wrote:
I just moved into an old house that has a built in sprinkler system.
Unfortunately, one of the zones does not work, yet 2 of them do.

By researching previous posts, I've found some good ideas on how to
check if it is the wiring by hooking up the wires from a zone that
works to one that doesn't and testing it that way.

However, if it still does not work, apparently it is probably a valve
problem. The thing is, I didn't know that each zone had a valve and I
have no idea where a valve would be or what it would look like. I've
looked everywhere near that zone for some sort of cutoff switch in the
ground but can't find anything.

I'll be calling a sprinkler repair man if necessary but I'm trying to
avoid it.


FOLLOW UP: For those with sytems... how long and how often should I
water? I'm in Texas so the lawn requires frequent watering (I would
think) but I'm also trying to keep my water bill at a REASONABLE level.

Thanks!

This website has much more than you would ever wish to know about lawn
irrigation:

http://www.jessstryker.com/index.html

This is what a valve looks like:

http://www.irrigationtutorials.com/instal08.htm

If you have done any digging, you might have cut a wire. Installing a
new valve isn't too tough - figuring out what is wrong with one can be.
Depending on the layout of your lawn, the valves might be all together
at the beginning of the lines - I would start looking (if they are
buried and not in a valve box) along a straight line from the timer to
the first sprinkler head in the zone that doesn't work.

We did hours and hours of searching for the three buried valves on our
large condo lawn. With the last one, we ended up digging small holes
every few feet along the supply line, then following line-of-sight to go
along until we located the box. Wish I knew which dumbkoph buried them
all )