Anyone familiar with Weathermatic valves?

**Overheatprotection** · 10-18-2007, 07:07 AM

i have been using irritrol valves they seem to be the longest lasting valves on the market. and its the only valve I install. I give an unconditional replacement guarantee. Out of about 1000 I have installed I only had to warranty about 8 of them. that valve seems to last about 15 years,
I have been in business over 25 years and the only products I use are the ones that last the test of time. When I cut this style of valves out of the sprinkler system I have pulled some out that were over 20 years old when they finally broke. And yes irritrol has not produced this valve for 20 years but the style has been around I think for about 26 years under different names the original company has been bought out several times by different companies and improvements have been made to it. Even Rainbird solenoids seem to last only about 8 years or so.
Never cheep out on valves because you don't want to do the job twice.

**miner49er** · 10-18-2007, 08:42 AM

i use toro, rainbird valves. toro/k-rain heads. no problems to this date.

miner49er

**PJ Flocker** · 10-27-2007, 07:19 PM

Well...I have to say, this is the longest post I have seen on one subject!! I just joined this forum to enter my comments. I was just surfing the web to find a place in PHX, AZ for replacement solenoids for the WM valves and I ran into Terry's forum here. Thank you Terry for creating this!! I have had my system for a little over 3 years and it has been fine until recently. I have three WM valves and an Irritrol controller..this has not been an issue. I just want to replace two solenoids for now and see if I have any further issues before I decide to replace the valves. It looks like I have a 1" Silver Bullet 12000 w/flow controller. I have not been able to find replacement solenoids in the Phoenix, AZ area or on line. Anybody have any recommendations please??

Thanks!
PJ

**Wet_Boots** · 10-29-2007, 05:49 AM

The valves should be fine, if they've been working so far. As for solenoids, I've seen old W*M brass valves with Irritrol solenoids, so maybe that can work on your plastic valves, if you can't locate W*M replacements, although, around a big city like Phoenix, there should be a source for W*M.

**Irrigation Oldtimer** · 12-14-2007, 07:06 AM

Weathermatic experienced a problem with the M24E solenoid relating to water penetration. They have replaced the M24E with the S20P solenoid. All of the reports I have heard on this solenoid are excellent. I recommend that you contact the company's tech service department if you are still having problems. Have you tried the Weathermatic SmartLine controller? This is a really cool product. It adjusts watering times based on the weather. They have a site about the product called www.smartline.com. A lot of water providers are giving rebates for installing a product of this type. Many of these rebates are listed on the Smartline site.

**Wet_Boots** · 07-12-2008, 09:32 AM

Well, I ran into a system that had an 06 date on the failed W*M solenoid. Replaced every one of them from my stock of 20th-century M24Es - I wonder if W*M will ever tell the entire truth about this debacle, or whether they even understand all that transpired.

**jimbo** · 07-12-2008, 03:31 PM

Well, we are 6 days away from the 3rd year anniversary of this thread. Going for 4!

**Wet_Boots** · 07-13-2008, 11:59 AM

W*M bailed on the M24E. At least they were aware enough to know how thoroughly they poisoned the market with their incompetence. The new solenoid is named S20P.

**peejmeister** · 07-14-2008, 12:54 PM

Can't let this thread die now!
When I turned my 32-valve system on early this summer, as I expected, I started losing solenoids again.
I contacted Weathermatic and they touted their new S20P solenoids and sent me a box of 32 of them, no charge. I've been putting them in as the old M24Es die. I've only had the S20Ps out there for a few weeks, but none of them have failed yet.

My biggest problem now--assuming these S20Ps really last--is replacing the solenoids without cross-threading them. You do that once and you have to replace the valve cover to get another solenoid to stay in.
Now that the new S20P is narrow enough to access the screws on either side of it, I may resort to pulling the cover, installing the new solenoid in plain site, outside of the valve box, then screwing the cover with the solenoid on as one unit, unless anyone has a more sure-fire way to get them in snug enough to operate without making that fateful last twist that ruins the valve.

**Heater63** · 07-26-2008, 01:13 PM

Well, after discovering this thread, I'm not going to let it die either! I have a small Weathermatic system, in place for 12 years now, and I just had my first M24 failure; it is dated 1996 and the side case is finally cracking from heat cycles. I have not had a valve failure yet. I have a WM controller, and although I kinda hate it, I have learned to use it. The LCD did go bad after the warranty period, and when I contacted WM, they sent out a whole new controller, they were very very good; this was about 2000. my 2 cents on WM. Kudos to aamartin for not going postal at some point and figuring out a voltage patch.

**TGreenway** · 09-15-2008, 10:23 AM

Last post was May, 2007...it's now Sept 2008, and I haven't had a single failure since my installer replaced the WM valves with Hunter valves....I guess if the valves continue to work as long as this thread, then I'll be happy.

**GeekZero** · 06-20-2009, 02:01 PM

Thanks all for the information here; our builder put in Silver Bullets in the summer of 2004, and since then we have replaced a lot of solenoids. I just put in the first S20P, let's hope that is the real "silver bullet"

**jimbo** · 06-20-2009, 04:02 PM

Originally Posted by jimbo

Well, we are 6 days away from the 3rd year anniversary of this thread. Going for 4!

Well, we are now just a few days short of the 4th anniversary on the post that won't go away!!
Not as many posts as the whirlpool water heater, but excellent staying power!

**Kuhlman5** · 07-06-2009, 05:55 PM

I was out testing my nine zone irrigation system over the weekend here in New Jersey where we had 20+ days of rain in June. The system was not responding to controller commands 100% of the time. This morning the controller said I had a short in the master valve. After disconnecting the master valve solenoid (the new replacement version S20P) and manually opening the valve (Weatermatic 12000 Series - Silver Bullet) the system work flawlessly. The irrigation system was installed late in 2007 (Oct/Nov.) worked well in 2008 and the master valve solenoid failed at the beginning of 2009.

Gene Johnson @ Weathermatic offered to sell me a replacement under a special program for $6.30 + 9.90 S&H.

I can't say I'm impressed.

samson smith · 09-30-2011, 09:23 PM

Originally Posted by amartin725

I had an 11-zone system installed in Oct of '03 and have had continuous issues with the Weathermatic valves. I've had no less than 20 solenoids replaced on the valves, all at the irrigation company's expense. At the end of last season, I forced them to replace every valve in the system with new ones. They only replaced the solenoids and agreed to extend my warranty on the system itself. Here it is in July and they are starting to fail again. I'm quite tired of coming home to find another Error on the controller (the controller is a Hunter Pro-C).

The owner of the irrigation company is baffled by my problems and did tell me that there we some issues with Weathermatic valves, but I have been unable to locate anything documented. Does anyone know of any design issues with them?

Al

If you have garden and you want to make it more beautiful then sprinkler is the best option for this purpose. Sprinkler controllers helps you how to control the water system. It also helps to make water system easier and helps to save the water. Sprinkler valves are the most important part of the sprinkler water system. It is helpful to control the water.