Sprinkler zones turning on for short bursts

13 years ago

Starting about 1 month ago, certain zones of our irrigation system have been coming on (at times not programmed inour timer) for about 1 second. You can clearly hear the water turn on/off. If you go to the sprinkler heads, you can see a small amount of water.

Clearly this is not supposed to happen...

We recently got a new timer installed. The timer is clearly not programmed to water for 1 second at random times during the day...

On the other hand, our landscapers recenlty installed a new timer, when they came to check out a zone that wouldn't turn on. They indicated that the solenoid for that zone was "turned off" - not exactly sure what they meant by that...

At the same time, they requested that we get the new timer, since (they claimed) the old timer was hard to program.

So back to the original problem - if a zone is coming on for 1 second random intervals, I can only think of 2 reasons:

- faulty timer

- faulty solenoid

Is there a 3rd possibility?

Has anyone else ever had such a problem? The landscaper is trying to fix it - that being said, I think the landscaper thinks it's a low priority, so I'd like to learn about the possibilties on my own.

Thanks for any advice.

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Comments (8)

lehua49
13 years ago
Hi g,

How is the landscaper contractually involved in this situation. You are not clear. Did he supply and install the new defective timer. Why would he ask you to buy another one to replace it for being hard to program. That isn't a real good reason to replace the timer. Sounds suspicious to me on his part. Give more detail of his relation ship to the irrigation system and its installation. Aloha
ghe45
Original Author
13 years ago
Here's the series of events:
- We've been using this landscaper for a number of years.
- Occasionally, we have issues with our irrigation system.
- When they try to test out that they've fixed the problem, they claim that it's hard to operate our (i.e. there isn't a "one touch" feature to test out every zone, it's hard to know which zone is which).
- the last time they came to fix an issue, it was because one zone wasn't coming on and they fiddled with the slonoid to get it to come back on.
- but after that, they requested that we get the new timer so that it would be easier to troubleshoot these issues in the future.
- so we got the new timer.
- now we have the problem that this one zone (and soem others) are coming on randomly.

So I don't know if the timer is defective or if one or more solenoids are starting to "flake out" after many years
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homr
13 years ago
keep it simple at this point. If the landscaper thinks it is in the timer, let him change it as it should be under warranty, right. Most controllers have a one or two year warranty. There is a good chance that the controller is ok, but a warranty replacement will eliminate the controller as a problem.Then you can troubleshoot the problem from there.
lehua49
13 years ago
G,

Obviously, the landscaper wasn't the one who installed the old controller that was hard to program. Was he the one who recommended the new timer brand, make and model. He should, as Homr says, easily return it and get a replacement under warranty. How many solenoids in your system? How old are the solenoids? Aloha
ghe45
Original Author
13 years ago
The landscaper doesn't know what the problem is. He hasn't offered to replace the timer (at least yet). I don't know if I have enough evidence to suggest it's a bad timer. Even if it's under warranty, it will cost him about 2-3 hours of labor (not hard work, but tons of wires to disconnect and reconnect). There are 9 solenoids, because we have 9 zones.

We now know that the problem isn't simply with one zone (and therefore one solenoid). At least 4 out of the 9 zones have come on (randomly) for these short spurts. Last night 3 of the zones came on (for about 1 second each) back-to-back-to-back. So I could believe that 1 (or maybe 2) solenoids went bad. But 4 out of 9 suddenly going bad? Seems like that would be too much of a coincidence...
lehua49
13 years ago
G,

9 zones is not a big deal and if he is the ONE who wireD things up, he should be the one to fix the problem and investigated the cause. He is, at least in this case, the expert and has the most knowledge about the problem. There are only 18 wires to deal with and 2 or 3 hour of his time is about $180 bucks. Your new controller will cost that. Why are you reluctant to use the expert at hand and explain to him that you believe his advice or work is at the base of the problem so he should help you out getting the controller returned under the warranty? Is he a brother-in-law? You don't need evidence. Sounds like he has your number. He complains(whines) you pay. JMHO Aloha
azirrigation_guy
13 years ago
I don't know why people don't make contractors pay for the contractors mistakes or errors, including cheap choices in products, the contractors is being paid to know what is a good product. Too many contractors go cheap and the customer pays for it. It is important that if the contractor did something wrong they need to fix it on their dime.

Back to the issue: It doesn't sound like solenoids at all. There are clearly relays going from one zone to the next, in a typical irrigation system you only find these in the clock. It almost sounds as though it goes into a test mode, that being said I only know of two clocks that go down to that short of time and you would likely have spent around $600 for one of those to be installed.

Change the clock, contractor needs to pay for it. If at nothing else in the honor of good customer service and your loyalty over the years.
jerrygf
13 years ago
I've read the thread. I have one zone out of 10 that comes on for random, 1-second bursts. I'm out of warranty. For those of you who understand these systems, what is the bottom line on what is the most likely cause of the problem?