I have recently purchased a home with Gen 2 Racchio, which controls 6 drip zones. So I am unfamiliar with this system. It appears that some or all 6 zones open as scheduled or by manual, but there is extremely little water flow into each. I think there is a central valve unit which may control all 6 zones (see below), so may be mal-functioning or possibly a setting issue? Thx
That box in your picture looks like an Antelco eZyvalve 4 Zone Valve Box. I cannot quite zoom in enough to tell. However, the following is what it looks like to me. The “bottom” drip line is the water input, the sprinkler wire going to it, and four drip lines coming out of it. In other words, this box has four small valves in it.
So, if you have six zones, you will have to have another one of these or some other set of valves. Being that the input on this is already drip line, I might even guess you may have a pressure reducer valve as well. I definitely could be wrong on any of this. How many zone seem to work? How many zone wires are connected to the Rachio and is there a master valve wire connected to it as well? The low pressure may be caused by a filter, pressure valve not adjusted right, clogging, and a myriad of other things.
How little pressure and flow are we talking? Drip is exactly that…a drip. You will rarely see standing water, and usually just creates a damp spot. Drip systems typically will have a pressure reducer plumbed in at the system that will reduce pressure to 10-30 psi MAX. Like @Thomas_Lerman said, the Antelco solenoid box should only run 1 zone at a time, unless they have them all wired together for some reason.
Troy,
Thank you so much for your responses. I’m going to investigate a little more and get back to you with more info. It is great to have assistance from someone who knows what they’re talking about.
John Belcher
8118 Fremont Ave. N
Seattle WA 98103
303 877-4583
Don’t give me that much credit! 
Hey @tmcgahey, who said he was talking about you? Totally kidding. You do provide great assistance and know what you are talking about.
I forgot if you have one of those Antelco boxes? I got one recently, but have not hooked it up yet. I am looking forward to making use of it although my Rachio will have all zones used.
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I dont personally, but I have helped friends install them for a set of 4 raised bed gardens. I think they are great for certain applications like that, but since you still have to run wires back to the controller, IMHO, it isn’t much more work to install regular irrigation valves. I don’t know longevity or serviceability, so jury is out.
Yeah, I was wondering the same thing about them. I already ran wires most of the way there. After finishing and doing plumbing, I will be set. Worse case is that I could swap it out for regular valves if it fails.
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Men,
The box is the Antelco 4 zone and I have found a second similar box. 3 pics show:
- Water input to box
- Water source from hose bib – is there a pressure reduce valve on this connection?
- Water spots from drip lines on zone 1 after running for 45 minutes – spots are no bigger than 6” diameter. The schedule I inherited and not changed is each zone runs for 8-10 minutes every day (unless “skip day”).
2 emails to follow with short videos illustrating pressure. Thanks much guys,
John Belcher
8118 Fremont Ave. N
Seattle WA 98103
303 877-4583
I would check the pressure at the hose bib. I do not see a pressure reducer there, but could be wrong. The adapter from the drip line to the bib looks a bit long. but maybe the bib was not turned up very much. I would figure out how much to turn the spigot to get a good pressure, but not too high. If you can get good pressure there, move to the other end where you can disconnect the source water on the box (it might ‘Y’ or ‘T’ to both boxes). If it has a drip in pressure, you might have an obstruction or kink. If that is good, keep working down the line by connecting the source on the box and disconnect an output line from the box, checking the pressure. Anyway, I am trying to walk you through a process of elimination. It is hard to tell on the last picture if it is a drip line or drip emitters. It is possible either of those are clogged.
Thomas/Troy,
Attached pics illustrate flow:
- Hose bib flow through a garden hose
- Disconnected the inflow line at the valve box, connected to the garden hose and opened fully – so clear pressure drop. I would think there is indeed a pressure reduction valve at the hose bib connection. But I would also guess the inflow could be adequate (even appropriate) for the drip zones?
So my next guess is valve issues? We had a few unusually low cold snaps here in Seattle this winter, so maybe damaged the valves? Appreciate your advice – can I test the valves somehow? Thanks much.
John Belcher
8118 Fremont Ave. N
Seattle WA 98103
303 877-4583
Yes, definitely seems like a pressure drop. It is hard to tell if that is too much or about right. I will assume about right.
Next, I would suggest doing something similar to the outflow of one of the valves. Disconnect that line and turn on that valve either manually or through the ratio app. You might hear the valve turn on and should see about the same pressure water coming out. If you feel so inclined, you could try the same thing on all the valves.
As you said, maybe for those driplines, what you are seeing is the normal. I am really not sure as I have emitters instead. It is possible that a small area on the surface can be a rather large area under the surface.
Thomas/Troy
Attached are flow pics for 2 zones out of original valve box. The flows look low to me, but are probably ok for their limited irrigation areas. The 2nd box is deep in a bamboo bed – quite a challenge to dig out through the roots, which may well be the source of very low pressure. Thx,
John Belcher
8118 Fremont Ave. N
Seattle WA 98103
303 877-4583
I wish I had mine hooked up so I could compare it to what you were seeing.
Well, lets think about this for a minute. It looks like you might have Rain Bird Drip Tubing, which has built in emitters spaced 18" apart. Each of those emitters has a .9 gph flow rate out of the tube. You say this wet spot is after 45 minutes of watering, so you put down about .68 gallons of water in that 45 minute timeframe. If you were to slowly pour a gallon jug on the ground over the course of 45 minutes, how big of a spot do you think it would make?
And yes, you 100% have a pressure reducing device on the hose bib end of the line. Most likely 20-25psi, which is pretty much ideal pressure for drip.
All in all, I think it is working just fine. Only, 45 minutes isn’t really much time in the world of slow application drip. My drip runs for over 3.5 hours, and I put down 4-8 gph depending on vegitation.
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Thank you @tmcgahey for answering that, I am learning about drip still and have not used the drip tubing. You answer helped me too. I only have emitters at 2 GPH in my raised beds and are running 1:11 (flex daily) at this time. At first, I was thinking that might not be enough, but have quite a few emitters per bed and the vegetables that I planted late seemed to have done well last year considering the lateness.
Troy/Thomas. Thanks again for the input/advice. My plan is to hack away the bamboo roots enough to test the outflow from that valve box for each of its 4 zones. If that seems reasonable I will cut at least one outgoing line after it has exited the bamboo forest to test that; i.e. has the line been squeezed by the bamboo? In the meantime, it has cooled off quite a bit and we got some fair drizzle late yesterday.
John Belcher
8118 Fremont Ave. N
Seattle WA 98103
303 877-4583
Well, like I said, 45 minutes of run time isn’t a lot with only .9gph at each emitter. Bamboo is pretty thirsty I believe (I’m in AZ and no way I could grow it), so if it is suffering, I think you just need to increase time…