Everything You Need to Know About Your Sprinkler Wiring
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 มิ.ย. 2022
- Welcome back to The Sprinkler Channel where we learn about all the aspects of sprinkler systems. Check out our other videos as well. Subscribe, Like, Comment and do a little dance too. Ok, ok, getting back on track. This video goes through everything! Starting with figuring out the number of strands of sprinkler wire (yes there are many options) (wires in wires) depending on how many sprinkler stations (and other landscape features) you have and what else you might be planning on doing in the future with your landscape, add-ons, new features, etc. (planning pays off & saves a lot of work and frustration). Then onto how to actually unsheathe the wires the easiest way so you don't damage the sprinkler wires. Then onto how to wire up a sprinkler clock correctly! Yes, all clocks have a little different setup but the principles are the same. In this one we use a Hunter Pro-C clock for demonstration. Follow the same thing for other clocks whether they be Rain Bird or Orbit or whatever else you are dealing with. After we have the sprinkler clock wired on to wiring up the sprinkler valves correctly. Every valve has two wires coming out of the solenoid that controls when it is turned on and turned off. These wires are important that they don't get damaged and they don't get corroded otherwise guess what... it won't work like you expect. Also if you don't wire it correctly it won't work. So.... watch and wire it correctly. You will have the common wire twisted together with one of each of the valve wires (doesn't matter which one). The other one is the specific wire that will determine which station it is. It is easier to switch wires in the clock than in the valve box. So if you want a station or zone to be a different zone or station on the clock just swap out the wires to which terminal it goes to in the clock as seen in this video then test. Watch how I wire up the sprinkler clock so you can easily do it yourself. There is probably plenty more details I could have added but just leave your questions in the comments and I will do my best to get to them. Thanks for watching and hope this answers all the questions your heart might have regarding sprinkler wiring and how to wire up your sprinkler clock and sprinkler valves! Have a great summer!
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Pro tip: wire your zones alphabetically… black(1) blue (2) brown (3) green(4) red (5) yellow (6). Makes it’s easy to remember in the field and also for the professional that has to come fix problems in the future.
Smart
Does one red wire from each valve connect to the same common wire? We have multiple valves in different areas of the property. Do we split the common wire?
@@jenniferkeraghan3543one of the red wires connect to the one white common wire. White is common, meaning one wire from each sprinkler must conncect to it. The second red wire connects to your zone wire.
@jenniferkeraghan3543 I believe you add a common wire between each solenoid that'd make them all hook back to the common wire off one.
Outstanding! Very clearly done, and no obnoxious music or useless introductory talk.
TH-cam is great because of people like you who are kind enough to post such incredibly valuable content to help those of us who are clueless! THANK YOU SO MUCH Sprinkler Channel!!❤❤❤❤❤
The discussion here was literally perfect and not annoying w no lame music all right to the point
Very clear instructions. I'll be making my own repairs to wiring that I unintentionally cut while digging up a damaged sprinkler.
Excellent. Thank you!
Thank you for your easy to understand explanation. Excellent video!!
Thank you for taking your time in explaining this irrigation wiring clear and precise with no obstructions.
Excellent! Clear and like mentioned before no disturbing music or useless intro. Thanks!!
Excellent!
A life saver for me.
I had no clue, how to reconnect 2 sprinkler valves, I had to replace, after mixing up the wire connections, during the old sprinkler valve removal.
Thank you, very much! 😊😊
Thanks so much for taking the time to explain irrigation wiring so clearly and professionally. This was enjoyable and educational so it is much appreciated. And thanks for no background music.
Thanks for this! Nice and clear presentation. I'm a newbie, and this makes perfect sense.
Very helpful for a non-electrician. I am trying to fix an existing system and your explanation on wiring was helpful
Great intructional video on how to properly set up wiring for spriklers. Awesome job in explaining for DIY
Very well demonstrated and explained, thank you so much. Changing out my timer and looks like previous owner used extension cord wires.
Thank you so much for this complete Tutorial video.!! It is perfect
I agree. Outstanding. This video was exactly what I was looking for save the fact that I have a Redbird but that is even better because his comments were applicable as he said to any model. He made his talk on a level that was easy for me to understand, but certainly not boring. The horsehair at the beginning was great to know as well. Terrific video. I have it bookmarked for future use as well. Thank you for this one! Loved it.
thank you! great job!
Thank you very much, this video the way you explained everything was perfect. I wish all the videos I go to could be so basic and easy.
Cheers Sir
If there's ever a must watch video, this is it lol! Thanks I learned how to rewire my new valve install.
Thanks immensely for this video! I am working on an old RainBird System, about 10 years old!! This is a great starting point.
