Testing Sprinkler System Wiring 

Thanks!

Glad it helped!

Fantastic!

Thanks Paul, I appreciate the feedback.

Good point, I'll remember that for the future. AC volts is the setting for the tester.

Seriously!!!! Lol. Thank you both for the video and comment lol

Glad it helped!

Thanks for watching, I'm glad the video was helpful.

Timer wire cuts can be a real pain, thanks for watching.

Great information, thanks for posting.

Glad to help!

Great to hear!

Thanks Michael, I appreciate the feedback.

You're welcome!!

Awesome, thanks for watching.

Glad it was helpful!

Thanks Dennis for watching.

Could have a bad solenoid or diaphragm but more likely it is debris in the valve that's keeping it from closing. Shut off the water and take the top half of the valve off and check for debris or rocks.

Great to hear!

Glad it was helpful!

You're welcome!

Great!

CYBYTHESEA OHANA TUBE Thanks for watching, and good luck to you.

Thank you! I hope the best for you in the next season of your career!

Happy to help!

You're welcome!

Glad it was helpful!

Thanks!

Glad it was helpful!

Thanks Jesse, I appreciate the feedback.

Try selecting the program you want to water from first.

Appreciate it!

Thanks for watching.

You need to isolate where the problem is first. I would run the timer through a manual cycle and test each station with a multi-tester to check if the timer is outputting power (24 Volts) to the valves. Black probe on the Common terminal and Red probe on the station that is watering. If it isn't outputting power you probably have a bad timer. If it is you may have a timer wire cut to the valves or a bad common wire connection at the sprinkler valves.

TL did you figure that out?

I figured it out. I ended up pulling out all the wires from the valves and cleaned all of the gunk off of them. I am assuming one the zone wires were either loose, or too much crap inside of the wire ties - and just caused a loss of conductivity. Anyways, it's all good right now!

You're correct, when the dial is turned to System Off there is no power going to the sprinkler valves.

Let me know if a new controller cures your problem.

@@Iscaper Bought the X-Core model from Hunter, replaced in 20 minutes, and did a quick zone test, and badabing, it works! Thanks for this video. It doesn't seem to show up on your page though. I'm still planning to fix the grounds out in the field as they just jumbled them together 23 years ago.

If none of the stations work and everything checks out at the timer, it sounds like you may have a timer wire cut. With the timer on have you checked power at the sprinkler valves?

+jose gallo If I understand you comment correctly you've converted brass valves to water automatically. Is that correct? My experience with conversion valves is that they are temperamental at best. I've installed new Irritrol conversion valves that didn't work, and Irritrol conversion valves that after one year needed to be replaced. With the timer wires off, can you get the valve to manually open and close? High supply pressure could be an issue but shouldn't keep the valves from operating. If you can't get the conversion valves to open and close manually you may have to cut out the manifold and go with regular electric valves like the Rain Bird 100DVF.

+iScaper1 thank you. I was thinking the same to install ans complete plastic rainbird valve. Since the brass have a 2 piece and sometimes the soleonid insert gets clogged and makes the valve stay in periodically when triggers wich my customer has to go out and shutt the main off. Thanks

I don’t understand, who is Eliseo? I understand, when I bought my 1st car the guy said “It’s been great, I’ve never had to do anything to it!” Only to find that included regular maintenance & it was in terrible condition. Although I believe there are more honest, diligent people than not do we will find the difference in other experiences! Like this video here has saved me a lot of money! Cheers & thanks to iScaper1!

Thanks!

Thanks Reed for watching.

Orbit timers are notoriously hard to program. If you have one bad valve it won't affect the watering of the other valves. Make sure all the stations have run times on them before you try to manually water. What's the model number of your Orbit timer?

The timer should only be outputting 24-29 AC volts to the sprinkler valve. Other zones shouldn't be receiving power in this step.

I'm more concerned about the voltage drop because 250' is a long run for timer wire if it's 18 gauge. I would disconnect the zone/station wire from zone 1 and connect one of the extra wires you have. Next expose the common wire in your valve box. Then manually start zone/station 1 and use your multi-tester to check voltage at the valve box for the extra wire. Red probe on the tester for the zone/station wire and black probe on the common wire. Hopefully you'll have a least 24 volts. If you do go ahead and repeat these steps for the 2nd extra wire.

If you're testing at the timer that station terminal could be faulty. It means the timer isn't sending enough voltage to open the sprinkler valve. Try wiring that station wire to a different terminal at the timer and manually start the station. If the station works then you know your problem is at the timer.

Wago connectors for the win!

Correct, you can check wiring without the water being on.

The only way I know to test the where the break in a timer wire is located is to use a line locator. With the locator you put a tone on the wire and it shows where the wire is located in the ground and where the break occurs. The last locator I rented was pricey, $50 per hour.

