# Irrigation repairs



## SerialSniper15 (Mar 21, 2020)

Hello, I bought my house about two years ago. When we moved in and I tested the Rain Bird sprinkler system, it worked fine. I only have 2 zones and two valves/solenoids.

This spring though, I noticed that I can only control the sprinklers by manually turning the valves on. It seems to bypass the control box completely.

I used a multimeter to do some diagnostics:

There are two red wires that read 24V and the connection between those read 28 volts.

When I touched the 24V to Common wire I got nothing.

The common wire to the zone 1 wire read 44 ohm. The same was true for common to zone 2.

For both valves, the solenoid wires read about 44 ohms.

On top of that, the zone 2 valve now won't cut off at all so I just had to turn off the master valve to the whole system. Perhaps the diaphragm is bad?

I planned on having a professional come out but due to the current economy and layoffs, I need to DIY as much as I can.


----------



## SerialSniper15 (Mar 21, 2020)

Bump


----------



## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

Can you draw a diagram of the system with connections? Where are you measuring the volts at? Controller or valves?

One way to rule out the controller is to use a 24v battery. You can do one by using 3 9v batteries connected in series (27V is fine). You can then disconnect the solenoids and test each valve for proper operation.


----------