Easy to follow. Nicely done.
Thank you for this excellent instruction video! You are very thorough on how you present this solid instructions which shows that you have excellent professional knowledge in the field! Thanks again and God Bless you!
Your video was very helpful to a newbie like me. Much appreciated.
Excellent video! The instructions included with the Rainbird CP100 were probably correct, but the layman usually needs a little more help than a confusing schematic. Thanks again for making this video.
Good video very instructional and super easy to understand. You touched on everything everyone should know. Ty
Excellent Job and explanation!!! I'm ready to change my broken valves.
Just what I needed for seeing how to strip the outer sheathing. Thanks.
Thank you so much for this explanation, I was doing some yard work that required for me to open and move a boy the sprinklers box on the ground has 2 valves for my 2 zones and whoever installed this was a lazy careless person, what a mess and no caps for the connections, when I pulled the cables I pulled one off and not sure where it was, so I ended up connecting to the wrong place as I run one zone and 2 work at the same time. I will go back and fix. Again, thanks, very through with your explanation!!!
Thank you so very much for putting this video out. Very helpful. Thanks
Good job
thank you for this!
Just about to do my sprinkler wire. Thank you!
Excellent video, explained perfectly
Thank you
Thanks for teaching us 🙏!!!!
awesome explanation for the lay person - well done..!
Great informational video! Thanks!
Thank you very much. This video helped me sort a already I stalled system.
Man you explained it real good thank you I feel like its simple I use to see all the different colors and thought it was a lot of wiring thank u again
Very helpful. Thank You!
Excellent Instructions very helpful video.
straight to the point! excellent!!!
Thank you! thank you! thank youuuu! This is exactly what I’ve been looking for. Thank you for also explaining the different wire knots bc I bought the wrong ones lol 😅
Subscribed & liked, very helpful information. Thank you
great explanation!
Thank you so much, very clear.
Great explanation thank you 🙏
Well explained easy to understand thanks
Euan Reakky good explanation and simple to follow. Managed to fix my electrical problem myself and I'm not young.
Awesome!
Thanks for the video.
Excellent. Just excellent. Many thanks!
excellent.
Great Video!
excellent explanation......
Thanks so much for this video
Very helpful!
Superb.
Very clearly bro thanks
Thanks needed to know about this one
Excellent
Thank You!
Awesome.Thanks
Thank you!
Thank you!!!
bro is saving lives
Good but you did not explain valve connections. Do we connect one wire to white ground or all six. If all six how to best do that.
Great suggestion for another video. One wire from each valve goes to the common white wire. So if you have 4 valves, you’ll have 4 wire plus common twisted together in a large enough silicon wire nut.
I am here right now because I just had a huge sprinkler overhaul done on my property. We bought the house last year and the system was just trashed. The water lines were still great condition thank god. Basically everything else had to be replaced and dug out. 12 zones and about 80 sprinkler heads. Also replaced the box. So NOW $5000 later… I got one zone that is duplicated. (Zone 3 and 4 are same) and one zone not even active. Wth right?!
Turn on manually to see which valves does what then see that way if it might be a wiring issue
Thank you for this video! It is simple and easy to follow! I have one question, the other wire that comes from the box, where does it connect to?
I’m guessing when you say “other wire” you are meaning the white common wire that does to each of the valves. If so, this wire gets connected to the terminal title “c”. It’s crucial to have any and all valves working. Let me know if this isn’t what you meant.
@@thesprinklerchannel I think what they were asking about the multi-strand sprinkler wire on the lefthand side of the valve control box. The one with three strands connected to "Ground, AC1, AC2." Guessing that connects to a 3-prong power plug or a hardwire connection to power.
Similar question on a system I inherited: I have 3 of those multi-strand wires coming from my valve control box(?!). I'm thinking my electrician rewired the valve control box and just left the old wire connected too. Been having issues with multiple zones going on at once and I think it might be cross wired from the old/new connection. There should just be a multi-strand going to power and a multi-strand going to the valves, correct?
Did I explain that well or does it sound like gibberish? Haha. Thanks for your video, very helpful.
VERY Nice !!! What do you use to connect the COMMON wire across the 4 valves since they share one WHITE wire coming from the controller ? Pigtail ? How do you make it waterproof ? Thanks.
Larger silicon wire nut
Thanks you for teaching me I would like to know more
Check out all our videos on the channel, lots more!
this was awesome. Thanks so much. I have an older system that - in addition to the large, 8-stranded wire -- has an additional red and white wire running separately. Any idea what that extra red and white wire is for?
Perhaps needed more wires for more valves or water feature or maybe even some lighting. If you have more than 7 valves / stations / zones then prob for the additional valves.
