Nothing to do with irrigation or lawn sprinklers today. The whole company went on a canoe trip down Blackwater River. It was a nice 11 mile stretch. It was a nice workout and great to get out in the wilderness. I had a great time and hope everyone else on the team did as well.
Back to irrigation work tomorrow. Good night.
The e-book and other information in my website offers covers the best design, plan, and application for residential landscape / lawn irrigation systems. Commercial systems can be slightly different depending on the actual size and application of the project.
But, for your average yard my e-book does a great job at simplifying the process 0f designing, planning, and building your automatic irrigation systems. I can show you the basics, while condensing the information so that you still thoroughly understand it without too much extra “full” of other information that you don’t need to do.
I strongly believe that you will benefit from the unique irrigation information contained on my website and I guarantee that you will see an improvement on your planning, designing, installing, and maintaining your irrigation system.
Scott Young
http://www.autolawnsprinklers.com
Pressure tanks are great for the proper applications, but too often I run into a system that should have utilized a pump-start relay instead of a pressure tank. But pressure tanks are great for house water or for any on-demand water system.
Pressure tanks eventually go bad. The diaphragms or bladders inside them go bad and they no longer continue to hold air pressure. The tanks naturally loose air due to attrition (natural air loss) over time and may just need a re-boost or re-fill to the proper air pressure level.
You need a typical or standard tire pressure gauge to do this. You also need to determine the pressure switch’s cut-on and cut-off pressure. This can be determined first by looking at the inside cover of the pressure switch cover, and then verified by measuring the air pressure in the tank when the pump cuts on and cuts off.
As a rule of thumb, I adjust the tanks to 2psi less than the pressure switch cut on/off psi adjustments. For instance, if you have a typical 30/50psi switch then I will set the air in the pressure tank to 28 psi to cut on and thus will cut the system off at approximately 48 psi. This was taught to me by a well driller that I worked with for many years.
I do not recommend the use of pressure tanks with horizontal centrifugal pumps! Without adjusting the spread screw just right, you wil have problems. and this can prove to be more difficult than it seems; trust me, if I have been through this many times! I centrifugal pump will only get up to like 40 – 45 psi. A jet pump will run from 50 – 70 psi typically depending on system design and volume of water source. This makes using pressure switches on jet pumps much easier.
With submersible pumps and jet pumps, pressure tanks and pressure switches can be beneficial if designed, sized, and used correctly. The whole point of a pressure tank is too reduce stress on the pump. But if your pump is continuously turning on and off then you are causing more harm to your pump then if it just runs longer. This happens when a tank is undersized or used with the wrong type of well and pump setup.
For irrigation systems, a like using pump-start relays instead of pressure tanks. For house water or on-demand water systems, then a pressure tank is necessary. Just make sure that if you are doing this yourself, that you consult with your irrigation supplier to make sure that you get the right parts, do not under-size your tank, and get the correct pressure switch needed for your particular water application.
There are a number of reasons why your irrigation pump “won’t work”. First of all let’s establish what someone means by saying “not working”. Does the motor run, but no water comes out? Or does the pump motor not come on at all?
If the pump motor runs, but no water is coming out then most likely it lost prime. You may just need to fill up the pump housing or volute with water and turn on and wait a few minutes to regain prime. But, the check valve or foot valve is probably bad and needs to be replaced because it is the main part that holds the prime. If you have a horizontal, centrifugal pump you will have a check valve up top by the inlet of the pump. If you have a vertical jet pump, then you will have a foot valve on a separate pipe that is inside the well anywhere from 40 to 80 feet deep on average.
If the pump does not come on at all, it cold be a couple of other things. The most obvious is that the pump motor went out and needs to be replaced. If the pump is less than 8 years old, I would recommend a pump motor replacement (after all other items have been troubleshooted and ruled out) but if the pump is older, then you may as well replace the whole pump considering the costs, trouble, and return on investment.
However, the pump itself could be fine. Always start troubleshooting at your power source. Check the circuit breaker and see if it is tripped. If it is, this is an indication of a short in either the wiring or the pump motor. If the breaker is not tripped, check for proper voltage at the breaker (typically 220 to 240 volts). If the breaker is fine, then check for proper voltage at the pump’s wiring terminals. If you are getting nothing or insufficient voltage, then you definitely have a short in the wire leading from the breaker to the pump. The best thing to do is replace the whole wire, but you may also try to find the problem and fix it, but this could end up costing you more money and time than just replacing the whole thing.
Pumps may be re-built, but they are never the same. Even with a new motor, impeller(s), and gaskets they will never perform like they were when they were new. I would say that this is especially true for vertical jet pumps. The water ports or veins get clogged up over time. You have to dissect the pump to expose the internal ports and then you’ll see there are spaces that are about impossible to clean out completely. The clogged passage ways reduce available flow and thus pressure.
When learning how to design irrigation systems you are taught to centralize the vales in the middle or also close to the middle of the zone as possible. This is so you don’t have too much pressure loss down line at the further heads, and this is very important in bigger and commercial systems.
