Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
rogerv_gw

Fixing an Irritrol drip irrigation valve?

rogerv_gw
9 years ago

I have older Irritrol drip irrigation valves on my older drip system. The valve is fairly simple, there's a solenoid for opening and closing it, there's a valve stem in the center (no knob, though, you have to use pliers) for controlling the flow rate, and a bleeder screw on the outside edge.

The one that's giving me problems turns on and off with the drip controller box just fine. I've flushed the valve and filter using the drip pressure regulator/Y filter piece. Seems all good.

Except I upgraded some emitters from 1gph to 2gph on that valve, and it doesn't seem that there's enough volume of flow for all the new emitters. I don't have a lot of emitters on each valve, so I'm pretty sure I'm not overloading any of my valves.

When I try to turn up the flow volume valve stem (the one that uses pliers), the valve stem just turns, and I'm not hearing or seeing any change in flow volume. I'm used to hearing more flow when I change these, so my theory is that the flow control is stuck.

Any ideas how to free it up, or to troubleshoot it more so I can find out exactly what the problem is? I haven't touched the bleeder screw yet, since I'm not sure what the effect will be, not a plumber type here *smile*.

Any advice on how to get further with this valve? Or is standard practice just to replace a valve when the flow control part is stuck? I really don't want to do that (obviously), so I'm hoping that there's more that I can do to fix this.

Thanks for you help!

Comments (2)

Sponsored
Through The Garden, Inc.
Average rating: 5 out of 5 stars21 Reviews
#1 Landscape Design Build Firm Serving Virginia/Maryland & DC Area