Rachio Gen 3 - Zone stopped working today

post by Seedguru on Sep 1, 2020

All of a sudden today, my 5th Zone stopped working. The other 6 Zones are fine, but when I manually run 5 or have it run in the schedule it does not respond to the request to start the zone. It simply plays in the app like its running, no errors or anything, but the system does not send water through the Zone. I switched Zone 6 to Zone 5 and it ran just fine in Zone 6 in the 5 slot, but 5 in the 6 slot did not. I haven't had any construction or digging done today. Really just looking for some advice as to what my next step should be. I don't have a long enough wire to directly run from Zone 5 on the panel to my central system in the backyard so I can't test the wiring.

Appreciate any help you can give!

SeedGuru

post by Thomas_Lerman on Sep 1, 2020

Great job swapping the zones which rules out an issue with the controller. The next things I would check include (not in any other):

1. Checking all connections for the bad zone including the terminals on the controller and the wires from the valve going into their wire nuts (they do work loose more often that people want to admit)
2. If you have a multimeter either: a. check voltage on both ends of the wire when the controller has the zone on b. check the ohm on the controller end with the zone off
3. Manually turn on the valve and see if it turns on, then turn it off

It would seem to be something with the wiring or valve. We are trying to narrow it down. If you have more questions, need more details, have a report, or anything, please let us know.

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