Manifold is where you have all the main valves close together so that you have very little main line and wire depending the location of the timer and power source.
But, I’ve learned that with smaller to medium size residential yards that a manifold valve system can work great. You save wire and main- line pipe, but may create some more lateral line pipe. I like doing manifold systems on small residential or a couple to several group of valves on a slightly larger system that may require more zones due to complexity of landscape, water source, or other factors. But, a couple separate groups of valves could be beneficial due to design purpose.
On larger commercial systems, it becomes very important to centralize (put in the the middle of the zone) the valves. If not done correctly, there will be a noticeable pressure difference between the closer heads to the valve and the further sprinkler heads, possibly making the system not correctly functional.
But, if you are building 16- 20 gallon per minute zones (or smaller) you can get away with manifolding your valves. Remember, you can still branch off and split the zones to get equal volume flow and pressure, but it is not that crucial to be perfect, thus making it easier for the average person to design and build a decent home sprinkler system.
Scott Young
http://www.autolawnsprinklers.com
When replacing your lawn sprinkler timer, a.k.a. controller, it can be a simple process or can quickly turn into a complicated, frustrated ordeal that cannot figure how to get working. I can give you some tips to help you with this because I’ve already experienced it myself and with training numerous employees.
Replacing your timer will very depending on model and type but there are two main types, Digital, and Mechanical. Digital have the LCD screens with the time, a dial to select different settings, and push buttons to make different adjustments. Mechanical timers have a time and day wheel dial and also pins to use for the setting of time on each sprinkler zone.
There are also Electro-Mechanical timers such as the Rain Bird RC series timer which are now discontinued, but there are still many out three working strong. Electro-mechanical timers have dials but still use electric valves to operate the zones and have very similar type of wiring as digital timers. In today’s blog I will cover how to replace digital timers. In my next blog I will explain how to replace a mechanical timers.
Digital timers run on 110V (approx + or – 10 %) and have a 24V transformer inside them to step-down the voltage for the circuit board and to send correct voltage to the solenoids on electric valves.
Step 1: Turn off the power supply to the timer. This may be a breaker outside, in the garage, or may just be a plug in the wall for indoor timers. (If your’s is plugged into a normal wall socket you may skip to step X).
Step 2: Expose the HV to transformer connection. To get to this you may have to remove a junction box cover with small screws. As long as you have no voltage, then proceed to removing the wire splices at the timer. Before removing any wiring, write down everything! It should be as simple as green to ground, black to black, and white to white, but if you did not install it yourself you never know what kind of strange wiring someone may have rigged up. Write down everything, heck take a picture with your camera phone!
Step 3. Use your multi-meter to make sure you have shut off the correct breaker. Carefully remove any wire nuts covering the connection or contact points. If you are still getting voltage, then you don’t have the correct breaker or may have a deeper electrical problem. Check your circuit breaker panel, but then call an electrician if you cannot figure it out or do not feel safe doing it!
Step 4. Loosen and undo the conduit at the timer for the irrigation wiring. IMPORTANT DO NOT REMOVE ANY WIRES YET!
Step 5: Expose to irrigation wires leading to the zones spots on the timer/controller. Usually this as simple as opening the timer panel, or removing a small plastic plate by hand or with screws with some models.
Step 5: Write down what color wire goes to each individual spot on the timer. For example, your “MV” or “Master valve is very important. If the “MV spot has a red wire on it, then write down “MV-Red”. The “Com” spot is another important one to get correct or nothing else will work right. Write down “com-white”. If there are two or three commons because of the master valve and numerous multi-strand wires leading in the timer then just write “com-3whites”. You will typically have more than one common. If the color of the wire is blue for station or zone 1 write “1-blue”. I’m sure you get the picture. *If your system was done in all the same color wires, you should use a label gun or white stickers and label or write down the number of each zone.
Step 6: Now remove the irrigation wiring from the timer. Also Pull out the conduit after loosening the conduit adapter fitting. Depending on the model sprinkler timer, the wire will be held on the terminal with a screw, or it may have a small lever to push to release and remove the wire. I would say that most have models use Phillip head screws.
Step 7: Remove the old box/timer from the wall or mounted spot. Most timers are mounted with screws.
Step 8: Mount your new box. IMPORTANT – Make sure that your irrigation wires and HV wires are going to reach to the correct spot on the new timer. If you are replacing with a different model controller, then you may have to mount the new clock slightly lower or to the side depending. If you have this problem and still want your new timer in the same spot, you will have to make splices, but I do not recommend this! Every splice is a potential problem. Remember, the less splices, the better!
Step 9: Connect your irrigation wiring. Use your notes and connect every wire to the correct spot.
Step 10. Reconnect your HV wiring
Step 11. Secure your conduit fittings.
Step 12: Turn your breaker back on or plug the timer into the wall.
Step 13: Test your system. Make sure that each zone is working.
Good luck and hope this info helps! If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.
