# Oddball valve behavior



## ergray3 (Jun 2, 2020)

I have a weird problem with one of my zones. When activated by the controller, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, about 50/50. It is my zone 5, if I run zone 4 first (only works with 4) for at least 1 minute, zone 5 will work 100% of the time. I haven't tried to fix it yet, I don't even know for sure where the valve is. And I don't have a voltimeter/ohmmeter to do a full workup, but I imagine it's a solenoid problem. Anyways, I just wondered if anyone had seen behavior like that before. Struck me as very strange.


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## Vtx531 (Jul 1, 2019)

Could be a loose wire either at the valve or the controller.


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## ergray3 (Jun 2, 2020)

Vtx531 said:


> Could be a loose wire either at the valve or the controller.


I've thought about this at the valve, I've checked the controller, and then replaced it with a Rachio 3 as a planned upgrade and got similar behavior. It's a bigger functional issue with the rachio as I can no longer force the 1 minute zone 4 run prior to zone 5 if I use their smart watering.


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## SCGrassMan (Dec 17, 2017)

Replace the valve


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## Utk03analyst (Jun 8, 2019)

I would check the connection at the valve and then replace if needed. If you are happy with the valve overall it's pretty easy just to swap out the internals and reuse the valve body.


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