sprinklers SPRINKLERS (by David S. Lawyer, Aug.'93, Oct. '00) (all for front yards unless heading implies otherwise) TIMERS VACUUM BREAKERS MOODY VALVES PATIO & DEL MAR GARDEN SPRINKLER HEADS and PIPES to them, CLOGS MANUAL VALVES CONTROLLER and TUBING SIZE SUMMARY SUPPLY PIPES & SHUTOFF VALVES SUPPLIERS PRESSURE DROP PROBLEMS TIMERS For the patio, the timer is located in the SE corner of the stage. This is an all-electric system. A power supply for this is just below the floor in a basement room below the stage. For the most of the other sprinklers, the timer panel (Toro brand) is in the Choir room. These are hydraulically (water pressure) controlled via underground tubing. Search for "controller" for more info. VACUUM BREAKERS Vacuum breakers prevent backflow of dirty water from the lawn to the water pipes in case of pressure loss in these pipes. They are located only inches away from the Moody sprinkler valves. They were made by Gee. The body (lower part) for the Moody valve might be part of the Gee breaker. It may not be since the body is shown in the Moody parts list (for model 7000) from The Source. If the body is a Gee, then the top part of the Moody valve (which includes the diaphragm and rubber washer) is known as a Moody adapter for a Gee. The vacuum breakers are Model B made by H.L. Gee Mfg. Co., Beverly Hills (out of business). Takes a 1 11/16" thin open end wrench to unscrew the top. One may use 1/4" square rods (x 1 1/2" long) with a pipe wrench. If you try to unscrew it by putting a pipe wrench on the top of the breaker, it may break off the top, but is OK if it's not on too tight. To replace a damaged rubber float washer, one may substitute a Champion rubber washer (about 1/16" too small in diameter) and glue it in place with superglue. Be sure to center it carefully. MOODY VALVES The front lawns on Del Mar and Los Robles use these. Moody brand pressure valves are apparently 7000 series but this number is not on the valves. Parts for model 7000 seem to work OK so if the top part is an adapter for a Gee vacuum breaker it seems to be just like a model 7000. There are electrically operated adapters that will probably fit the valve body (lower part) but before doing this conversion one should make sure that parts will be available for future maintenance. They are operated [ e.g. shut off] by water pressure thru flexible copper tubing. Some tubing is plastic but doesn't seem to be in use. Moody went out of business in the 1970's so parts are hard to find (see SUPPLIERS) but The Source had many parts which were very high priced. A parts diagram is in their catalog (Throop has copies). The inlet/outlet piping is 1" except for one on W side which is 3/4" (for Los Robles parkway). These are known as 1" valves (or 3/4" valves). For the Moody valve, the stem o-ring is 5/16" id., 7/16" od. The o-ring inside the hole in the center of a diaphragm is 1/4" id. 3/8" od. If water leaks out the top stem its probably due to a worn stem o-ring. When replacing the stem o-ring, its a good idea to also replace the other o-ring. Also, you might want to replace any missing springs. This spring should be on top of the diaphragm to help close the valve. Circuits 3, 7, 11 (and others) are missing such springs but still seem to work OK without them. To remove a diaphragm or replace an o-ring disconnect the control tubing on top and unscrew the top with an open end (or adjustable) wrench. To remove the diaphragm slide it off of the stem rod by first cleaning off any deposits on this rod. You may need to pry carefully with a small screwdriver on the edges of the metal disk on the diaphragm and tap on the center rod. Replacement diaphragms usually come without the metal disks on each side (reuse old ones). Superior diaphragms are said to fit (but not exactly) and work OK. They are said to guarantee their new diaphragms for 15 years. We have replacement ones. After a diaphragm is removed you will see an o-ring if you look carefully in its center hole from the top side. If these leak, the symptoms are the same as a broken diaphragm: a reduction in control water pressure and water leaking out the top hole with the copper tubing disconnected and the handle turned part-way on. Pry out the o-ring with a jeweler's screwdriver, dental pick, or o-ring pick. On a few valves, this o-ring must be glued in (with superglue --take care not to get any glue on the working surface. In some cases there is no rim to hold it in place. From the The Source parts diagram, it looks like there is supposed to be a "crimp washer" to keep the o-ring in place but they are likely missing. Pressure between the push rod step and the end of the center hole in the diaphragm will sometimes hide (almost stop) such a leak. When screwing back the top cover, be careful not to cross-thread it. Screw it in by hand a turn or two. Also before screwing it on, press the diaphragm edge down so that the threads are exposed. Be careful not to damage it. You might want to trim excess diaphragm edges off using scissors. To gain access to the main 1 1/4" rubber washer with a 5/16" center hole (the 3/4" valve