Question
I am looking to replace my old Richdel sprinkler timer (does not show a model number). It is a 6 zone timer (has 6 time "sliders") but has 8 wires going into it (10 including the power cables). None of the wire connections are marked. My new (Rainbird) 6 zone irrigation timer has 6 connections (plus 2 for power).

Do you know why the Richdel has 8 wires (not including the power cables) going into it for a 6 zone timer, and how do I replace it with a Rainbird which one has 6 cables going into it?

Thanks for your help

Answer
I'm not sure why your old one has that many wires going into it. I can tell you that after mounting the new one you should connect your common wire to the common terminal and then each zone wire to the zone terminals in the new one. The terminals in the old one should be marked 1,2,3,and so on. There should be wires for your timer to connect to the outlet. Those should be clearly marked. The only reason the old timer might be using more wires is if some wires are doubled up. As in running two valves off of one terminal. I hope this has helped. Let me know if you need some more help.