Find out how to check your irrigation controller settings and avoid the most common programming mistakes.
Whether you’re resetting it for the end of daylight saving time, adjusting irrigation for the cool season, or just turning off your sprinkler system for the year, you may find yourself at your irrigation controller this week.
Although leaks and other issues are common in irrigation, the biggest single source of water waste occurs where you least expect it — at the control box.
Here’s why.
1. Extra programs. Those tiny letters (sometimes numbers) on the program screen correspond to different programs, as well as different watering days, start times and run times per zone. Any program letter with at least one day, one start time and one zone run time will run at its appointed day and time — regardless of the program displayed on the landing screen.
How to correct it: Check all your programs and clear out any extras. On most controllers, you can use the PGM (program) button to switch between programs to investigate the day/start time/run time settings for each program. The tiny letter (or number) on the LCD screen will advance as you switch between programs.
For systems that include drip irrigation, sometimes an extra program is used exclusively to run drip zones. But for many systems you’ll only need a single program (the “A” program) to do everything you need.
2. Additional start times. If you notice the entire sprinkler system running constantly, it’s time to check the start times. Up to four separate start times are available on a standard controller and for each start time, a full irrigation cycle will run. Start time number one indicates the first start time. On most controllers the zones all share the same start time and just run in succession starting at the first start time. It’s the second, third and fourth start times that often cause confusion.
How to correct it: For each program, remove any start times you’re not intending to use by selecting the program (PGM) and turning the start time up (+) one click past midnight and it should disappear entirely from the screen. Repeat this for the remaining start times on each active program. Watch for the superscripts that indicate ordinal numbers (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.) — these along with the dial turned to start times means you’re dealing with start times. Also, most controllers only contain four start times.
