4 zones on one solenoid?

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Btglenn

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Trying to figure out this older rainbird system at a home I just purchased. I know just enough about irrigation to be dangerous and my basic understanding is that a wire from the controller to each zone's solenoid exists to turn on each zone... seems simple

In this case I have 4 zones that all run on zone 1 on the controller in succession. The only hardware I can find is one solenoid that is what the only two wires coming from the controller go to which is in an above ground PVC loop.

I guess I am saying one solenoid somehow is running 4 zones. There are no other wires going anywhere else that could power another solenoids.

There must be some other apparatus controlling these other zones which I cant find? anyone every heard of this type system? One zone is not working so I cant fix it without even knowing how it works

thanks in advance!
 

WorthFlorida

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These two components shown are very common when home builders installed an irrigation system because of the low cost. Nowadays individual zone valve are very low in cost (patents expired) these are rarely installed any more. This is what I assume you have. The zone valve could be buried but the anti siphon should be above ground. It might be possible they're in your basement or crawl space.

This is a multi zone valve. In the top part is a spring loaded cam and each time the water is turned off it ratchets one notch to the next zone. They can be 2-7 zone configurations. All irrigation zones get glued to it and and one pipe is the water source. If you are on city water you will have a valve with an anti siphon valve. This one solenoid is wired to your timer. Previously, there probably was a Intermatic mechanical timer with pins to set water times and durations. Each pin was 6 minutes on the clock. To change zones one pin was removed to turn off the valve and allow the zone valve to rotate, six minutes later the next zone operated. This old clock may have gone bad and was replaced with a digital timer as you have. If you check you program you may see Program A with four different start times and each starts a few minutes after the end of the previous run time. Most of the timers now have four start times per program. Bottom line is the water flow to the zone (hydro indexing valve) must be turned off for it to change zone, even for just a few seconds.




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