I noticed that my lawn & shrubs weren’t wet the past couple of days, but the Rachio app is reporting my schedule has been running. I checked out what I knew how on the Rachio controller and restarted it. I’m obviously getting a good WiFi connection as I receive updates on the app. However, a manual start of my zones through the app failed to present any water. I decided to manually turn on a valve and, did discover that I can get water across all of my zones by opening the valves manually.
I suspect there’s a way for me to activate a zone from the wiring at the controller to test the continuity at the closest point to the controller, but I’ve never done that before. I think that’s my next troubleshooting step. Any other suggestions before I do that? If that’s a next good step, do you have any websites you would suggest that have good troubleshooting suggestions and/or videos?
Thank you for reaching out! I’m sorry to hear that your controller doesn’t seem to be watering as expected. Another user in our community suggested that if you have a multimeter ($10 at any box store), you can check for voltage between common and the zone while the blue light is flashing. Set it to AC. Then do the same at the wires right at the valve (will have to take the wire connectors off). You can test at the power supply to see if your meter works.
The valves are all 24vac and the power supply for the controller is also 24vac, so you could connect them directly and see if the zone runs.
If I can find some videos, I’ll get those posted as well!
Just a follow up to close this out, I removed the top portion of the controller and pushed the wiress in tighter through the feed area into the connectors. I replaced the top portion and, sure enough, the unit started controlling the sprinklers again. So after a year plus of running, the unit had vibrated (mounted on a garage wall near the door) itself loose. Reseating it did the trick.
So this brings me to my next point, the power test via a multimeter as suggested won’t actually be a test that can be conducted. This is due to the fact that the power supply feeds the top unit, which is why I was still getting positive confirmation that my schedules were running despite the unit not actually sending power down the lines.
