Daily Battles: Everything About End-to-End Sprinkler Repair

A typical yearly routine for an American suburban family during spring time is to fix their sprinkler system. It always amazes me that the sprinkler system can't just stay functional and would always require some form of repair after each winter. Is this something the sprinkler parts manufactures conspired together to make more money from consumers while making their life miserable on a fixed schedule?

This year, I had to go through some extended effort to restore my sprinkler system back to normal. Here I share some knowledge I learned so you know what to do if this happens to you.

First, the Easy and Normal Stuff 

If all you have to do is to twist off the leaking sprinkler head, or event better, just the top part  (with the hole where water comes out) above ground, you are in luck! These parts are general very cheap at the local hardware store. The only hassles you have to go through are to locate the leak, make a trip to the store, and then replace them.

If a connecting pipe is leaking or broken, dig down around the sprinkler head so you can get to the broken part is pretty much the only extra work you have to do. Special tools (to untwist the broken part by grabbing into the plastic part in the opposite direction) might be needed.

If an underground PVC pipe is leaking, you might need to do some extra digging to expose the troubling section. Then just cut the broken section with a cable saw (so you don't have to dig a much bigger trench), then replace it with extendable PVC joints you can easily get at the local hardware store. You can glue it on, or get the more expensive twist on parts.


Next, the Sprinkler Controller

You should be able to find a sprinkler controller box somewhere in your house, most likely in your garage. This controller box lets you schedule the start time and watering duration of the various stations (zones) of your sprinkler system.

Typically, the control box is directly plugged into an outlet for power while also have a battery inside. So in case there's a power outage, you don't lose all your settings in the control box.

Turned out that the battery is a crucial part of the system, and I learned it the hard way. After hours of troubleshooting different part of my entire sprinkler system, I finally identified the problem. My controller wouldn't turn on the water stations (plus all kinds of weird stuff) even though it is plugged into a power outlet all because the 9V battery inside was low on juice. After replacing the battery, things started working again! So always check your battery as a first step of troubleshooting your sprinkler system.


Moving On to the Sprinkler Valve Box

When I tested the different stations, one station simply does not have any water coming out of the sprinkler heads. Another station would generate a lot of clicking sounds and all the sprinkler heads would shoot water straight up like a geyser periodically. After researching and consulting experts at the local HomeDepot, I found out that the problem could be related to the solenoid and diaphragms inside.

Solenoid is the black device inside the sprinkler valve box in charge of turning on and off a water station (zone). First thing to try is to take the solenoid apart and wash the diaphragm. Debris or sand in dirty diaphragm could cause the solenoid to malfunction.

I cleaned my two diaphragms for the two problematic water stations, and they remained problematic.

The next thing to try is to replace the problematic solenoid. It is important that you get the right brand of solenoid because different brands could have different sizes. I ended up buying my solenoids from a specialty store, because HomeDepot and Lowe's didn't carry the brand of solenoid I needed to replace mine.

After I replaced my two solenoids for the two problematic water stations, one started working while the other one kept shooting out periodic geysers with clicking sounds just like before. To understand things better, I swapped the two solenoids. Still, the station that got fixed remained fixed while the one shooting out geysers kept shooting out geysers. This was a good indication that the problem with the station shooting out geysers had nothing to do with the solenoid. In other words, I didn't really have to replace that one. Well! At least I fixed one bad station. That's progress.


Back to the Sprinkler Controller

In the sprinkler controller box, I found a station without any wire connected to the screw and a loose wire not connected to any station. In the valve box, I also found a wire not connected to any of my solenoids. So I connected the remaining bad water station solenoid to this wire and connected the loose wire to the extra station. After turning the station on, no clicking sound and no periodic geyser now. In fact, nothing happened.

To make sure I was not going crazy, I disconnected the solenoid from the extra station and then simply swapped wires between the two stations I worked on. As soon as I did the swap, the station that had the clicking sounds and periodic geysers started working correctly, and the station that I had fixed before now stopped working. I was completely bewildered.

Not until I consulted a friend who had much deeper knowledge about sprinkler systems did I find out that for the same sprinkler controller box, individual stations can go bad on their own. So having most stations working correctly with a controller doesn't mean all stations will work correctly. Also the wires are actually color coded, so I should make sure the wire I connect in the control box should match the color of the wire I am connecting in the valve box. No wonder I couldn't get the extra station to work, because I AM COLORBLIND!!

Now understanding things much better, I simply rewired the problematic water station wire to the extra station. And voila, water came out of sprinkler heads horizontally instead of vertically, and there's no more clicking sound. Turned out this station is a good station.

So really the problems I had was a bad control station in the control box and a bad solenoid for another station. I got unlucky because I replaced a perfectly fine solenoid. I also got real lucky because I had an extra functioning station I could swap to.


The Bonus

As I was troubleshooting the entire sprinkler system, I noticed that the water station labels and the actually wiring didn't match. I actually have a non-labeled, but wired station. Turning on this station for a quick test revealed that this is actually for a dripping system for some of my trees in the front yard. Turned out that for the five years I have lived in this house, I have never turned this station on and never watered those trees. No wonder those poor trees are getting weaker and weaker (wife mentioned about color change of these trees, but of course, I couldn't tell, because I AM COLORBLIND!).

Anyway, all the mystery have been solved. And I have another year minus two months of peace before I have to mess with sprinkler system repairs again. And now that I know much more about the system, something else that I don't know will break next time.

Hope you enjoyed reading this for whatever reason you came to my blog! 😌 At least now you are equipped with more knowledge of sprinkler system repairs, so when your sprinkler system breaks, it's probably from something I didn't write about in my blog post. 😜 Just kidding!


BTW: The easiest way to remember my blog address is http://lanny.lannyland.com