Can Water Quality Affect Solenoids?

Posted on 29th April 2012 in bore, solenoids

I have a friend who lives in Quinns Rocks and is on a shared bore. In the last year we have replaced 3 solenoid coils on the same valve because they have corroded and become stuck open.

I haven’t seen this happen before, but it seems that the minerals in the water (or perhaps the salt) may be corroding the solenoid piston and causing it to fail.

At the moment I don’t have a suitable solution, but it may be that we need to find a solenoid that does not have any metallic parts. You obviously can’t change coils every few months so there must be a better way to hit the problem.

If you have had any similar problems then I’d love to hear about it

 

 

 

This is the Brighton Reticulation Blog and our main site can be found here For service or advice with the issues in this post call Andrew on 0400044236, or email us here
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My Bore Won’t Come on

Posted on 22nd February 2012 in bore, Controllers

Normally when your bore starts up you hear a ‘clunk’ sound as the bore starter kicks in. If you can’t hear this then chances are your relay to the starter is faulty or the problem is in your control box.

If the control box looks ok then you will need to call an electrician to have a look at the relay switch.

 

This is the Brighton Reticulation Blog and our main site can be found here For service or advice with the issues in this post call Andrew on 0400044236, or email us here
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Running Sprinklers off a Bore

Posted on 22nd February 2012 in bore, Products, sprinklers

Which sprinklers should you run from a bore?

You have a couple of things to consider:

a) Flow rate: often bores allow you to run much greater numbers of sprinklers than a standard mains pressure system. 80l/min is normal as opposed to 30 off the mains.

b) Pump run time: every minute your bore is running is costing you money in electricity and wear and tear on your pump.

That said you don’t want to simply be governed by the cheapest option. In my own backyard I have 3 different types of sprinklers running. We have 4 big heavy duty gear drives on the verge, regular pop ups in the garden beds and then MP rotators in the lawn areas. It means the pump runs for aprox 2 hours each time it comes on, but we have chosen sprinklers that will fit the areas and do the best job.

 

 

This is the Brighton Reticulation Blog and our main site can be found here For service or advice with the issues in this post call Andrew on 0400044236, or email us here
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Problems With a Shared Bore

Posted on 30th October 2011 in bore, Never Seen That One Before, solenoids

Shared bores are a great idea in that only one whole gets drilled and can serve two or three properties. But shared bores can also raise some interesting challenges – and can be similar to the dreaded ‘neighbourhood fence’.

The question of who is responsible when it breaks down can be tricky. The question of what happens if my neighbour can’t afford his share of the repairs is also a grey area.

This week I have encountered two problems with shared bores and the solutions are interesting and worth knowing.

On Friday a friend rang and told me that his sprinklers kept coming on even though it wasn’t his watering days. He is on a shared bore and the obvious solution is that he has a solenoid stuck open. So everyone on the 3 properties is then inconvenienced until he fixes his solenoid. That sounded like the solution but then it got weird…

He went home to replace the solenoid yesterday but after turning the pump on to test the system he couldn’t stop the water flow. He unplugged his control box and still the water kept flowing. Eventually he had to go next door to his neighbour’s place and turn the pump off at the mains to stop the water. When he turned it back on the same problem occurred. A chat with an electrician suggests this is a faulty relay switch on his line and that when activated it is unable to shut down.

Thankfully he was able to access the main switch otherwise it would have been a lot of water down the drain.

He is getting the relay switch looked at this week so we will see what develops

 

 

This is the Brighton Reticulation Blog and our main site can be found here For service or advice with the issues in this post call Andrew on 0400044236, or email us here
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My Reticulation has Lost Pressure

Posted on 11th October 2011 in bore, Repairs

Ok so you have noticed a drop in pressure on your sprinklers.

Believe it or not the first place to check is your water meter. Make sure someone hasn’t turned the pressure down here. It happens… I have no idea why people do it but that’s the first test.

Then check and see if it is on just one station or on all.

If its ‘all’ then you have a break in your mainline – that’s the 25ml or 40ml main pipe that feeds to the solenoids. This should show up in a large puddle of water somewhere.  You may need to leave it on for a while if its just a small crack as it will take a while for it to show through.

If its just one station then you will have either a broken pipe in the line or a broken riser.

 

Check for pooling around the sprinklers as that will indicate a riser problem. If you can move the sprinkler then its likely the riser is broken. If not then you will need to check the line for cracks and breaks. This can be a long tedious process as you will need to locate the break and sometimes its not obvious.

A small crack can result in a significant pressure drop but can be a pain to find.

Here’s one my father worked on recently. His pressure on this one station dropped significantly and he ended up having to trace the line until he found the problem – a joint that had cracked.

 

If you have a drop in pressure then the only solution is to keep looking till you find it – or call us and we will look for you!

 

 

This is the Brighton Reticulation Blog and our main site can be found here For service or advice with the issues in this post call Andrew on 0400044236, or email us here
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Installing a Bore

Posted on 3rd October 2011 in bore, In My Own Backyard, Installing

We’re still working on landscaping at our own property and the latest project has been to get a bore put down. Once that is sorted we can retic the areas already developed and then get the bobcat in to help us prepare the new areas.

