# 1 zone not working



## Kc_nole (Jun 4, 2019)

Hey guys, I'm new to the forum & new to irrigation. Just bought this home a year & a half ago & was just surviving along with the current setup. Time to figure it out

7 zone system but only seem to be 6 valves and a Main?? Each zone up to 5 works correctly but when zone 6 & 7 come on, water starts pouring out of the spigot & nothing coming through to the sprinkler heads. Picture attached

Any and all help would be hugely appreciated!


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

The water spraying does let me see the connections behind it. It looks like they connected the system to a house spigot.


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## Kc_nole (Jun 4, 2019)

Here are a couple more pictures


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

It looks like the center pipe (without a valve) feeds all the valves. I'm assuming the valve connected to the spigot is a master valve and somehow it connects to the center pipe. Are the wires connected to the master valve plugs in your controller?

I don't understand what is the metal piece on the right side of the manifold. It looks like it should be spraying water every time the manifold gets water. Does it have a plug? Was this system working before? Did someone winterized it?


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## Kc_nole (Jun 4, 2019)

The main wires don't go to anything. I don't believe there is a cap to the spigot on the end on the right side. And as of now, 5/7 zones are working just fine. I've programmed the system to bypass zones 6 & 7 for now, but I def still have 1 zone of my yard not getting water. Not sure where the 7th zone is or what it feeds


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## Kc_nole (Jun 4, 2019)

Actually let me back up. The system is running off well water, not city water. Does that change anything for you?


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

Well water or city, it will be the same at this point. So the spigot in the wall that has a back hose connected to it, it is on? The water hose will delivery water if you turn it on? But the wires valve below the hose are not connected to anything? Maybe that's your zone 7 valve.

I think it will be good for you to draw out the pipes/connections to figure out all the pieces you have.


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## TonyC (May 17, 2018)

For the sake of this response, I'm going to refer to the valves being numbered left to right. Looking at the arrows on the valves, they are all flowing down. The main pipe with all the Tees on top would be called the supply manifold. We need to know if the middle pipe without the valve has constant water supply. That is assumed to be the water supply. The right side brass fitting (someone called a spigot), I think is a one way check valve. It appears to have a spring and one way gate within it. If the supply line has enough pressure, then that would flow water which is probably what is happening with Zone 6 & 7.

Without turning on the 7th valve (connected to house supply), if you turn on the blue spigot, do you have constant water flowing? I expect the well pressure tank to supply water normally. If there is NOT water available via the blue spigot, then there must be a master valve.

On your controller, do you have a wire connected to the Pump/Master terminal. This would indicate that you have a Boost Pump or valve on the well that comes on when the sprinklers are activated. Please post a picture of the controller wiring connections?

I'm going to guess/assume that you have a boost pump on your system, and that both #6 (bad solenoid - black hex box with wires coming out of it on each valve) & #7 (not connected) valves are not working normally and is what is causing the line pressure to kick up, and the check valve to open under higher (boosted) pressure when activated via the controller.

Valve #7 appears to not be wired in at all. I'm going to guess that it was added at a later date and why it was connected to the house supply. It was probably originally connected to the supply manifold, but at a later time it was re routed from the house supply (poor repair job).

Can you determine what colored wires are working an which is not?

Traditional would be 1 wire from each valve would be connected to a single ground wire (COM). Then each colored wire Yellow/Red/Blue/... would be connected to the second wire one per valve.

What you might have is multiple values that are connected to a single Zone on the controller. There are appear to be two wire nuts that are connected to each other with a short jumper wire. Is this the case?

Assuming you do NOT have a boost pump or master valve, you need to determine if the valve work by manually turning it on, but does not work via the controller. If that is the case, then you could have a bad solenoid. You can manually open each valve using either the small black knob near the center or by turning each solenoid a quarter turn (which is why those caps are on valves 1-6).

Can you draw out the wiring?


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## Kc_nole (Jun 4, 2019)

Ok I'm back. I've tried a few things & gotten moderate success, but back to the zone not working. I had one zone working and opened the manual flow valve on zone 6 & it started working. Found a leak in the line & took some time to fix it, but in the meantime the valve stopped working again. So I have a leak free zone but can't get water to it. When I start zone 6 again in system, the check valve again is spraying water with very little getting to the zone (I can see very little leaking from the first sprinkler head when this zone is active.

I did attempt to replace the solenoid on the valve & still no success. Tested the original solenoid from zone 6 on a different zone & it worked, so that's not the problem.

Pictures posted of the wiring & controller inside as requested. Should I take the pump apart to see if there is something stuck or to try to lubricate?


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## Kc_nole (Jun 4, 2019)

To clarify the wiring pictures, there is one line coming in with the color wires. One of the wires from each solenoid is attached to one color wire each & the other wires are all attached together with one connector.


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## TonyC (May 17, 2018)

Pop the botton cover off of your rain bird controller and take a close up of the colored wires and the labels.


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## Kc_nole (Jun 4, 2019)

Hey Tony, just wanted to tell you I'm fixed for right now. Your explanation was exactly what I needed to get the brain flowing & trying different things. Today I spent a couple hours on it & figured it out.

Took the valve apart & found a small white round piece that looked like it had broken off something. Thought it was loose debris, put it back together without it & started again. Still nothing. So I took apart another valve that was working & this picture is what I find. Looked up replacement parts for valve & the whole kit with all possible replacement parts is $6 @ Lowe's. Install new bladder & replace valve cover & we're up & running.



So as of right now, my only issue is Zone 7 is not running & I have a few sprinkler heads not turning. But as far as I can see, none of my yard is fed from zone 7. Not sure what it was for, so I'll refrain from looking now.

Again, thanks for your help guys. I've learned a lot from this post & reading your responses


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## TonyC (May 17, 2018)

Good to hear!


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