# Heads won't pop in one zone (unless I manually pull a head and pump it up and down)



## jam (Jun 29, 2020)

Hello all, this is my first post - I hope to stick around and contribute- but for now I have an odd issue. I have a 4 zone system. In my smallest zone, with only two heads, the heads gargle and lift up maybe 3/4" trying their hardest to pop. Sometimes they pop but only produce a 1 foot weak stream. If I grab one of the heads and pull up on it and then pump it up and down 5 or 6 times it will cause the other head to pop and both heads to have full water pressure with a full stream, and they will stay that way for as long as the zone is active.

I thought maybe because I capped one head (the 3rd head in the zone, maybe there was excessive air or maybe even the dead end branch was acting as a pressure arrester, but I just added a head back to that capped position as a test and the same thing is happening).

Any thoughts would be supper appreciated.

The system is 1" 100psi black tubing with orbit voyager II heads.


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## Trailz516 (Aug 11, 2019)

I'd check the Zone valve and solenoid first, maybe it's not fully opening at first but after you "pump" the water a bit the diaphragm is opening?


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## jam (Jun 29, 2020)

Yeah I guess I'll rebuild the valve and see what happens


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## jht3 (Jul 27, 2018)

Sounds like a pressure problem. But you say they run fine after pumping. If you have a pressure gauge, it wouldn't hurt to check the pressure.

A bad valve could be a cause, and is free to take apart, lube, and put back together.


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## jam (Jun 29, 2020)

So, I swapped out the nozzles with lower flow rate, and also noticed one head might have been loose on the riser so I was able to spin it maybe 3 times. I think this was the issue. I'm getting more range than I have ever seen in the 3 years I've been in the house. I went around to the other zones and swapped out to smaller nozzles and checked a few heads for tightening- I'm getting head to head coverage now.


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