Question
Hello.
When I turn on my U-bend outside water supply valve for my sprinkler system the station 1 comes on. I tried programming the controller and even when i did a test all the stations worked fine but the station 1 stayed on the whole time. The only way to stop it was to turn off the water supply.
Last year everything worked fine when we shut it down for the winter,
Thanks, Bob

Answer
Hey Bob, I hope this helps. It sounds as if your # 1 valve is sticking on. Usually there is a couple of things to check for the cause. #1 would be to visually check the valve, and see if there is any water leaking around the solenoid on top of the valve. If something on the top half of the valve is leaking, it would cause the valve to stick on. #2 would be to unscrew the solenoid, and check that the plunger inside the solenoid is moving freely up and down. If it is stuck up inside the solenoid, it would also cause the valve to stick on. #3 would be a bad diaphram. The diaphram is a rubber membrane that is inside the valve body. It is what opens and closes the valve. To access the diaphram, you must unscrew the screws(or bolts) from the top of the valve, and carefully pull the top half of the valve body from the bottom half. The diaphram sits between the two halves. Usually if this piece is bad, you will see a tear or rip in the rubber. If the valve is from a good brand, you can usually just buy a new diaphram and replace the old one. #4 would be a crack in the bottom half of the valve body, where the diaphram seats.If this is the case, then the whole valve would need to be replaced. Normally any valve can be rebuilt, by simply replacing the solenoid and diaphram, without replacing the whole valve. My only other thought would be that somehow the controller is turning #1 valve on all the time, no matter what zone is on. To check this, simply turn off the power to the controller, and see if the #1 valve is still on, when you turn the water back on. If it turns off with no power, then it might be a short in your controller. I hope this helps you, if you have any more questions, just let me know. Thanks and have a great day.