On May 5, 5:41*am, "
wrote:
On May 4, 10:14*pm, DD_BobK wrote:









On May 4, 5:56*pm, Steve Barker wrote:

On 5/4/2012 3:40 PM, genius wrote:
SNIP

it all boils down to how much current do the remote valves require or
pull? *You should be able to find the specs on the mfgr website. *24ga
won't carry much current. *But i can't imagine it needing to be 14.
Most the rainbird installations i've seen have used 18ga or so. *Some
18/8 thermostat cable may do the trick.

--
Steve Barker

+1

I originally wired up my front & back yard sprinker valves using a 14
gage wire.
I had a bunch of nearly used up 500' rolls and wanted to make sure
there was no voltage drop.

The each run was about 35' to controller location......basement, which
was a really dumb idea I had back in 1980.
Some time later I moved the controller to a more sensible location
(back yard patio).

In 2008 I redid some of the sprinkler system and was doing some
crawlspace work as part of the job.
I decided to run the properly sized wire, in the proper way and
settled on 18-8 thermostat cable.

I didn't find 18-8 thermostat cable at Home Depot so I bought it
online.
After the fact I discovered that Home Depot sells burial-able
sprinkler wire in all sorts of flavors.......
but they stock it in the plumbing dept (sprinklers) not in
electrical.....doh!

I installed a run of a cable to each valve manifold (35', 40' &
55').
The valve actuators are Champion CL-100-B's
The solenoid current:
In rush .59 amp
Hold * * .33 amp

I think I calc'd voltage drop at in-rush for the 55' run at about .5
volt (2%)

Everything has been working fine since 2008.

cheers
Bob

Thermostat wire does not have insulation rated for
burial. *Sprinkler wire which is readily available at HD,
hardware stores, online, etc does. *It's 18 gauge
which is all that's needed for that Orbit sprinkler
system. *Whoever put 12 gauge, which could handle
12 amps, in a sprinkler system is a real chowder
head. *The thing is powered off a wall wart for God's
sake.

I had a feeling someone would misunderstand my post.
The thermostat wire & direct burial sprinkler wire are by no means
interchangeable in all situations.

I did not bury the thermostat wire.....
I don't do direct burial of any wire (even the stuff rated for direct
burial), I use conduit.

I was talking merely discussing wire size.....


cheers
Bob