# Help a sprinkler idiot



## Olemiss540 (Jun 10, 2021)

Lawn Forum,

Looking to get my hands around my new irrigation system (just purchased house, system approximately 15 years old). The controller seems to be working, what appears to be a irrigation valve next to my zone valves is turned on, but I can not get any sign of water/water pressure from anywhere. Can not tell if there is water in the system and if so it wont cycle any of the zones on. Not sure where to start in diagnosing so thought i would shoot the group some pictures to see if you could recommend a path to trouble shoot. There are two main/city water valves in valve boxes in the middle of the front yard, the red handled valve buried next to my zone valves, which are all outside of the garage nearby where the panel is mounted (on the right side of the house).

There are no other above ground water valves that I can find, no above ground water backup preventer, etc. This is located in coastal Alabama if that is any help. Thanks in advance for any ideas!


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## Wiley (Dec 2, 2019)

Looking at the picture of the first meter it looks to be on. I can't tell by looking at the second meter so you can double check that. Once you have confirmed that both of those spots are keyed open, try manually turning one of your sprinkler valves by rotating the solenoid to the on position.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

Take the dirt out of the cover with red handle. That's looks like a ball valve type of shut off. It should be parallel to the pipe to be on. I think it is not.


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## Olemiss540 (Jun 10, 2021)

Both of the main meters are in the on position. The ball valve with the red handle is running parallel to the pipe so it should be on as well but I will dig it out further and snap a picture.

I have tried manually turning the sprinkler valves buy rotating them 1/4 turn to activate them. I can tell when they are activated (one gets warm and they seem to vibrate when they are activate by the controller) yet zero action from any of the sprinkler heads. Wonder if I should try to remove one of the valve tops to see if there is water inside them?


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

That would be the next step. You should have not just water, but pressure too.

The main meters has an input valve (in the first image) and an output gate valve. Check both to be open.


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## Olemiss540 (Jun 10, 2021)

I had no idea there were two valves at each meter. Will dig them both out. Thanks for the reply!


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