Reticulation Controller Not Working? Fixes & Replacement

When the retic stops, the controller on the wall gets the blame. Sometimes it deserves it. Just as often it is reporting a fault somewhere else: a rain sensor holding it off, a setting that has changed, or a broken wire or solenoid out in the garden.

Rain Bird's own troubleshooting guide for technicians estimates, conservatively, that a quarter of the controllers taken away for repair turn out to have no fault at all. So before you buy a new one, it's worth ten minutes with the checks below.

Rather leave it to us? Call us on (08) 6263 4644. Repairs are booked, not quoted, and most faults are fixed in the same visit.

First, a word on power

Most home controllers run the garden side of the system at low voltage, 24 volts AC, through a transformer. On many indoor models that's the plug pack in the power point. The 240-volt side is different. In Western Australia, electrical work must be done by a licensed electrician, so a dead power point, or an outdoor controller wired straight into the mains, is a job for an electrician. When a hardwired controller or a new power point needs one, we arrange it.

Nothing below asks you to open up the controller's wiring. It's all switches, buttons and reading the screen.

1. The screen is blank

• Check the power point. Make sure it's switched on and the plug pack is pushed fully in. If you're not sure the point works, plug in a lamp and see.
• The transformer can fail. If the power point works and the screen stays blank, either the transformer (the plug pack) or the controller itself has failed. Some models show "No AC" instead of going blank, which means the same thing: no power is reaching the controller.
• A fuse that keeps blowing is a clue. Some controllers have a fuse that blows when there's a short in a station wire or a failed solenoid. Replacing the fuse, or the whole controller, won't cure that. The fault is out in the garden.

2. The screen is on, but nothing waters

Work through these in order:

• Is it switched off? A dial left on Off, or a rain delay still counting down, stops all watering. Many controllers let you pause watering for a few days, and it's easy to forget one is set.
• Is a rain sensor holding it off? A rain sensor stops the program when it thinks it has rained. Controllers usually show this on the screen, and many have a bypass switch or a setting to ignore the sensor. If watering starts with the sensor bypassed, the sensor is the problem, not the controller.
• Is the program complete? A program needs three things: a start time, a run time for each station, and watering days. Leave any one out and nothing runs. Check the start time's AM and PM too.
• Is the seasonal adjustment turned right down? Many controllers can scale every run time up or down with one setting: from 10% to 150% on Hunter's X-Core, and from 5% to 200% on Rain Bird's ESP-TM2. Set low, the system waters for a fraction of the time the program says.
• Is the water on? If the system was shut off for winter, check the retic's shut-off valve was opened again. Our five checks before you call cover that one.

3. It waters at odd times, or more than once

• Too many start times. One start time runs every station in that program, one after the other. A common mistake is giving each station its own start time, which runs the whole program several times over. Hunter, Rain Bird and Toro all list it in their troubleshooting guides.
• Leftover programs. Many controllers hold more than one program (A, B, C). A station with a run time in two programs waters twice, so check them all.
• The clock is wrong. Modern controllers such as Hunter's X-Core keep their programs through a power cut and use a small backup battery to keep the time. If yours comes back from a blackout showing the wrong time or day, a flat backup battery is the likely cause.

4. It shows an error, or the screen has frozen

• An error with a station number usually means the controller has found a fault on that station: a short in the wiring or a failed solenoid. On Hunter's X-Core, "ERR" followed by a station number means exactly that. The controller is pointing at the fault, not causing it.
• A frozen or garbled screen after a storm or power surge can often be cleared by unplugging the controller for a couple of minutes, or with its reset button. Be careful with a full reset: on some models it returns everything to factory settings and wipes your programs, so write down or photograph your settings first.

5. One zone won't come on, or won't turn off

• One zone dead, the rest fine. This is usually the station wire or the solenoid on that zone's valve rather than the controller. A technician tests the controller's output, then the wire at the valve, to find which. Leave that one to us.
• A zone that won't stop. Turn the controller to Off. If the water keeps running, unplug it. If it's still running, the fault is at the valve (debris under the diaphragm, a failed solenoid, or a solenoid someone has turned by hand to run the zone), so turn off the retic's shut-off valve and call us.

Repair or replace?

Most of the faults above don't need a new controller. A wrong setting, a rain sensor, a flat backup battery or a fault out in the garden won't be fixed by swapping the unit on the wall.

Replacing makes sense when:

• power reaches the controller and the transformer is working, but the controller is still dead or won't switch its stations
• it has been physically damaged
• you want something it can't do, such as running the system from your phone, or more stations for a new zone

A like-for-like replacement usually reuses the station wires already running to your valves. Choose one with at least as many stations as the zones you run.

If you're replacing anyway, it can be worth upgrading. A WiFi controller lets you run and check the system from an app, and some adjust themselves to the weather: Hunter's Hydrawise software, for example, adjusts watering using local weather data. Our guides to WiFi controller pros and cons and the best irrigation controllers compare the options.

What it costs to have us look at it

Controller faults are booked like any retic repair: a $160 minimum charge (the call-out), then labour at $40 per 15 minutes on site, plus any parts. We can't know the fault until we test the system, so repairs are booked, not quoted, and you're welcome to set a budget cap when you book.

A like-for-like replacement of a failed controller is booked the same way, with the new controller as the part. If you'd rather upgrade, we can quote it without a site visit: just tell us whether your current controller plugs into a power point or is hardwired (a photo of it is ideal). If the new one needs a licensed electrician, we arrange that too. More on our reticulation controller service.

Sources: controller faults, error codes, power failure and seasonal adjustment from the Hunter X-Core owner's manual, the Rain Bird ESP-TM2 user manual and Irrigation Troubleshooting Guide, Rain Bird's valve troubleshooting guide and Toro's sprinkler troubleshooting guide. Electrical licensing from the Government of Western Australia, Having electrical work done. Weather-based watering from Hydrawise.