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Anyone seen a Fimco Hydro-indexing valve?

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justgeorge

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
Ran into one of these at a fairly new house (4 years old) the other day: http://www.fimcomfg.com/

1 line (the 'mainline') into the valve, 8, count em, 8, lines coming out the bottom of the valve then I guess running all over the yard for the 8 zones. The valve was maybe 10" in diameter so there had to be quite a mess of pipe down in the ground leaving the valve. From the controller you could only tell it to turn on and off, there was no selecting which zone to turn on; it only turns on the next zone in line. Limit of 8 zones per device (and per controller), so since the yard had 11 zones there were 2 controllers and 2 of these devices. To run zone 4 if zone 5 had just ran, you had to cycle all the way thru all the zones to get back to zone 4.

Sure hope I never have to repair a leak in all that mess.....

George
 
#4 ·
That is similar to a k-rain indexing setup. I replaced one this year that was a 4 zone. The one I replaced used a master valve (hr-1) to stop the flow while indexing for the next zone. The body had cracked and the homeowner hated it so I replace with Hunter valves and controller.
 
#5 ·
Ran into them sometimes in AZ ... WaterRotor they were called....have a buddy (suck tube guy) that makes a repair kit for them, gears and all....

they actually work great and lasted a long time....took up very little room....sort of like the indexing valve on a pool...
 
#6 ·
justgeorge said:
Sure hope I never have to repair a leak in all that mess.....
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I can imagine that the piping would be a jumble right in the area of the valve. Guess one would be best to install it in the center of an area so the pipe would be going in different directions from the valve but I know this wouldn't be feasible.
 
Discussion starter · #7 ·
londonrain said:
That is similar to a k-rain indexing setup. I replaced one this year that was a 4 zone. The one I replaced used a master valve (hr-1) to stop the flow while indexing for the next zone. The body had cracked and the homeowner hated it so I replace with Hunter valves and controller.
Click to expand...
The homeowner is actually open to replacing it, which might be possible but a lot of digging, and then the problem would be running 18/9 wire to the garage (the "valve" is not near the garage and the basement is finished which would make it tough to run the wire thru the basement to get to the garage).
 
#8 ·
justgeorge said:
The homeowner is actually open to replacing it, which might be possible but a lot of digging, and then the problem would be running 18/9 wire to the garage (the "valve" is not near the garage and the basement is finished which would make it tough to run the wire thru the basement to get to the garage).
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If you do end up replacing it do yourself a favor and run at least 18/10 or greater. It only costs a little more for the extra wires but if a wire ever goes dead, which I have seen on many occasions, the extra wires sure do come in handy. Two of the biggest culprits is lightning in my area or someone cutting the wire and not using a DBY kit. Explain this to the homeowner and I guarantee they will OK the extra cost. I always run extra wires on my all of my systems.
 
#9 ·
justgeorge said:
The homeowner is actually open to replacing it, which might be possible but a lot of digging, and then the problem would be running 18/9 wire to the garage (the "valve" is not near the garage and the basement is finished which would make it tough to run the wire thru the basement to get to the garage).
Click to expand...
Not knowing exactly what you're facing there's always the possibility of running conduit from the valves(s) location(s) to the garage or other location of controller.
 
Discussion starter · #10 ·
PurpHaze said:
Not knowing exactly what you're facing there's always the possibility of running conduit from the valves(s) location(s) to the garage or other location of controller.
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It's a finished basement so I can't go thru there. I could rent a small plow used for burying invisable fence wiring and hope all the irrigation pipes are at least 6" down..... (yeah I know I could bury the new wiring 2" down then it would get nailed by aerator some day).
 
#11 ·
The only one I ever saw was at my parents house in S Fla back in the early eighties. They bought a house that was about eight years old and the irrigation system was already installed. As I remember, it didn't cause any problems.
 
#12 ·
PurpHaze said:
I can imagine that the piping would be a jumble right in the area of the valve. Guess one would be best to install it in the center of an area so the pipe would be going in different directions from the valve but I know this wouldn't be feasible.
Click to expand...
About the same mess as a manifold set-up. Think about all that piping coming out of Boot's infamous manifold box.
 
#14 ·
jerryrwm said:
About the same mess as a manifold set-up. Think about all that piping coming out of Boot's infamous manifold box.
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Good point. There's something to be said about keeping everything tight and close so the install goes quicker. :)

Wet_Boots said:
Out of sight, out of mind.
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Maybe for the installer but what about the poor schmuck that has to followup with maintenance repairs? :laugh:
 
#15 ·
PurpHaze said:
Maybe for the installer but what about the poor schmuck that has to followup with maintenance repairs? :laugh:
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Being somewhat of a smart-azz - If the repair guy is going to do repairs, he better put on his 'big boy pants' and deal with it. I have learned over the years that what I uncover when doing repairs is a marvelous wonder. And they are billed at T&M.
 
#16 ·
jerryrwm said:
Being somewhat of a smart-azz - If the repair guy is going to do repairs, he better put on his 'big boy pants' and deal with it. I have learned over the years that what I uncover when doing repairs is a marvelous wonder. And they are billed at T&M.
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I imagine that sometime in the future that someone will dig up one of my repair jobs and go, "WTF?" :laugh:
 
#17 ·
PurpHaze said:
I imagine that sometime in the future that someone will dig up one of my repair jobs and go, "WTF?" :laugh:
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My favorites are when I dig up a break, and find a slipfix within 6" of the next break. Gotta love being able to reuse it and save a few bucks.

Its happened several times to me too.
 
#18 ·
Dirty Water said:
My favorites are when I dig up a break, and find a slipfix within 6" of the next break. Gotta love being able to reuse it and save a few bucks.

Its happened several times to me too.
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Been there, done that. A couple of couplings or a coupling and a bell end and you're back in business real quick. :drinkup:
 
#19 ·
For poly, some of the fun repairs are when stub ends of pipe are buried with the system piping. I remember one really difficult repair, which would have gone more easily if a line of white pines hadn't been planted atop the mainline, where I was just able to get in amongst the roots to bridge around some choked off pipe, only to learn that I'd connected to a discarded stub of tubing on top of the real pipe.

This is about when you repeat your mantra of "time and material"
 
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Wet_Boots
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