So today Luke from Aqua Attack arrived to drill the bore. It would have taken them a couple of hours but they hit a cave and some of the slotted pipe got lost meaning they had to take a bit longer.

They drilled down 25m or so and will be back on Friday to install the pump and do the electrics.

Here are a few pics of the truck backed up and drilling.

The tub for circulating water and sludge

 

Adding another piece of the drill

 

This is the Brighton Reticulation Blog and our main site can be found here For service or advice with the issues in this post call Andrew on 0400044236, or email us here
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A Shared Bore?

Posted on 1st October 2011 in bore, Never Seen That One Before

So you’re considering getting a bore…

Personally I think that’s a great idea as it reduces the amount of scheme water spread across lawns and gardens, will save you money in water bills and is also a capital investment.

If you’re going that route then you may like to consider a shared bore. This is an arrangement by which 2 or 3 neighbours on adjacent properties access the same bore, but pay for their own running costs.

I haven’t seen too many of these around to know how successful they are, but my guess is they would need to be undergirded by a fairly concrete written agreement as to what happened when the thing broke down. I can see the potential for the equivalent of a fence dispute to arise with this issue.

However if everyone is amicable it could also be a good cost saving way of watering the garden for all parties.

By the way if you ask me to come and service your retic and you’re operating it from a shared bore then be sure to let me know. I arrived to do a basic service on a property last week not realising it was a shared bore. I turned the system on but got no water – not realising that the other partner on whose property the bore control was located had tuned it off!

The control box was still wired up to run a master valve so I figured this must be the problem. After locating the master valve and seeing it was operating ok I noticed the ball valve had been turned to off. Strange…

But I got the system up and running only to hear it losing water somewhere… That somewhere was thru a 25ml pipe to the neighbour’s property. Had the neighbour ‘hacked into’ my customer’s retic?…

It was only after I had cut the pipe and capped it that it dawned on me what was going on.

It was a shared bore and the mains ball valve had been turned off because of that.

All’s well that ends well, but it did end up costing more time and money than either of us had expected.

 

 

 

 

 

This is the Brighton Reticulation Blog and our main site can be found here For service or advice with the issues in this post call Andrew on 0400044236, or email us here
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Getting a Bore

Posted on 15th September 2011 in bore

Having moved into a place with no reticulation, we decided that this time around we would fork out the $$ for a bore, figuring we will be here a while so it will eventually pay for itself. I’m thinking that as water becomes more expensive it will also be a valuable capital investment.

 

After getting 3 quotes we have decided on the person we want to install the bore. The decision was based on quality of product, confidence in the person and price. We were impressed with another operator who had a great sales pitch, but it was going to cost $4400.00 instead of $3300.00 – quite a difference and we couldn’t see the need to spend that much extra.

 

If you want to know how your house is situated for a bore then go to the Perth Groundwater Atlas and zoom in on your home. You will be able to determine how deep you need to go to find water as well as some other data. This is the info drillers use to formulate quotes. A site visit is more to determine location of bore, control box etc.

 

These days bores are not huge ugly wells with large round covers, but are small and virtually unnoticeable. I’ll let you know how we go with the bore as it happens.

This is the Brighton Reticulation Blog and our main site can be found here For service or advice with the issues in this post call Andrew on 0400044236, or email us here
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Installing a Bore in Yanchep

Posted on 15th May 2011 in bore, Installations, Installing, Local Knowledge

 

In a month or so we will move house to Yanchep and to a house with no reticulation. Fortunately I know a bloke who can help…

 

So at some point over the winter period I will be getting busy installing my own reticulation and it will likely involve a bore. Its a 950sqm block in old Yanchep so it seems to make sense to invest in a bore to service that kind of an area.

 

 

The diagnosis of the groundwater by the Perth Ground Water Atlas of where we will be living looks quite promising (see the above diagram) so we’re hopeful that getting the bore down won’t be a major expense (any more than bores usually are)

 

From there it will be a case of figuring out the best way to supply water to the various parts of the property. These will include some lawn, a significant permaculture veggie patch and some regular garden areas.

 

Depending on the $$ factor we may rig up our retic to run off the mains for a bit but with the ability to easily change it to a bore when we can.

 

Once we begin work I will be doing some regular updates on here detailing how we have gone about reticulating our own home and why we have chosen the methods we have.

 

 

This is the Brighton Reticulation Blog and our main site can be found here For service or advice with the issues in this post call Andrew on 0400044236, or email us here
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Installing a Bore in Perth

Posted on 11th May 2011 in bore, Installations, Installing, Local Knowledge

 

If you are considering having a bore drilled then one of the key questions is ‘how deep do we have to go to hit water?’

 

I only found out recently about the Perth Ground Water Atlas that actually provides you with exactly that information.

 

Simply zoom in on your property click on the appropriate link and you will see a new window open with the information you are seeking. From there you will get an idea of how available the water supply is.

 

Pretty useful hey?

This is the Brighton Reticulation Blog and our main site can be found here For service or advice with the issues in this post call Andrew on 0400044236, or email us here
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