Thanks, I think.

I read somewhere you should disconnect the common wire when doing the continuity test. Your way may work also but I haven't tried it.

Sounds right. The 9.5v might be for a rechargeable battery.

Ryan Homburg I doubt that all of the valves are faulty. You probably have a wiring problem. If you don't have valve boxes then this could turn into a project for you. Usually valves are in a cluster in a valve box, and if you can find it I would check that the common wire that the solenoids from the valves connect to isn't broken or pulled loose. If the common wire connection looks good you could have a timer wire cut or broken between the timer and sprinkler valves.

It sounds like you have a bad splice or broken wire between the timer and sprinkler valve for station 12. There is no easy way to find the break. You could rent a line locator to find the break but they are expensive to rent and don't always work. Depending on the flow demands for circuit/station 12 you could wire it together with another sprinkler valve in the valve box. If you don't have enough flow to do this you could look at buying a battery powered timer for station 12 or a battery powered solenoid.

At the timer the black probe goes on the common terminal and the red probe goes on the station terminal if you're testing output to the sprinkler valves.

@@Iscaper I meant on ohms?

That doesn't make any sense. What's the display showing when you do this?

Do you have Station Run Times for each station. They won't water unless you do.

It's probably not the case that all your solenoids are bad. When you manually run one station from the timer are all the stations trying to water, or does each station you select water correctly? Is the timer watering to your programmed schedule? Can you adjust programming? Let me know.

1. Check that the valve will open manually. Make sure water is on to valve. 2. If the valve has a flow control make sure it is open. 3. Make sure there is power to the valve. Manually start station at the timer then test power at the sprinkler valve. You should have at least 24 volts. 4. If everything above checks out as a last resort you can buy a new valve (exact model of old valve) and swap top half of new with top half of old valve.

+Bolčina Jaka It's not easy to find a timer wire break. I have rented a wire locator but they are expensive (the one I rented was $50 per hour). Basically you put a tone on the timer wire and the locator finds the break. The other option is to run a new timer wire to the valves.

Naveen Papishetty You need power to the timer to test output power to the valves. When testing continuity you're unhooking the wires from the timer, and when working on the solenoid just turn the dial on the timer to Off but don't disconnect power to the timer.

Thanks for watching!

If I remember right Ohm reading should be between 20-60. I would check the solenoid. Most sprinkler valve problems are the solenoid.

Only the station running will show voltage.

jetlop56 Is it when you water off the program zone 2 shows this problem? It could be that zone 1 hasn't completely shut off or is slow to shut off when zone 2 starts up. I would check that first. If you have Toro valves they are notorious for that. You could also try manually opening and closing the valves with the bleed screw or solenoid to confirm that each valve is opening and closing properly. It doesn't sound like a timer problem because valve 2 operates properly on a manual start-up.

This is from the manual: The battery allows you to program the SRC Plus Controller without having AC power available. However, the battery will not be able to activate any of the station valves. Electrical power must resume before watering will continue. The SRC Plus has non-volatile memory which retains all program information in the event of a power outage.

@@Iscaper Thanks For Responding. My Plug Is Good. I Have 28v. Should I Assume My Controller Is No Good?

@@resmny Looks like you have good power coming in from the transformer. I would try to manually start a station off the timer and test the output from the timer to that station. If you're not getting around 28 volts then the timer is probably bad.

@@Iscaper Thanks. I Went Back Watched And Your Video And I Didn't Follow Instructions On Operating The System. I've Never Had To Operate The Sprinkler System Before My Father Always Operated It Now That's He's Older And His Health Isn't Good I've Taken On The Responsibility. So Now I'm Discovering No AC Display On The Timer. So Now I Can Assume A Bad Transformer/Plug?

@@resmny You said in previous comments that you had 28 volts at the terminals on the timer from the transformer. Is that correct?

Yes, I use mine to test OHMs, plugs, other wiring in the house, and even batteries.

Transformer output seems high, it could be the problem.

Hmm, the valves would have to be wired together at the valve box. I would check that first. I doubt it's a bad solenoid because the valve wouldn't open if that's the case.

@@Iscaper Thanks for your response. I figured it out. The wire that goes to the timer got stripped where it enters the hole in the wall and was shorted. Now it is all good.

@@lwh7301 Great, thanks for the information.

Great information, thanks for posting.

Here is a good article from Rain Bird on ohms readings, see #7 in the article: www.rainbird.com/landscape/resources/articles/Multimeters.htm

You could unhook the station wire and check the timer output to terminal in question. Your guess is probably right, you more than likely have a shorted solenoid on the sprinkler valve and it's giving the ERR message on the timer.

