Brighton Reticulation

Locating and Replacing a Leaky Solenoid in Two Rocks

If you see water running down your street like this from the sprinkler at the bottom of the hill then it means you have at least one leaky solenoid. The next step is to locate the correct solenoid and change it over. We can do this quickly with our solenoid detector and we can generally get the location perfect which minimises the digging in your lawn. Here you can see we have been able to pinpoint the faulty valve. Then once the valve is exchanges we test it and make sure all is working as it should be. And just […]

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Reticulation in Jindowie with Poor Water Pressure

  Recently I laid the main retic line for a client in Jindowie (a part of Yanchep). I’ve written before about water pressure issues in this part of the world and today we hit the same problem again. I use Richdel solenoids 99% of the time, but today they wouldn’t seal. They need a certain amount of backpressure and the water being what it is up here I just couldn’t get them to work. I changed them for Hunter PGVs and they worked fine. I’m not sure why Hunters will operate with the lower pressure, but they seem to be the […]

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Why Are My Sprinklers Just Dribbling?

I went to look at a job this week where the sprinklers were working, but barely so. Each station would dribble a small amount of water, but there was nowhere near enough to run the system. What was going on?… I guess the logical cause had to be the master solenoid being stuck and thereby reducing pressure all round. However I have changed these over before only to see no change in the performance so I was cautious, even moreso because the master was buried 600ml deep, encased in bricks and covered in rocks and rubble. Not fun to get […]

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My Controller Looks Like Its Working But Nothing is Coming on

So you set your controller running and everything looks right on the digital panel, but there is no water?… What’s going on?… Well if you are running your retic off the mains then its most likely that there is a problem with your master solenoid. If it isn’t working then you won’t get any water to the different stations. You can test if this is the issue by locating it, turning it on manually (usually you need to turn the coil a quarter turn anti-clockwise) and then running the system as usual. If everything works with the master valve open […]

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How to Add a Solenoid in a Tight Fitting Space

Holidays started today and then I got a call… ‘Can you just come and wire up some solenoids for me? I haven’t a clue how these things work’. It was another landscaper but someone who wasn’t confident with retic. ‘Sure…’ I said. That’ll take 5 mins. And then I got there and discovered he was in over his head. The pic above is the existing set up. You can see a master valve (left) and the two station valves. I expected to just be wiring up a new solenoid, but he couldn’t figure out how to get a new solenoid […]

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One Irrigation Zone Stays On With The Rest

A common problem is for one irrigation zone to remain on while the system goes thru its cycle. Almost invariably this is due to the solenoid on that station being faulty and being stuck open. Depending on what type of solenoid you have it is most likely going to be a faulty diaphragm or a seized coil. Usually it is best just to replace the entire solenoid and be sure that all will work well for a few years to come. If you wish to try and replace the diaphragm then remove the top half of the solenoid (you may be […]

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Reticulation Doesn’t come on in Quinns Rocks

When no sprinklers operate at all you have a few possible problems. Your controller may be faulty Your master valve may be faulty You may have a broken wire to the master valve This morning I was working on a job like this in Quinns Rocks. The controller looked fine, but when I checked the master solenoid, the coil had just about exploded, rendering it useless. The coil is the electrical component and operates by retracting a small steel plunger and allowing water to flow. A new coil solved the problem and the rest of the system was fine.

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One Station of Reticulation Is Stuck on

A common problem at this time of year is for one station to remain on while the system goes thru its cycle. Or you may have a constant weep around sprinklers Depending on what type of solenoid you have it is most likely going to be a faulty diaphragm. Usually it is best just to replace the entire solenoid and be sure that all will work well for a few years to come. If you wish to try and replace the diaphragm then remove the top half of the solenoid (you may be able to screw it off if it […]

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Solenoids Are Directional

So you have put a new solenoid on but it doesn’t seem to be sealing? Chances are you may have put it on back to front. Yes – solenoids are intended for water flow in one direction only. If you can’t seem to get the water to stop then check the base of the solenoid to see which way the arrow is pointing and if it isn’t in the direction of water flow then you will need to remove it and turn it around. Another test is to see if the solenoid seals when you turn it ‘on’. Sometimes when […]

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When Retic Won’t Switch Off

There can be a few causes of this, but its rare that it happens. Typically when a system doesn’t have a master valve any time a solenoid fails the retic will leak, but its very unusual when there is a master valve. I was at a property this week where the retic ‘wouldn’t shut off’. When I got there the ball valve that isolates the retic had been closed because it wouldn’t stop running on station 1. I opened the ball valve and nothing happened… So obviously it had shut off… I checked the controller and it was an X […]

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