GUESS what I've been doing the last two days???? Fighting with the sprinkler system but I'm at wits end. I can usually figure things out, but this has me and my neighbors perplexed, to say the least. Maybe someone here has some insight.
It's a Toro system, put in about 95 or so. Now I'll try and explain what's going on the best I can. I have a separate water meter. So it goes like this...city water-shutoff valve-meter-about 20 feet or so of PVC to the antisiphon or backflow preventer vacuum valve(which is elevated)-from that PVC to the solenoids and the distribution system. It worked great Friday but later that night I happen to walk by it and noticed where the valve box was, was flooded. Turn system off at the shut off valve. Saturday morning, dig it out and seems that one of the solenoid valves was leaking. Got out the channel locks and tighten it up and seemed to stop the leak. Go to fire up the system, nothing. I also have a water spigot past the antisiphon valve and there was nothing coming out of it. So I suspected the antisiphon valve. Turn water off and take that valve apart. Nothing really seemed wore out or out of place, so put it back together and same thing happen, no water. Turn the water off again and this time removed all the inside mechanisms of the antisiphon valve just to see if the underground sprikler system was working. So there is NOTHING blocking the water coming off the main line and going directly into the solenoid manifold. Turn the water back on, hose spigot is flowing like it should. Turn it off and fire up the sprinkler system, nothing. Great, thought I may have cut some wires loose or something. But, I noticed that the spigot is not working anymore either. ***????? Turn off the main water, wait about 3 minutes and turn it back on, I got water going to the spigot. So, I said I'll fool with this thing later but at least I got water running. Hook up the hose and beging to water the yard and guess what? It too stops working. Now remember, this is with the antisiphon valve on pretty much bypass mode. With the main water line still on, I get brave and open up the top of the antisiphon valve and there is very little pressure. I'm talking just a trickle, but the main line is wide open.
Everything worked as it should Friday afternoon. The only thing I did was tighten a solenoid valve and nothing else. Why or where is this thing blocked for some reason. I got good pressure, my house line works fine, now it's on a separate meter but coming off the same main city water line, so I know there is nothing wrong with that. I had suspected blockage, so early today I took the top off of the antisiphon valve and let that puppy run loose for about 5 minutes. But that didn't help. I lost. Is there some sort of mechanical gate valve between the meter and the antisiphon valve??? ANY HELP WILL BE APPRECIATED because I have exhausted all avenues on this.
It's a Toro system, put in about 95 or so. Now I'll try and explain what's going on the best I can. I have a separate water meter. So it goes like this...city water-shutoff valve-meter-about 20 feet or so of PVC to the antisiphon or backflow preventer vacuum valve(which is elevated)-from that PVC to the solenoids and the distribution system. It worked great Friday but later that night I happen to walk by it and noticed where the valve box was, was flooded. Turn system off at the shut off valve. Saturday morning, dig it out and seems that one of the solenoid valves was leaking. Got out the channel locks and tighten it up and seemed to stop the leak. Go to fire up the system, nothing. I also have a water spigot past the antisiphon valve and there was nothing coming out of it. So I suspected the antisiphon valve. Turn water off and take that valve apart. Nothing really seemed wore out or out of place, so put it back together and same thing happen, no water. Turn the water off again and this time removed all the inside mechanisms of the antisiphon valve just to see if the underground sprikler system was working. So there is NOTHING blocking the water coming off the main line and going directly into the solenoid manifold. Turn the water back on, hose spigot is flowing like it should. Turn it off and fire up the sprinkler system, nothing. Great, thought I may have cut some wires loose or something. But, I noticed that the spigot is not working anymore either. ***????? Turn off the main water, wait about 3 minutes and turn it back on, I got water going to the spigot. So, I said I'll fool with this thing later but at least I got water running. Hook up the hose and beging to water the yard and guess what? It too stops working. Now remember, this is with the antisiphon valve on pretty much bypass mode. With the main water line still on, I get brave and open up the top of the antisiphon valve and there is very little pressure. I'm talking just a trickle, but the main line is wide open.
Everything worked as it should Friday afternoon. The only thing I did was tighten a solenoid valve and nothing else. Why or where is this thing blocked for some reason. I got good pressure, my house line works fine, now it's on a separate meter but coming off the same main city water line, so I know there is nothing wrong with that. I had suspected blockage, so early today I took the top off of the antisiphon valve and let that puppy run loose for about 5 minutes. But that didn't help. I lost. Is there some sort of mechanical gate valve between the meter and the antisiphon valve??? ANY HELP WILL BE APPRECIATED because I have exhausted all avenues on this.
