# wingless' Custom Well Pump / Zone Valve / Smart Irrigation Controller



## wingless (Jan 28, 2019)

My house was constructed in 1963 and used well water prior to the City providing water and sewer some time later. Discussions w/ my neighbors who all lived in these homes for MANY years revealed they also had wells w/ pumps, that have long since been retired and removed, now all using just the City water.

When I got my home, the well pump was sitting unused on a small concrete pad near the house in the backyard, "connected" to a mish mash of deteriorated sprinklers and plumbing, though an indexing zone valve and cracked PVC plumbing.

One of my major upgrades was the professional installation of large paver patios on various sides of the house and a large paver driveway. This sprinkler well pump was currently placed where it obstructed one of these planned patios, so it needed to be moved. One of the other upgrades was removal of the HUGE coconut trees (with stump grinding) overhanging the house, filled with coconuts dangling precariously, especially in the event of a random tropical storm. Also, the nearby property line fence was built w/ a jog around one of those trees, now goes straight along the property line.

Tests were conducted that verified the well and the pump all to be fully functional, pushing out LOTS of water. My plan was to relocate the pump, use it for a totally new sprinkler system and to pre-install everything required for the planned systems to be buried before the patio team started, so that I could finish the sprinkler and other pre-placed systems, after all the patios and driveway installation is completed.

The system was going to get a MAJOR redesign. The Flotec FP5172 1.5hp sprinkler pump MUST pump water into an open system, such as pushing water into sprinkler head pipes. It cannot pump against a closed zone valve. The old setup used a hydraulically indexing zone valve and electrically toggling the pump on/off w/ a electromechanical timer to work w/ the sprinkler system and this pump.

My redesign was to change from the indexing zone valve to electronic zone valves, so I needed a pressurized well tank and pressure switch so the pump would be "happy", not pushing against a closed pipe and would stop / start automatically, based on demand. The new system has the pump pressure switch always having continuous power.

Note, the only detriment is that I needed to run this pump at 120VAC, instead of my preferred setting of 240VAC, drawing almost 20A max (specified) on a 20A / 12AWG circuit, that is shared w/ the electronic sprinkler controller, several GFI convenience receptacles and some LED landscape lighting. There has been zero issue w/ the breaker popping or the motor getting too hot. It would have been a HUGE effort to run that additional 240VAC circuit and zero time on the schedule for that installation.

The pump and tank location are at a narrow yard alley on the side of my property and I didn't want to obstruct that location w/ this equipment, so I buried everything. That alley now has full width, after having removed the huge tree and fence jog, so I definitely didn't want to wreck that width improvement by placing this equipment in the way. I also had very limited placement flexibility because of the existing buried plumbing to the well head.

A Rain Bird extra large valve box was selected to hold the pump, zone valves and associated parts. A Amtrol WX-202UG 20 gallon direct burial pressure tank was selected for the system.

The existing 1½" Schedule 40 PVC plumbing from the well heads was redirected to the new pump location. The box height was a little too short, so I added two layers of overlapping common bricks on the perimeter. I used screened crushed pock for the valve box base.

The system has all the expected parts, including a check valve, pressure gauge, hose bib, over pressure relief valve and adjustable cutoff / restore switch. I also used unions on all the major parts, to permit serviceability. I also have a decent flexible conduit whip length on the pump, to permit removal from the box and placing on the nearby ground, while still electrically connected.

The plumbing is all Schedule 40 PVC, using all pressure fittings. The pipe is 1½" from the well head, through the pump, to the tank and to the zone valves manifold. The sprinkler distribution pipe is all 1¼" from the zone valves, reduced down to 1" on a few ends of runs, at small yard coverage locations.

Burying the nearby pressure tank was lots of fun. (VERY happy for the sandy soil, when needing to move it w/ a shovel.) The tank is 30" tall. Add to that, inches for the bottom 1" MPT to PVC fitting and the 1½" 90° ell fitting. Plus, I wanted the tank top about a foot underground to avoid possible future damage from random surface activity. This required a deep hole. {Break out the post hole digger when it started getting deep.) When I buried the tank / plumbing I ensured that the surrounding soil was all screen sifted so rocks wouldn't hurt the tank exterior, compacted w/ my mini Thor hammer and migrated soil down w/ garden hose water, so soil shifting over time wouldn't be possible.

The Orbit B-hyve Smart Controller is an excellent device. I cannot speak highly enough of this device. It has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, I use Wi-Fi. It has a terrific smartphone application. It also has a very nice full feature control panel.

When I first commissioned the system, I needed to slightly increase the cutoff / restore electrical switch preset pressure, for continuous pump operation while sprinkling the yard, instead of the initial setting that resulted in rapid pump on/off cycling during operation.

This system works GREAT. It shows 38psi (on my uncalibrated system gauge) while supplying 16 heads, with the pump running continuously from zone start to shutting down w/ the zone. The Amtrol WX-202UG tank bladder air pressure is 38psi, verified and slightly adjusted to exactly match their spec using my high resolution / high accuracy tire pressure gauge.

The only disadvantage for this system is the well water's high iron content, typical for this region. The water leaves surface rust stains and has a trace odor. The grass and the plants are fine w/ the iron. Back in the old days, when the house was first built, when the well provided all the water for the house, the iron would leave rust stains on the plumbing fixtures, such as for the tub, toilet and sink. All that old internal plumbing was either retired long ago, or during my recent major internal remodel. The old retired / recently discarded buried thin wall sprinkler PVC pipes all had internal rust staining on the bottom of the pipe.



































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## wingless (Jan 28, 2019)

Here is the Orbit B-hyve smart controller.


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## wingless (Jan 28, 2019)

These images show three of the huge trees that were removed (w/ stump grinding) that overhang my roof, one having a fence jog. I removed the fence jog after the trees were removed.

This (now removed) fence jog was adjacent to my newly buried well pump.


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