Hi Tokeyornottokey666,

Sorry about that, I am always curious about handles and there origins. Is this a Riders of the Purple Sage thing? Anyway back to the questions. You didn't mention if you checked the popups filters and the lawn for unusual wet spots along the waterlines. My guess would be a broken line that allows dirt or fibrous material into the line when the zone's watering cycle is finish. Fine grit may be making it hard for the popup to work properly. Take off the lowest irrigation popup's nozzle and check inside for clogged filter and silty/dirty water. Make repair and flush thoroughly and you should be good to tokey. Sorry again. JMHO Aloha

haha. Ya know, I never put that together. I thought I made up the "tokey" thing. Just a funny word.

I doubt it is the popups. Like I said. EVERY one of them has the same exact symptom at the same time. There are 8 popups on this zone, all them behaving the same way. Acting as if they have no water pressure.

I have actually flushed the system as well. Still no dice. :(

Thanks for the suggestions though.

My guess would be that you have a break in a line or some other sort of leak that is robbing all the pressure away from the sprinklers, thereby not allowing them to pop up tightly and seal. If you have water flow to the sprinklers when you manually open the valve then I would discount the valve as being the problem. Leave the zone running and walk around the area, looking for abnormaly wet or spongy area's. this will locate your problem area.It could be a line, or it also could be a broken fitting, possibly at the base of one of the heads.??? Have you had any digging on the property lately. or maybe a heavy truck or piece of equipment that may have run over a head? Just some ideas to look at!! This is where I would start. good luck

Hi Tokeymeister,

It does make me chuckle. I can add some to homr. Get some caps for the sprinkler heads. They are probably orange colored and close of all but a one or two at the end of your line. Then look along the mainline route and listen closely for water sounds. Did you look inside a head and see if the water is murky? If the break is before the first head then all the heads could have the same behavior. Aloha

Thanks for the reply guys!

There hasn't been any heavy machinery on my lawn at all since 2 years ago. haha. And the sprinklers worked fine up until I turned them on this year.

Unfortunately my sprinkler heads can't be capped. The only thing I can do is dug them ALL up and cap them where they screw into the flexpipe. HUGE job. I can't really listen for water cuz water IS flowing out of all of the heads.

And plus, I dont know if you are familiar with Myrtle Beach soil, but it is CLAY. VERY hard. So it probably wont create any wet spots at least for 3 or 4 hours.

Check this out though. New developments!!! I dug one head up and put a cap on it. Well.... they all pop up just fine! Watered beautifully. So, I put a brand new head on it the one I just capped.... Then they went back to not popping up fully. *sigh*

SO, it seems like I don't have enough pressure anymore for all the heads.

What could cause a pressure drop like that? (Been working fine for 3 years now.) And what about replacing the diaphragm?

If you are on a well , you may want to look at the pumping system. Maybe the pump is no longer developing enough pressure to push all the heads up. It could be a faulty pressure switch or the pressure tank may be water logged. Either way I would have a pump man in to look at it. Of course this is only true if you have a well system.

Tokey,

Trial and error now. Replace the valve and see what happens. That is the easiest thing to do at this point. Tell us what happens and we can go from there. JMHO Aloha

I wish it was a well. I would blame it on that. haha. Hmmmm..... so yea it is trial and error now. What a pain it is to replace the valve though. GRRRRR. I will let ya know (and hopefully future people with this problem.)

Earlier you said that you capped one head and then turned it on and it worked fine. If thats the case, then it is not the valve.THe valve is opening up. Something is missing here, as this makes no sense. It still sounds like a break/leak to me. Try capping that head again and running it. There is plenty of clay here in the Northeast and all leaks eventually show up, some just take longer than others.You have our interest, so let us know!

Threekey,

I agree with humr, but like fixing a car, start with the easiest things to do first and make sure it isn't a wierd valve intermittent supernatural whatjamacallit problem. JMHO. How many heads in the zone? Aloha

I am having the exact same issue. Did you find out what the problem was?

I am having the exact same issue. Did you find out what the problem was?

I've been dealing with this issue a lot lately. Most commonly (for me) it's caused by the city's newly installed water meters which decrease water flow and cause some zones to remain in "flush" mode. The cause is water loss. Either a leak / break somewhere, a pressure regulator tweeked too high, renovations that involved re-routing plumbing, something as simple as running a dishwasher or washing machine while trying the zone, or as complex as new construction projects on your leg of the city water line decreasing the amount of water on your property. It takes a little investigating..... but most commonly its a leak