Question: Irritrol 205t

jvanvliet · Sep 25, 2015

Howdy all:

I service a site with 72 1" Irritrol 205t valves installed about 2 years ago. City water 3/4" meters @ 45 PSI.

Had excellent coverage until recently. Have very low pressure to the spray heads on some zones and excellent pressure on others. I'd say 40 zones are exhibiting low pressure, some intermittently.

Association called out the installer. Installer advised them to replace the diaphragm's to the affected valves.

Is this a normal issue for these valves? I've rarely had to replace a diaphragm unless damaged by debris, even dirty water valves.

greenmonster304 · Sep 25, 2015

Seems fishy to me
Posted via Mobile Device

Mike Leary · Sep 25, 2015

Any new construction in the supply line area? Happens a lot in tract housing.

Wet_Boots · Sep 25, 2015

If they were old, or you had dirty water, a guts swap might be in order. You might have to go that route anyway, if it should happen the pins somehow got worn.

hydro steve · Sep 25, 2015

I have personally installed hundreds of these valves. Not common at all. If they act up it is right out of the box. Take a couple apart and see whats up with them.

Sprinkus · Sep 26, 2015

I'd make sure that nothing is lodged in the solenoid discharge port first. Also, I have seen faulty controllers and wiring cause that problem before but not very often.
The older 205's had a grey nut on the diaphragm, which caused a lot of failures out here.
I did have a few recent problems with 205's where the diaphragm was not installed properly when the valve was built. I did get free replacements from the distributor for those since they were damaged during manufacturer assembly.

ArTurf · Sep 26, 2015

Only 2 years old and over half the diaphragms are bad, doesn't sound right to me. Sure the poor performing zones weren't over gpm to begin with? Is the 45 psi before the backflow? if so that's not a lot of flow with a 3/4 meter. Check the nozzling on the low pressure zones and see how much it adds up to.

I just noticed you mentioned meters as in plural. Is there an association with low performing zones and specific meters? Just a thought.

Waterlogged · Sep 26, 2015

Did you see the excellent coverage until recently, or have you been told there was excellent coverage?

You said some zones exhibit low pressure. Have you checked the actual pressure reading at the head on both the good zones and the bad zones.

Also, have you compared how much volume/gpm the zones are designed for, good and bad zones. Adding up the gallons for that zone, or watching the meter as the zone runs.

What type of backflow and have you done the pressure loss calculations for the system?

You could fix one zone and see if it works, but an over 50% failure rate seems odd, in two years.

Are all the bad zones on one meter or mixed. Check the meter to see if it's open all the way.

I have seen the 205 act like that over the years, but it was one in a group. And a diaphragm and solenoid swap fixed it.
It just seems like something else is going on.

ArTurf · Sep 26, 2015

If the association called out the original installer after only 2 years wondering why he didn't correct the problem at that time???

Question: Irritrol 205t

jvanvliet

greenmonster304

Mike Leary

Wet_Boots

hydro steve

Sprinkus

ArTurf

Waterlogged

ArTurf

Top Contributors this Month

Recommended Communities