Thank you. That worked. With the wire on circuit 8 detached I got a good reading on timer output. So all circuits getting power when supposed to. Next step - checking resistance (continuity). My meter has a specific continuity setting so I tried that 1st. All circuits beeped except #6, which was a surprise since it's #8 that gets ERR and stops everything. I switched to the Ohm setting 200 that you used and I got 20-30 on all but #8, which I got a steady 4, and #6 which gave me a straight line (1). So I increased the scale for #6 and got a reading at 200k of a increasing number from 70 to 90 and still going up .1 at a time. Whatever that means... Dark out now but I will continue tomorrow. Hopefully I will find a loose connection like you did for circuit #8. Does the resistance reading of 4 rule out the solenoid? Don't know what is going on with #6. The controller thinks it's working, but it's a strip of lawn next to the street that's always browner, and a drip irrigation system that's all underground. I always thought it just didn't cover very well, but this may be telling me there is a problem??? Any suggestions welcome!

Looks like solenoid is probably bad on #8 since you got a reading of 4. Under 20 usually means a bad solenoid. On #6 I would remove the wires from the valve, re-strip timer wires and solenoid wires then test voltage from timer. Manually start #6 and put black probe on common wire and red probe on station wire. Confirm voltage is 24-29 volts. Then check continuity on solenoid since you will have the wires off. From what I've read you may have an open (reading over 60) on #6 since the reading keeps climbing. Hopefully re-stripping the valve wires and wires from the timer will cure the problem.

OK. #8 fixed with new solenoid! #6 after disconnecting and stripping tested V at controller and still get 24V. With ground and timer wires disconnected at solenoid I get 0 V (do get continuity on solenoid disconnected wires). Does this mean solenoid is good but I have a break in timer or ground wires between controller and valve?

With wires unhooked on #6 check continuity on solenoid wires not voltage. Hopefully the continuity will be good. While the wires are unhooked, manually start #6 and hold one wire from solenoid on common wire to timer and then touch the other solenoid wire to the station wire going to timer. The valve should open and water. Remove station wire and valve should close. You can also open and close the sprinkler valve manually to check how it's operating.

Hmmm, are all the stations trying to water at the same time?

No, that was not the program. It was in manual test mode. I replaced the controller and now the stations are individually powered. Unfortunately, I still can’t get them to start watering yet. The project continues.

John Smith Thanks John, I appreciate the feedback.

Could be a lot of things: 1. Too many heads on the 3 zones. 2. If city volume & pressure are down because more houses are being built in your area, this could be the culprit. I would test your pressure at a tap. Hopefully you have a previous pressure test to compare against. 3. An obstruction in the manifold or piping feeding the sprinkler valves. 4. Valves that are not fully opening (not as likely). 5. Broken heads or piping.

Stations 4 through 12 don't register on the timer box

I would try resetting the timer and if that doesn't work I would contact Hunter technical support. It doesn't look like they have phone support. Here's a link for their email support: www.hunterindustries.com/support/email_support/email.

It's usually a short in the solenoid that keeps a valve from working. You could replace that on zone 3 first and see if it cures your problem. If not test the wiring to that valve. Yes the wire nuts are silicone filled to prevent moisture from getting to the wiring.

@@Iscaper I replaced the entire valve bonnet, diaphragm, solenoid and the wire nuts but the continuity test for the zone 3 wiring registers 00.0 where all the other valves are giving around 27.6 ohm. I am dreading having to run a new wire for this zone.

@@progression_decibel Is there a spare timer wire you can use?

@@Iscaper Unfortunately no. I have a 5-zone system and all of the wires are being used, no spares in the timer box. Zone 6 on the expansion module in the timer box is free but I even tried moving zone 3 wire to 6 and it didn't make a difference. I know wire tracers are expensive to rent and at this point depending on cost, I might just have our local sprinkler pro's come out to quote a new wire run. The alternative in the meantime is I manually open valve 3 anytime I want to water the zone instead of a hose. Appreciate all your input and advice!

@@progression_decibel Depending on what the sprinkler guys quote you for a new timer wire run, another option could be to add a battery powered controller to that valve. If it's Rain Bird you could add an ESP-9V1 battery powered controller with a TBOSPSOL - 9-Volt Potted Latching Solenoid. Cost for the 2 on Rain Bird's site is around $185.00. Here's a link for the controller: store.rainbird.com/esp9v1-esp-9v-battery-operated-controller-1-zone.html

Valves are usually in a cluster in a green box. The lid to the box should be flush with the surface of the ground. If you can't find the valves poking around then the options become more difficult and expensive.

You may have to try buying a new valve the exact model as your bad valve. Take all the parts from the new valve except the body and swap with the parts in the old valve. This should work and save you the time and expense of cutting the old valve out of the manifold.

Thanks for watching.

Did you manually start the valve at the timer before you checked the output voltage?