uses a 1" rubber washer) unscrew the entire round diaphragm housing (called a Moody adapter) using a large pipe wrench. It's not necessary to remove the entire valve or unscrew either of the 1" water pipes to gain access. The holder of the rubber washer (= disk holder) sometimes breaks, especially if one turns off the valve manually too hard. With a broken holder the sprinklers will leak when the valve is shut off. One may substitute a few stainless washers for this but then the rubber washer may expand & stick. The list price of the disk holder was over $8 (1994) $11 (2000). The Source part # 2106-2 (1" valve), 2106-1 (3/4" valve). If you should for some reason remove the entire valve you should use a new union washer. The union washer is 1 3/8" ID, 1 5/8" OD and about 1/8" thick (hard to find but available). Some plumbing stores will suggest you use slip coupling washer but it's too thick. Don't let the fluid control system go dry for over a day or so or else the diaphragms may dry & crack. Bleed all air out of diaphragm chamber after putting it back together and turning on the water. Do this by manually turning cross handle on until water comes out of either an open bleeder or the top elbow (with tubing disconnected). If no water comes out, fill the chamber with water by partly connecting the tubing with water flowing out of it. Then connect the tubing while water is present in both the tubing and top elbow. Even if you neglect to bleed it, it usually works OK but responds slower due to the time required to build up air pressure. Our system is normally open (a release of pressure in the control line turns the sprinklers on). In order to allow the sprinkler valve to shut off by control pressure the diaphragm must be held slightly away from the top plate. Turning the cross handle part-way off will do this. Thus for normal operation, the cross handles must be preset in a certain position: open as much as possible while still permitting shut off by control pressure. Shut off may be even more difficult if the spring (fits on top of the diaphragm with the larger dia. side up) which aids shutoff is missing. SPRINKLER HEADS and PIPES to them, CLOGS: The heads sometimes get buried or break off. All areas of the lawn are covered by sprinklers so if one is missing it's likely buried or the riser is broken off. In the extreme NW parkway section on Los Robles the sprinkler has been removed and the pipe has been capped. It's at midpoint between the sidewalk and curb and just a few inched from the driveway. In 2003 the The area is 11' x 3 1/2' and the sprinkler needs to be a pop-up end strip. Toro and Rainbird have a 4 x 12 coverage (a little to big). Rainjet (best) will not work at such a low coverage. There are 2 partially clogged locations: 1. A partial clog in the Los Robles parking strip marked by a long nail at the edge of the public sidewalk. 2. on the Del Mar side near the main doors to the church: clog in the feeder to the last two sprinklers to the W along the narrow curved walkway. The partial clogs pass sufficient water but tend to clog easily if dirt gets in the line (requires backflushing to fix). A complete clog is: the feeder to the far N. sprinkler next to the sidewalk (N. of the driveway). Two attempts to fix this but using a snake and lime-away (chemical) both failed. The pipe is deeply buried (over a ft. deep) so it's not easy to dig it up. The tall riser nipples in the flower beds tend to easily break off. A new one broke and inspection showed that it was due to being lightly kicked and also due to the pipe wall thickness being extremely thin at the threads. Measure id of pipe before purchasing and compare to specs. Sprinkler heads were originally Buckner, but many have been replaced by Champion, Del Mar (looks something like Buckner), Rainbird 1800 series pop-ups, and Thompson. Socket (wrench) size for removing insert: Champion 3/4", Thompson 13/16", Buckner 7/8". The possibility exists of replacing the heads with pop-ups. Sample nipple length of the risers is: flagpole yard, SW corner: 7", just to N: 6 1/2". Hunter pop-ups require the equivalent of a 7" riser for a 4" pop-up and a 5" riser for a 2" pop-up. Thus we could likely install 2" pop-ups with no problem & a 4" pop-up would work in some cases. On the following circuits there are: H = half, Q = quarter (blank) = full 1. 8 + 2H 5. 3H + 1H(sidewalk) 9. 11 + 2H 2. 5 + 3H +1Q 6. 7 +2H + 1Q 10. 11H + 3Q 3. 11 + 1H 7. Shrubs: 9H + 1Q 11. 5 narrow strip 4. 