1 Zone has very low pressure

Blue520

Unregistered

Tuesday, April 24th 2012, 9:02pm

1 Zone has very low pressure

I have a sprinkler system that has 5 seprarate zones. I inherited this system when I purchased my home 3 years ago. For the first three years all 5 zones worked fine. Now all of a sudden zone 5 does has very low pressure and it's so low that none of the heads pop up and water only drips from them. Last weekend I dug around all the heads in that zone and was unable to locate a leak.
I'm at a loss of what to do next. I don't know if the solenoid valve controller flow to that zone is bad or not. However, I don't even really know how to check a valve.
If you have any advice please be specific with step by step instructions.
Thanks

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mrfixit

Moderator

Posts: 1,296

Location: USA

Tuesday, April 24th 2012, 11:14pm

It sounds like there's a problem with the valve. Replace or repair. If you want exact specifics, I'll need the make and model of the valve.

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GatorGuy

Moderator

Posts: 465

Wednesday, April 25th 2012, 10:49am

Did you manually turn on the valve?
If not, open the bleed screw or, if it doesn't have one, back the solenoid off about 1/2 turn.
Let us know what happens.

IF that works, you need to figure out if the solenoid is bad or the controller is bad. To test the controller, switch the wiring on that zone with another and test.

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Blue520

New Member

Posts: 3

Wednesday, April 25th 2012, 8:04pm

Thanks guys. This will be a stupid question, but this is my first sprinkler system and I inherited it. Does each zone have its own valve and solenoid? The reason I ask is I've been able to locate 2 valves in the yard, but that's it. I can't find any more. If each zone has its own valve is it generally located near the heads in that zone? Thanks again.

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GatorGuy

Moderator

Posts: 465

Thursday, April 26th 2012, 8:22am

Figure "zone" = "valve". Five zones, 5 valves. Some installers put the valves all in one place on a manifold. Others put each valve in its respective area. If you can't find them you might try a valve locator . Easy to use and, if your wires are not cut, pretty accurate.

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Blue520

New Member

Posts: 3

Sunday, April 29th 2012, 3:31pm

Okay here is what I found out over the weekend. I found the valve for the effected zone and when I turn it on manually there is plenty of pressure for that zone. Does this mean I just need to replace the solenoid valve for this zone? For whatever reason it appears that when I use the controller to control that valve it doesn't open all the way becuase the pressure is very low.
Thanks everyone for their help.