More than one zone working at a time

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Mid Michigan girl

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I have six zone sprinkling system that is fed through our small lake that we live on. The sprinkler system was installed with the previous owner. In the summer our lake has a large machine that cuts the weeds down in our lake.

One day when we replaced a head on one of the sprinklers, we tested that zone and three zones came on at one time. I called Toro and they advised me to unplug the system for a half hour and it should reset itself. I did that, the same thing happened. They advised me to purchase a new control box. The box was probably 20 years old. So I replaced that and to no avail, the same thing happened.

Then I noticed my filter in the lake was turned over. In the midst of cutting the weeds, the cutter came to close, hit my filter and damaged it. So the problem with my zones came into play after the damage was done to my filter.

I have no knowledge of the sprinkler system and how it works. What effects could this water do to my system without the filtering? Could it have messed up my zones from coming on one at a time? Before this it worked fine.

Can someone help me with my problem? The city is coming out today to look at the damage.
 

Zl700

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The weeds and dirt got into the irrigation zone valves and controllers causing them to stick pen I would guess.
Your valves and system besides the inlet filter replacement will require some cleaning, rebuilding and flushing.
 

BradMM

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I think zl's suggestion is the most likely. Valves have diaphragms that open and close based on the pressure differential above and below (which is irrelevant to this discussion) so, if debris gets in there, they can't close off. Replacing the controller wouldn't help with this problem at all but buying a new one after 20 years would probably be a good idea anyway.

I'm assuming that your valves are electrically activated and not hydraulically, right? There are wires coming out of your controller and not little tubes, right? If this is an electric system and you can find the individual valves (should be in boxes), you can turn them on manually and then close them down to see if they close readily. If not, it's crud inside and you'll have to take the top off and clean them out.

To open manually, there will be a bleed valve close to the solenoid that you can open and close. It might look like a little screw or a lever. This is not the flow control valve. If your valves are as old as the controller, it's possible you won't have these.

B
valve.jpg
 
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