5H + 2Q 8. Strips: 8 center + 1 end Totals: 42full + 39H + 7Q + 5 center strip + 1 end strip = 94 non-shrubbery + 16 shrubbery = 110 grand total for front automatics. Locations: 1-4 at Choir Room door, 5-7 at S side of sanctuary (center) 8-10 on N. church walkway (S. of parking lot), 11 ditto but on S. side of walkway. The above neglected to count 8@ (2-9) of the missing sprinklers along the Del Mar sidewalk. There are supposed to be sprinklers every 12 ft. but many are capped or capped/broken underground (shown below as "missing"). The ones that don't work are not really needed since the spray from the full circle sprinklers on the main lawn covers these areas and the plants there don't need much water. Starting at the Del Mar church entrance walkway and walking W along the sidewalk, one observes: 1. exists & works 5. missing 9. capped at 4" (set back 3") 2. exists & works 6. missing 10. exists & works 3. capped at 2" 7. missing 4. capped at 6" 8. capped at 6" (set back 3") CONTROLLERS and TUBING A Toro controller (locks with key) is in Choir room. There is a water supply line with a filter which may clog. To increase the flow, turn up the small valve (you only see a small stem sticking out of the ground --no handle) located just outside the Choir room door. Another valve in series is below the controller. There is also a drain line which exits to the outside. If water continuously flows out of it when a certain valve is on, then either a diaphragm or an o-ring is leaking. Three control lines not in use go under the floor. They then run mostly E. under the sanctuary floor attached to the 1 1/4" sprinkler water pipe. Then under Throop Hall they turn N. towards the stage basement SE room. They are also present just inside the N crawl hole under the sanctuary. (How did they get there ?) They were intended for use outside Henry House at 280 S. Los Robles. The underground control lines are mostly copper tubing. Gray plastic tubing is used under the floor and sometimes underground. At the Los Robles valves, the copper changes to gray plastic about 4 inches below the surface (unable to locate 3rd line by digging only 5" deep). Control line 8 is broken. Break found and is due to tree roots pressing it. See To_do list. At places the tubing goes into the roots. The other two control lines in this location have been damaged by tree roots and may break soon. SUPPLY PIPES & SHUTOFF VALVES A shutoff valve for the Del Mar valves is in the sanctuary crawl space about 2 feet E of a floor trapdoor located under the rug at the N end of the back chancel passageway (choir entrance). It's at floor level and upside-down. Packed with teflon cord in 2004 after dripping for many years. Just before the valve, a small branch line goes S towards the toilet and lavatory by the choir room. Then back several feet to the E is a 1 1/4" union that is very much rusted. Could this be not galvanized inside also and thus rusted badly and restricting flow? Alex Porter planned to install another shutoff for the Los Robles valves at the crawl space opening pit on the S side. I dug a large hole for it but it never got installed. One may take apart a valve without shutting off the water if one first opens up adjacent valves to reduce the pressure. But you are likely to get wet when you first remove it. You could also almost turn off the water supply at the meter. There is a risk of cross-threading when attempting to reassemble valves with water pressure on. The sprinkler supply piping is 1 1/4" galvanized. Under the S. side Sanctuary, the piping is 1 1/4" until beyond the tower. There is a rusty leak in this pipe on the S side of it about 7 ft. W of where the hollow wall tile (red) has a big damaged spot. From the tower foundation it may be 1/2" galvanized. Alex Porter installed these in 1957. The water meter is 2" with 2" entrance piping. In 1993 the flow to the Los Robles faucet (3/4" pipe) was only about 23 gal/min. This supply line could be almost 100 ft. of 1 1/4". The valves will not open when the faucet is on so one can't easily determine full flow. PRESSURE DROP PROBLEMS An automotive compression gauge may be used for this measurement. Connect it to a garden valve (faucet) with and adapter. The line pressure is about 55 psi (no flow). When the Los Robles side parking lot lawn full circle sprinklers are on there is 20-23 psi at Los Robles faucet but 40 psi at Del Mar side supply (faucet). This implies the following losses in the pipes in the crawl space: 20 psi loss in 1 1/4" pipe from Los Robles faucet to tee; 15 psi loss between this tee and water meter (1 1/4" and 1 1/2" piping). Doesn't supply enough water (18 gal/min) at the end of the run near the Los Robles faucet. With the half circle ones on, pressure is 25-27 psi @ 17gal/min. With 6 & 7 (Del Mar side) on (about the same number of sprinklers) the pressure on the S. side is only 23 psi but coverage is OK. This implies that 23 psi would be OK if pipes to the sprinklers in front of the parking lot were in better condition (but due to higher flow, loss in feeder would increase so one would not get 23 psi). This means supply lines should be replaced, rodded or pounded on. Or more circuits could be added (less flow per circuit). Could there exit a few restricting clogs at tees or elbows? Also on the Los Robles parking lot lawn: Both the half-circles and the parkway strip are now on the same fluid control line. When the line pressure is released in the control line, the half-circles circuit turns on first resulting in a pressure drop in the water line. This low pressure is not enough to operate the valve to turn on the parkway circuit. However if the sequence is reversed, both come on OK (with no spring to aid turnoff). This happened after