Timer System Blowing Fuses

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gwysocki

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I have never had a problem with my Rainbird timer system in the past.

This year when I went to turn the system on, the message on the timer said "PWR OFF". It was plugged in so I went and checked the breaker - no problem. Then I noticed that the timer has a 1 amp fuse in it. I took the fuse out and saw that it was blown. When I replaced the fuse, it immediately blew. This happened twice.

The only thing that has changed since last year is that we began to put an in-ground pool in our yard. The only excavating that has been done was one 12 foot deep hole about three feet wide and eight feet long. While digging, the excavator did rip a sprinkler line. However, it appeared as though nothing else was damaged.

Could their have been some electrical part (ie. valve) that was cut during the excavation that would cause the fuse to continuously blow? The hole is about 10 - 15 feet from the house. I can't imagine a valve would be that far from the house.

Anyway, any suggestions? I don't want to start digging holes all over the place without some guidance.
 

Thatguy

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Post a schematic if you have it, and a link to your particular system.

If the fuse runs on 120vac you could substitute a 120v 7-1/2w incand. bulb for the fuse; this will pass some current so maybe you could trace the energized wiring up to the short. Measuring the voltage across the bulb will give you some idea of whether this a dead short or just an overload.

How quickly did the new fuse blow out after power was applied?
 
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Upper

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Try unhooking the common or all the valve wires,then see if the fuse Blows.........Upper
 

gwysocki

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Narrowing Down Problem

I think I may have found the problem.

I have two control valve boxes (4 zones in each). I have narrowed the issue to the box that has zones 1-4 in them. I removed the wire from the number one zone in the controller and the fuse did not blow. However, when I try to manually run the system, zones 1-4 don't work. Zones 5-8 do.

Zones 1-4 Control Valve Box are located on the opposite side of my house from the plumbing leads. Therefore a wire must run from the Timer Box around the house to that Control Valve Box. The pool guy moved two plants right near that control box so he could get his backhoe in my yard. He replanted them right next to my house so they wouldn't die. My bet is that when he dug the holes to replant them, he damaged the wire to the control box. My mission this morning is to dig up the wire from that control box and see if he severed it.

I bought a multimeter yesterday and put one end on the common wire and one end on each of zones 1-4 wires and measured the resistance. When I measured the resistance on zones, 2, 3, and 4 the ohms shot through the roof. I believe that indicates a disconnect in the wires. I hope I'm interpreting this right.

Any additional thoughts would be appreciated.
 

Thatguy

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Still, can you post a schematic? Even a generic schematic will help future OPs.
:)

If you splice the broken wire, try to make the splice waterproof, to put off problems in the future.
 
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