Master valve issue Rachio3 master valve

post by hlaudio on Jun 30, 2024

Hello! I have the Rachio3

I recently replaced my old master valve with a new Orbit 24VAC valve. I have master valve selected in the setup page of R3. However, when I run a scheduled program the valve is not triggered. But, if I run the program as a “quick run” the master valve is triggered and the schedule works just fine. My watering program is scheduled to run 3 times a day for 35min over 7 drip zones.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, H

post by hlaudio on Jul 2, 2024

Anybody? Thoughts or suggestions?

post by ady624 on Jul 3, 2024

No clue, really. Did you by any chance setup the schedule before setting up the master valve settings? Can you delete and recreate the schedule?

post by hlaudio on Jul 3, 2024

Hey Thanks for reaching out!

In my installation I only use the master valve while I am away. I use the municipal water source. So master valve is connected directly to the outside water tap. When I’m here on Curacao I use collected rain water and I manually turn a pump on & off. So during that time I switch off the master valve in the controller settings. It’s worked fine for 5 yrs. Then this summer the Rainbird valve I used for master valve decided it had enough and so I had to replace it. Unfortunately no store on the island had the Rainbird valve. So I bought the Orbit valve. Switched on the master valve setting and waited till noon for the midday schedule to run. No joy! Valve did not open. So I stopped the program and went to the program settings and did a quick run to see if the valve would open. It did! So, the afternoon schedule comes at 3:30pm and the valve did not open. Again, stopped the program and did the quick run and the valve opens. So now I run the programs as quick run thanks to the app on my iPhone. Truly the only difference is the Orbit valve. It is 24VAC.

Thanks for hearing out H

post by ady624 on Jul 3, 2024

that is odd, maybe customer support can help. Do you have any multimeter? could you measure the voltage between M and COM while the schedule is running? Set the multimeter in 200VAC