Great vid. 1 question.
You have hooked the common wire to the valve. So now that wire is taken up. How do you connect the second station to common if common wire has already been used?
Take one wire from each valve in the valve box with tip stripped and take the common one in same condition (if continues onto another box then take both ends of the cut common wire running in and out of box and wire nut them all together - big enough silicon wire nut. That is how you have the common connected to each valve but continue onto other valve boxes and back to clock. Hope this makes sense
How does the white common wire work if your adding another valve box in a different location for extra zones?
White common goes to each valve box. Cut it (only white wire) then rejoin it / wire nut together with one from each valve to continue on until last box
Thanks!
Thank you so much Sean for the Super Thanks! Your donation will go to helping make more of these videos that will in-turn help many others.
Really excellent instructional video! My Toro box is already wired but I have one separate zone (zone 3) going to only 2 flower pots. Do you know whether I can rearrange the wires to combine zones 2 and 3? Can I just combine the zone 2 wire and the zone 3 wire on the same terminal, or is that not advisable? Thank you!!
Great tip on the horsehair, by the way. Never knew that. 🙂
Glad this helped. I think the answer is not advisable. Not sure if there would be enough voltage to open both solenoids at the same time. I am curious to know if it would work though. As for water, as long as there is enough water flow for both zones, that shouldn’t be a problem.
Yes
Excellent video. One question. Does the common wire also get connected to the other zones? Thanks!
Yes they do
thank you. great help. but what about the first screw for the main valve? I noticed mine uses it but not sure the purpose or if it's correct.
There is a few other videos on the channel perhaps addressing your question. Here is one of them. Hope they help and if they don’t let us know what specifically you are looking to understand and we’ll try to help.
I would add to use more strands then just zones + 1 . common. As over time a wire can get shorted out and it is so much easier to just rewire zone to a spare then to have to run a new wire . We typicaly run 2 spares per wire run . So if we need a 4 wire from furthest zone box to next valve box we will run a 6 wire
Thanks for this great suggestion.
thanks brother I suspected white was common but wasn't sure. Had a zone go down sure enough the previous owner used regular wire nuts the wires corroded, and the valve failed.
Super clear explanation. Thank you.
Excellent job. Just tell me in my wiring box common is white, but on for example station 4 valve the wires inside are black and red. How do I test which one is common?
Common wire will be on the common terminal at clock usually with a “c” above it and in the valve box will be the one going to each of the valves. Did that answer your question?
This was great! Thank you for posting. I have two questions: 1) does it matter which of the two valve wires you use for each common and zone? And 2) if you have two boxes, what do you do with the 'extra' wire you're not running to the farther box? I get that I'd cut the wire shorter that I would use on the closer box, but then do I remove those bits to not run it to the farther box? Not sure if I'm explaining that well.
In reverse order, after the wires are cut / used for first box the rest of the way they are useless, make sure your white common wire continues onto all boxes. Alternatively you could run two set of wires so you don’t waste wire or you could run 9 strand to first box, wire up 4 valves, then run 5 strand wire (splice into unused wires, ideally match colors up onto next box to wire up another 4 valves, all common wires need to be connected together in all options.
No it does not matter which of the two valve wires go yo common or color.
Nice video!!! Do you think bulb grease could coat the wires and then use standard wire nuts?
Sounds like it could work. Definitely better than not doing it.
I just adopted this sprinkler system when I bought in September. Last summer/fall everything worked fine. We had them winterized, and now that I've gotten them turned back on for the Spring, when the main line to the sprinklers is turned to full, the zones still work, but my indoor water pressure is VERY low. I checked my under my crawlspace and found no leaks.
Is it possible that there's a leak somewhere still that's causing this that I'm not finding? Or could it be that they just never had it on full blast? or it's still charging?
Lots of possibilities depending on your set up. Check any filters. See if it is all zones or just one. Flush line if possible are a few suggestions.
When you connect the valve, does it matter which strand connects to the common and the specific zone? Not sure if these solenoids are polarity sensitive
Does not matter which of the solenoid wires go to zone wire vs common wire.
does a new wiring line need to be ran off of each manifold or do you just run one line to all of them? When connecting multiple manifolds. What gauge are you using?
You can do either. Can’t remember what gauge it is but regular low voltage sprinkler wire.
With the extra unused wires, do you just cap them off?
Typically not, just bend them back and twist around the black sheathing so I know which ones are being used (or that might be available for future uses)
Did you say the white common wire needs to return to the irrigation controller? Does it go in the same port it came out of or how does that work? The pamphlet on my timer didn't mention that.
