Ok well I picked up 4 of the hunter valves you like since 2 of the 4 orbit ones I bought on amazon were cracked… I got the adapters for it… so should be good there…
As far as the backflow valve goes… these guys say they’ve never seen it… I’m gonna have to look harder in the plumbing section to find it… otherwise I guess I could order it on amazon but wanted to get this done this weekend…
***and I assume in the pic you showed- the painted pipe that comes of at a 90 degree angle is the one that goes back to the sprinklers… the copper one coming from the ground is from the main line from city???
For the male adapters, just make sure the size of the glue end matches what you have in your current system that you are tying in to. The picture looks like a straight 1" male adapter, but most likely you will need a reducing male to get it down to 3/4, but I dont know for sure what you have in place after your current indexing valve.
In my picture, you are correct on the piping. Line on right coming out if the ground is the city main. Left, after the backflow is the line going to the various valves around my yard.
As for the backflow, they should have it. I’ve not seen a Home Depot without them…
Yeah I just showed another person the item on their website… they say they don’t carry it… it has to be ordered… they only carry the one valve things like this pic below… so I guess I’ll order it on amazon…
In Florida you don’t need brass back-flow presenters, your old control valve probably already has it. Look for something like this (HD link) or this (link).
I ended up just keeping mine, and using it as a master valve.
@tmcgahey is right, you definitely do not want yard water in your house in case lines develop suction.
Ok so it’s been a couple years since I initially wired my Rachio 3 with the indexing valve… just want to make sure I’m doing it right before I really switch this…
So the anti-siphon valve has 2 black wires and each individual zone valve has 2 red wires… I assume one of each of the red wires from the individual valves gets combined with one of the black wires from the antisiphon and the remaining red wires get attached to a new wire in order to take it to the controller but what happens to the remaining black wire from the antisiphon thing… I assume one of those black wires goes into the “M” part of the controller but there’s 2 of the black wires and I thought you had to connect one of each of the reds to one black so I dunno…???
Also do you know any better way to enclose the wires going from the antisiphon valve to the controller… this is how I had done it in my old system (but I’m installing a new anti-siphon by the old one is leaking now)… I had to “piece together” a way to seal/cover it
Ok so it’s been a couple years since I initially wired my Rachio 3 with the indexing valve… just want to make sure I’m doing it right before I really switch this…
So the anti-siphon valve has 2 black wires and each individual zone valve has 2 red wires… I assume one of each of the red wires from the individual valves gets combined with one of the black wires from the antisiphon and the remaining red wires get attached to a new wire in order to take it to the controller but what happens to the remaining black wire from the antisiphon thing… I assume one of those black wires goes into the “M” part of the controller but there’s 2 of the black wires and I thought you had to connect one of each of the reds to one black so I dunno…???
Also do you know any better way to enclose the wires going from the antisiphon valve to the controller… this is how I had done it in my old system (but I’m installing a new anti-siphon by the old one is leaking now)… I had to “piece together” a way to seal/cover it
If you old ani siphon valve is leaking / broken, you’ll want to cut it out and install a new one in it’s place. Not sure what you meant by installing a new one in parallel, it would not stop the leaks.
The valve itself is just another valve. It may be easier to simply run a separate wire bundle to your new valves. Use different C terminal and zone terminals for individualized valves. Do not run the wires through the master valve, as you thought. This is not a rain gauge and would not work correctly in such configuration.
For the old valve or it’s replacement, the valves should be hooked up to M and one of the C terminals. Be sure to enable master valve option in software.
No need to do anything with the wires from any of the valves. If you have irrigation wiring, it is a direct bury wire. No need to seal the solenoid either…At the wire connections, just use water proof wire nuts.
One end of each of the wires will be wired back to the Rachio in each of the zone spots. The other wire from each solenoid will be wire nutted together with a single wire (usually white) back to Rachio which will connect to the C terminal.
Ok… but Do both the black wires that come off the antisiphon valve go together to the “M” terminal… gene says I should have an antisiphon valve instead of back flow preventer and that he uses his as his main…??? … not sure if that changes anything with respect to the flexibility of using each zone individually…
No, one will go to the M terminal, the other will go to a C (common) terminal, or can be bundled with the C wires from the other valves.
Since you have it, and it is functional, it will work. They essentially do the same thing, and give you the added benefit of a master valve. Once you set up Rachio and tell it that there is a master valve, it will work perfectly.
/7 is thicker only because it can handle more zones, individual wire thickness is the same. If you need to connect up to 4 zones, use /5; up to 6 zones than /7 (in either case one wire will be used for common).
I just wanted to give a huge thanks to you both for helping me out with all my questions!!!
I finished converting to individual valves during the week and finally filled in the huge hole today… just need some more dirt and then sod … here are some pics of the success with your guidance …thanks again!!
… here are some pics of the success with your guidance 
…thanks again!!
