The following photos were taken last year. They are common mistakes I have seen from time to time and if time was not a factor, I could put many more photos for you. I chose these ones because they are photos of the works of a contractor with "Lots of Experience". The reason I was there was because the lady called and said:"My system will not run past zone 4. Zone 4 runs for a while, then shuts off and none of it will work again for a couple days. The people who put it in have stopped coming around and it's never worked properly. There is also a leak in one of the valve boxes and always water around the box".
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Upon arriving at the site, I noticed this "pole" sticking out of the lawn with a rain sensor on it. I was not surprised to discover that it was right in the area of zone 4.
What was happening was that the sprinkler system filled the cup of the rain sensor, therefore shutting itself off and preventing operation. Only 12' away from its former home, the rain sensor is now up high where it should have been in the first place, on the rain gutter. With that problem rectified, I moved to the next problem on this system.
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Would you beleive that they crammed 3 valves in this little round box! To repair this valve leak I had to remove the box completely. Whoever piped the job did not "think it through" or try to make it an efficient valve manifold installation. The valves were sideways and upside down making them non servicable. I could not get my hands in there to activate the valves manually. They used electrical tape on their wire connections and very little teflon tape on the threads preventing a smooth assembly and causing the leak in the first place. The contractor told the customer that there was "no evidence of a leak and that it was rain water". Note the algy on the fittings. I removed the water for this photo.
There was very little valve box left that was not cut away to accommodate the lack of depth of this manifold.
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