White wire will go from each valve (one wire from each valve connected to it) then back to controller connected at the terminal labeled C - meaning common.
Hi, thanks for the tutorial 👍 this is great if all your valves are in the one put. If you don’t answering this, what is the best way to wire up the common wire if you have valve pits that are 20 meters apart and I want you to run these valves from the same controller? Really appreciate any help. Thanks again!
Run line either valve box to valve box and back to controller using same common wire. Or you can run two separate ones if easier then just put two commons wires in the c terminal at controller.
@@thesprinklerchannel Brilliant, sounds good. I may need to jam six common cables from the six valves which are located at different locations into the common on the controller. Hope they fit!
Thanks for the video! I have a question: I have two different 6 zone sprinkler systems and each operate off of its own Rainbird timer/system. I want to get one of the newer ones that can do 12 zones. I am seeing here how to wire things BUT what about the common wire. Should I take both of my wiring looms and tie the two white commons together and put it into the new controller? Can you do that?
Correct 👍🏼
@@thesprinklerchannel thanks!
By any chance do you know how to use the hunter 24 volt outlet plug with the Hunter pro Hc model? We know your suppose to solder the 2 yellow & 1 Green/white color wires (that run out of the wall outlet wire) into the transformer box. Which shows a black , green / white and 1yellow wire.
Do you by any chance know the correct wiring for this hunter irrigation controller unit?
Thank you
I would get ahold of the online manual for that. Should be able to google the clock and find the manual. That will be your best bet.
Thank so much for this video. One point is not clear to me. That is one cable from the timer going to the valves. You connected the yellow and white to first station. How the other stations will be connected the white one (common wire)? Will you extend a coonection from white wire for station one to the other stations? Thank you
white wire should not go to station 1 but to the terminal on the clock that has a "c" above for common. Then that wires is wired to one of the wires from each station - ex: 4 valves in the box, 4 wires plus the white wire (possibly two ends of white wire if common continues onto the next valve box) would get wire-nutted together. Hope this helps.
Thank you so much👍
Sir: I recently bought a new (older) home and trying to fix 2 adjacent zones (e.g. 5 and 6), where the valves are right next to each other. The problem is that the individual zone wires are the SAME color, and they all have been cut. So I can't distinguish between the zone 5 wire, zone 6 wire, or common. [ If they were color coded to match the controller side, it would be simple to wire it] I could "wing it" and try all combinations, but there has to be a way to determine which wire belongs to which zone. Suggestions?
The answer is a multi-meter. Then connect wire to clock terminal and then turn on that zone / terminal it’s connected to. Will need a common - which is just a continuous wire from valve to common terminal in order for valve to function.
I will be installing my Rachio outdoor and need to know how do I find the power cable that would plug into one outdoor power outlet and back to the Rachio? Where can I buy this from and what type to I need??
A sprinkler store will have pigtails for the power. Typically you’ll run the sprinkler wire to wherever the power source is and install clock there.
The solenoid common wire that comes from rain bird...
Problem: they're not long enough length if you have nine valves, ergo fully extended...
What's your recommendation keep the common wires from twisting as you turn the valves on/off due to the fact they're fully extended.
I checked at the big box stores for 18 AWG sprinkler wire black with white stripe nothing there.
Should have a one strand wire in the electrical section of any store that carries wire that should be sufficient and help extend the wire by splicing into it.
s 16 AWG "marine wire" good for sprinklers? Wasn't sure if all 16 AWG wire are created equal. Thank you!
I cannot confirm, not familiar with that wire sorry
I'm changing an old timer with an new orbit timer. I have 2 white wires, a black and red wire that went to the old 9V battery plus 6 station wires. My new orbit has a round cell battery and one white common terminal. Do I put the two white wires together into the one common terminal? What do I do with the black and red battery wires?.
Correct with white wires. Black and red probably are station wires - station 1 and 2 terminals perhaps.
I have a sprinkler system that has two sensor terminals that came connected with a jumper wire. I do not have anything but ONE zone valve. Nothing else. My sprinkler came with basically no instructions other than a small visual outline of a couple images. Do I need to worry about/use these sensor terminals? What are they used for?
Sensor terminals at the clocks are used for rain sensors so doesn’t water right after it pours and other sensors are available as well (additional options to make them smarter). Nice to have but most time go unused.
could I use a sprinkler valve to turn on misters when my air conditioner fan activates
With the right parts (& knowledge), I don’t see why not. But a hybrid between sprinklers, hvac, electrical trades.
Are there wires that can be purchased to extend the length of the solonoid common wire and zone wire?
You can just cut off a piece of the white wire if you already have a multi strand wire used to go to the solenoid if you have extra. But yes is the answer to your question.