, if two zones try to run same time that will be the result (low pressure). If it’s always been the case it could be too many heads on the zone / too much water outflow for given pressure.

@@thesprinklerchannel checked the clock...thats not the issue. Might it be an issue with the solenoid or diaphram??

Check the o ring that goes on the solenoid. After that make sure all the parts are installed as they previously were and that all the bolts are snug tight. Try and see if you can’t isolate where the water starts to leak out from.

@@thesprinklerchannel like I said, I changed everything out about two months ago and it’s been working fine and all of a sudden it’s doing it again. But the only thing I didn’t change was a solenoid. Thank you for your response.

So flushing the valves didn’t work?

Sounds like an issue with the motherboard of the clock, might trying using / getting a new clock and see if the problem still persist.

Which brand and model of valve are you working with?

@@thesprinklerchannel I have a basic Hunter valve and The Node 200 for controller. Six screw cover. Brand new DC latching solenoid and new diaphragm. Inside is clean. No dirt or obstructions. Two valves for two zones. One works fine. The other not so much. Open the solenoid and it runs great. close the solenoid and open the bleed screw and it runs great. If I close the bleed screw to where the water doesn't leak, it stops. I hear the solenoid open when I do the manual timer. Not sure where the problem is.

@@thesprinklerchannel Well I think I solved my problem. I hope. I went back to basics and looked at the wiring and just for the heck of it I cut back the ground wire and stripped it, then attached the connector. I worked. I think there might have been a break in the wire near the end which caused it to work and then not to work. It was so intermittent that I couldn't tell it wasn't functioning properly. I went to the timer and manually ran it a couple of times and it worked fine. I think I got lucky. Thanks for the response.

Using a multimeter or typically the color connected to valve is same color at zone terminal at clock. A few other work-arounds as well.

Watch this video along with its sequel / part two (both found in videos of RU-vid channel). Sprinkler Clock Programming Made Easy ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-zLL-njHdm8Y.html You probably have some start times possibly under different programs.

When you say system set to off, do you mean clock is turned or set to the off position or just start times?

@@thesprinklerchannel the panel. I even set the zones to 0 minutes and the whole system to off, but it's still turning on and going through the zones as if they were set to run

haha good catch - torque* lol

Check the start times, I have a video on that on my channel. Most common mistake I have found. There should be a total of on start time and any others should be to the off setting

And that’s NOT one per zone, just one total.

@@thesprinklerchannel Thank you for the reply, the issue was with the solenoid. All good now "fingers crossed" ;)

Hmmm, not familiar with the yellow filter you are referring to. Maybe a link to a site with similar set up you could leave me here to see what you are referring to.

I would look at replacing everything but the body of the valve if you’ve flushed it multiple times and still doesn’t shut off.

​@@thesprinklerchannel Good evening. My prior responses today don't seem to have been posted? Maybe because of the link(s) I was tryin to post? Nonetheless, the filter I was speaking about is the pilot flow filter, and the part that's a little beat up is the valve seat. I rebuilt the diaphragm (and back-flushed) and that didn't help, replaced the solenoid and that seemed to work, once... but when I ran the Rainbird SST 600in Timer for Zone 1, and toggled down the minutes to only run for 1 minute, the sprinkler valve didn't close after several minutes passed, and when I rotated the dial to off, it still didn't close. Prior to installing the Solenoid I checked the voltage at the wiring in the valve box and it was about 22V with the zone "on". I didn't think to check the voltage when the zone was "off... 😞 After the failure I removed the common and the "zone" wire at the controller and did an ohm test on the wires and got continuity. Should there be continuity if the valve should be off? Maybe the controller has a fault? Thanks, David

Here's my video ru-vid.comHZyY_FaK3IU

yes

Checked internet connection? From controller on wall it won’t even turn on? But the zones will manually if you turn on at solenoid?

@@thesprinklerchannel Interconnection is available and working as also the app has beereinstalled. I can manually turn on the valve using a screwdriver quarter turn but the app itself And the controller will not manually water

Everything was consistent. I removed the rains sensor, rewired everything and now its working. Thanks for your response

Definitely have to be trained & careful if using the impact driver. Thanks for watching the videos.

When I first started I thought the same but most of the time it’s debris stuck in valve keeping the diaphragm open.

@@thesprinklerchannelfyi you were right too so thanks again!

Turn off the main shut off valve while you look for the valve boxes if you need to.

Go into each program and check start times. Use only one start time on one program. Check out our sprinkler clock videos. Let us know if this worked for ya.

Sprinkler Clock Programming Made Easy ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-zLL-njHdm8Y.html

Sprinkler Clock Programming Made Easy - Sequel ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-cRYBjeA42CI.html

Valves and in the valve box respectively

Can you share what specific controller model you have?