Irrigation system solenoid and valve locations?
 

I am pretty sure the solenoid has failed for Zone 4 in my irrigation system but am having a heck of a time finding where it is located. I have a Moonstone, a patio villa. Does anyone know what the container looks like that houses the solenoids and valves? The solenoids and valves are not exposed - that would have made it very easy.

Thanks for any help on locating these. I will have a wire finder in a week or two and can trace it out, but with the heat and lack of rain, my grass is dying (which is how I found out the zone has failed).


Additional Info:
I am pretty sure it is a solenoid, though it could be block in the line (I have an endoscope and will survey it tomorrow) since the entire zone is not working. To verify it was not the controller, I moved the wire for zone 4 to zone 1 (which is working) and nothing happened. Putting zone 1 back in place showed zone 1 working just fine.

There should be a pretty large plastic box near the house in the front and close to the irrigation controller panel in the garage. There are control wires that run from the controller to the solenoid valve box.

How old is the house?

For newer homes, they are in an irrigation box along the garage ".

Probably the other side of the wall from the low voltage box.

Thanks, I will look. About 2 years old, in the St Johns area.

They can be manually activated.

If you are not the original owner, a previous owner may have buried the irrigation box under landscaping, I had this happen to me with popup drains. If this is the case, try using a screwdriver to tap through the landscaping and listen for a hollow sound, then start digging.

Thanks, there are stones in the area where the box most likely is, I will dig there.

I will post my results tomorrow.

For us on potable water there backflow valve and plumbing right beside irrigation zone box.

A solenoid can fail open or closed, and that is the most common reason for a zone not working on your sprinkler system. Swapping the zones on the sprinkler controller can confirm that the sprinkler controller is or is not the problem. Tracing the wires can confirm if it’s the wires. Solenoid failures pretty rarely occur, but I’ve had a couple of solenoid failures on my large 24 to 64 zone systems that use multiple sprinkler controllers.

The valve boxes are usually green colored plastic on the tops and are round or rectangular in shape. There are wire tracing tools made, which I don’t own, that send a signal down the wire that can help you find the wire when it’s in close proximity. Most likely, the valve box is covered up by the grass that completely grew on top of the box, landscaping rocks, or mulch.

Zone 4,
 

Do you have a zone 5 capability on ur controller? If you do, swing the # 4 zone wire to the # 5 slot and reprogram the controller for zone 5 application.If new z5 valve engages, then it’s ur controller. I know, u still need to locate ur zone valves!!!

The box for our home is on the left side by our neighbors home. About 10 feet away from the house. Linden

Look for a pink box and cover on either side of your villa outside. lift the cover and the individual zone solenoids are there. I think you can buy replacements at ACE hardware.

I had a bad solenoid too and it is actually a pretty fast fix once you get down into the box. In the meantime don't depend on your schedule that you have on your timer. Just manually run the system which will do the job. Wait once the sun sets the run each zone for at least 30 minutes.

Shorted Solenoid?
 

I had a shorted solenoid once. I was able to use my ohmmeter to compare with other solenoids to find the problem. I had Joe Tucker replace it for me. It was in landscape rocks near corner of house.

Our solenoid box is located on the opposite side of the house from the location of the sprinkler irrigation controller. The top of the plastic box is painted a pink/violet color. It is in the ground right by the house. Our house is five years old in McClure.