Solenoid valve for hose bib

Troubleshooting Tech Support
1

I have a shallow well and above-ground 1hp pump for lawn irrigation. An electric timer with 8-zone capacity controls six independent zones. The pump is started by the timer via a Pump Start Relay.

A hose-bib is installed in the pump discharge line immediately prior to the six above-ground solenoid valves.

As it is, for water pressure to be made available at the hose bib, one of the zones has to be turned on at the timer.

Is there a way to add a zone for the hose bib for use independent of the other zones? I’d like to have the option of watering with the hose without having to turn on the sprinklers.

Thank you,

Ben

2

Presuming you are using zones 1-6 for your lawn, etc. and leaving zones 7-8 as unused, if you turn on zone 7 or 8, that should start the pump with pressure for the hose bib without running any zone in use. I do not know how the pump works if the bib was left off while the pump was on for a while though.

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3

Thank you. I’ll give it a try now!

4

That did it! I would never have figured it out. Thanks so much!

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5

Glad to hear it. Nice to not have to buy anything extra to get what you want. Out of curiosity, does the pump turn off once the water is up to pressure?

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6

I ran it for several minutes today, and the pump stayed on with good pressure at the hose. I’ll run it for awhile tomorrow and see if it stays on throughout the full watering evolution.

I read the user manuals for both pump and timer, and neither addressed my issue. I also found no intel on YouRube.

This forum restored my confidence in community knowledge. You must be a pump guru.

7

I would not call myself a pump guru. I do have one pump that gets used for a water feature periodically, but nothing else. Mostly curious about what happens. I would not want to find out a pump burned out or anything because it was pumping against no water flow if that could happen. Thank you for the info.

8

I used the pump today for 1.5 hours with no notice of pressure drop. Should I try to measure a temp increase of the pump next time? The water pressure was similar to that when I irrigate, about 20.