My controller went out last week - coincidentally (I think) it was after verizon changed my wifi to have 2.4 and 5 g separate. I thought this caused the controller to be offline, but there was no light so seemed like that was coincidence.
After talking to support, was sent a new controller. Installed today and zones 1 and 3 work, but 2,4,5,6 do not. Put the zone 1 wire in other slots and still work so seems to NOT be a controller issue. Support says I must bring in sprinkler co as it must be wires or solenoids, it just seems odd that 4 would stop working at same time (and not sequential zones either). Any thoughts or do I really just need to spend the $ to have them come out?
Do you know where your 6 valves are? Are they in 0, 1, 2, 3, or how many boxes? How many C(ommon) wires are there? Can you include a picture, before & after would be ideal?
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There are 6 valves in 2 boxes. sprinkler guy came today and got 1,2,3 in one box working - said c wire was cut in box but that really makes no sense as he had to search for box to even find it. He hasnt found box 2 yet. 4,5,6 not working. Got 4 working for a bit. He is saying raciho controller prob shorted out components, wants me to replace with another brand. system is very old. this is my 3rd rachio controller, each replaced by warranty.
more info - I bought the rachio monitoring - 2,4,5,6 were open. Now 4,6 open and 2 overcurrent 213ma, 5 overcurrent 678 ma
Great progress, I was thinking it sounded like at least a partial common (C) issue. The valve monitoring helps quite a bit. If your sprinkler guy is coming out again, I would suggest giving him the latest information. Open usually seems to mean wires are cut (less likely a problem with the solenoid). Overcurrent usually seems to mean the solenoid is bad (less likely wires are touching).
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This is what is inside the first box. They don’t know where the second box is yet but said there should be one. But some thing in this box got zone 4 working temporarily. Any insight on the incompatibility with Rachio and all systems? My sprinkler guy seems to really not want to work with it. I’m going to call another place today.
As long as the system was 24VAC, we should not see any compatibility issues. If it was, for example, 24VDC, we would likely see different symptoms. It looks like you have quite a few wires in that box. Sprinkler valves, especially the solenoid, can go out over time too. Also, wires can break as well. I neighbor was having issues recently and I found somewhere between the controller and valve, wires got touching. At the valve end, insulation was cracking as well.
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Thank you. Do you envision there is a second box after seeing this picture?
Seems likely, I cannot tell, but maybe all the wires come to this box and then go to another
all fixed, found 2nd box, was a cut wire issue.
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Good job @missy! It sounds weird, do you know how the wires got cut or did they break due to age?
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Age. He replaced a solenoid too