I was running late for work. As I put the car in reverse and backed out a few feet, I noticed that my side sprinklers were still on! "What the hell" I mumbled to myself. Actually, I probably said something far worse. I was tired, these sprinklers should have shut off hours earlier, and my mental faculties were exhausted. I have an active mind, it doesn't shut off when five-o-clock rolls around, and stress at work affects how I deal with small problems such as this one.
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| Solenoid and valves |
After spending nearly ten minutes trying to figure out how to manually shut off the sprinklers, I found the answer was to loosen a plastic screw near the black solenoid to let water flood a chamber which should cause the solenoid pin to withdraw. (I'm assuming this is how it works). Colleagues at work would tell me the problem was due to this thing or that thing. Some would blame the solenoid, and others would say it must be a broken o-ring. The only thing I knew about o-rings was from the Challenger explosion.
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| Dirty |
Anyway, on my first attempt, I was unable to do much as the valve cover (nut) didn't want to come off. The second attempt went much better. I turned off the secondary water, and was able to remove the solenoid and valve cover to take a look into the murky depths of the valve. It was filthy, and that was clearly causing the solenoid pin to have issues. Good, no splicing for me! I replaced the valve cover (nut), filter, spring, o-ring, and tested the station for a good while. It was finally shutting off as requested.
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