replacing damaged O-rings in the parkway (3/4 ") valve. But then there was a turn-off problem (perhaps due to a bad filter. Thus the broken tubing to the Los Robles valves may need to be restored on a separate circuit (unless the supply line is fixed to get more flow or fine tuning of springs, o-rings). PATIO & DEL MAR GARDEN Electrically operated valves are used for the patio sprinklers and the sprinklers by Del Mar near the exterior basement stairs (circuit 3). The controller is in SE corner of stage. See instruction in next paragraph. The instruction sheet is missing. They may be manually turned on by toggle switches. The top 2 switches are for the patio and the 3rd one is for Del Mar. Control wiring is brown. One runs in the crawl space under the thresholds for the Throop Hall doors. A 2-conductor branch continues S in the crawl space, thru the electric basement (on ceiling), and then thru the furnace basement to the Del Mar valve. Only 3 circuits are used out of 4 available at the controller. Instructions for Controller: Remove the metal cover by unscrewing the thumb screw on the bottom and lift straight up (it's not hinged). Then open a small plastic cover to get to the push buttons. The display should show the current time. Use the HR and MIN buttons to set this time (and to set other times). Pressing the DAYS button will display the number of days between waterings. Set it by pressing the MIN (while holding down DAYS ?). Water every day or 2. The START button doesn't start the sprinklers but shows the start time (the time the sprinklers turn on). The TIME button shows the duration of watering for each circuit. It will look like (for example): 2 05 which says to water for 5 minutes on circuit 2 (controlled manually by the 2nd switch from the top). Use MIN to change the durations. Pressing RAIN will disable the controller so that it will not water (use in case it rains). MAN will start a sprinkler cycle. Use RAIN to instantly turn off the water. CLOCK gets back to the main clock display of the current time and enables the controller to work. Heads used are: To right of fountain: 2@ Rainjet (best since they put out droplet size water, but hard to find). Several Rainbird (Rainbird's best quality model purchased at J. Howard Mitchell's), identify by hexagonal black plastic "nut". For example 6-VAN (printed on head) throws 6 ft. with a Variable ANgle. Adjust throw shorter by center screw. Adjust angle by turning center ring. Always buy heads with the correct throw distance as they don't work well when throw length is set low by use of adjusting screw. Except for the high quality heads mentioned above (which were installed in the 1990's), the rest are a variety of old medium to low quality heads. Plan to buy some more Rainjet's if they can be found. Be careful as Rainjet has started a low-quality line of heads. There is apparently no shutoff valve for the patio supply pipe and the shutoff for Henry House in the stage basement will not shut it off. Check for supply pipe location (and look for a shutoff valve) when crawling under the building. Del Mar pipes: In 2001, new 3/4" galvanized pipes were installed to the W. of the exterior basement stairs. A 3/4" union was installed just to the E. of the sprinkler located near the intake air louvers. The pipe that runs under the sidewalk (and parallel to it) to supply water to the two sprinklers to the E. of the exterior basement stairs, is partially clogged. In 2001 CLR solution (glycolic, sulfonic, and citric acids) was left in the pipe overnight and it increase the flow by about 50%. As of 2001, the flow is sufficient to supply these 2 sprinklers. But if the sprinkler heads are removed the water only geysers a few inches while it should geyser several feet. MANUAL VALVES Only on W. Side of Henry House. SIZE SUMMARY: For the Moody valve: (Note both rubber o-rings are 1/8" thick) Stem o-ring: 5/16" i.d., 7/16" o.d. O-ring inside the hole in the center of diaphragm: 1/4" id, 3/8" od Rubber washer: 1 1/4" dia. with 5/16" center hole: (1" for 3/4" valve) Replacement disk holder for above washer: part # 2106-2 by The Source Union rubber washer: 1 3/8" ID, 1 5/8" OD and about 1/8" thick Socket (wrench) size for removing inserts: Champion 3/4", Thompson 13/16", Buckner 7/8". SUPPLIERS: Most plumbing stores have some parts) 1. Mitchell, J. Harold, 305 Agostino Rd., San Gabriel, 287-1101. Sprinklers. A few parts for Moody valves (& can order from The Source). Mitchell has high prices per Alex Porter. My opinion: high on some items, but medium on others. jhmsuppy.com 2. The Source (formerly R Co (pronounced like Arco)), 1064 Serpentine Lane, Pleasanton CA 94566, (925) 484-0382. Had complete Moody sprinkler valve parts. Very high prices. Oct. 2000: they sell large catalog but cat. not on Internet. 3. Champion, Los Angeles: (323) 221-2108 4. Ewing (chain store) 1405 Grand Central Ave., Glendale, (818) 551-9550. Similar to Mitchell's. 5. Reeds in Anaheim may stock some Moody parts. 6. Jensen, E., 1963 Myrtle, Monrovia, 359-7154. A sprinkler man, has some parts for Moody sprinkler valves. Didn't stock disk holder.