Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design 1 Oct 04, 2010 5:14 pm Hi there, we are about to put down some Empire Zoysia as a start to our garden and are needing to purchase a Retic Controller. We need a large one as we are on 1 hectare, I would say about a 12 station minimum. The local irrigation shop here has recommended the Orbit Control Star 12 Station. I know from reading heaps on here that Fu recommends the Hunter controllers though as does my turf installer. The local store says the Orbit ones are better, I can't remember exactly why something to do with the coils or something burning out and being able to be replaced. I know nothing about the Orbit stuff and don't want to be lead astray so thought I'd just ask some advice here as to what controller would be best for us (I don't actually think the Hunter XC come in more than an 8 station?? but I do know the pro series does). It doesn't matter if it's an indoor or outdoor one as it will be mounted on (or in) our shed, and it can be hardwired etc. Re: Which Retic Contoller 2Oct 04, 2010 7:00 pm Coils? Coils are present in the valves. Nothing to do with a controller. They are another name for a solenoid. The valve is the base part and the coil or solenoid is the bit with the wires hanging out. They are not part of a controller.. I think that in it's self says whos advice I'd be taking Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ The Hunter XC isn't the only great easy to use controller on the market. Irritrol Rain dial and control dial is the one I'd be using in your case. It is a commercial controller that handles up to 26 stations. They too are highly reliable (I have had one going for nearly 15 years without skipping a beat) Rain Dial, an excellent domestic controller that is so easy to use! http://www.irritrol.com/controllers/con ... ntrol.html The Total Control Dial which is the best choice in your situation, the commercial version of the rain dial http://www.irritrol.com/controllers/con ... ntrol.html (Heaps of start times can be used so this makes for extremely efficient watering ) EG one minute per station every hour for 9 hours, finishing just on daybreak. A huge reduction in water run off and increases in water absorption into the soil Little to no run off The Hunter XC http://www.hunterindustries.com/Product ... specs.html and the Pro-C (which would also be a choice for this application.) http://www.hunterindustries.com/Product ... specs.html Re: Which Retic Contoller 3Oct 04, 2010 7:03 pm It is also important to remember that some retic shops sell certain brands only. ie the rainbird controllers might be used and recommended by one shop and that is all they sell and another may have say irritrol and toro controllers only (same business) ... of course that shop recommends them only Re: Which Retic Contoller 4Oct 04, 2010 8:59 pm Thanks for that Fu, I have been doubtfull on some of the advice I have gotten from them.....ie suggesting I run the water in to the controller at only a 25ml poly (ie's quite a long run in, and our turf guy says we should be using 40 ml etc) I will look into those other controllers and see how I go. Only a limited number of suppliers here so might have to order online. Re: Which Retic Contoller 5Oct 04, 2010 10:08 pm Pm Bradtez if you need mail order retic memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=27562 Is the retic being supplied from a domestic/scheme supply? Or water tank and pump or bore? 40mm is getting to be pretty big pipe. 32mm maybe but the pipe supplying the system depends on the water pressure you have at your place. It might be fine to have 40mm pipe but not if the water source can't fill the pipe. Even in the case of 25mm pipe. You still need good pressure and flow to fill the pipe. Your retic mob should be helping with this before stating what pipe to use. The retic mob maybe talking or should be looking to use Blue line ag pipe really. It looks like poly but is far thicker and has a blue line running along it That is more commonly used in rural and commercial applications. If your lawn guy comes with good references etc or word of mouth, then no doubt he is experienced and knowledgeable on the water supply in your area. As for the valves/solenoids. Orbit do a good one. the jar top valve. It is interchangeable with a few other jar top valves on the market, the Irritrol and Richdell jar tops. Jar tops are valves that have no screws holding the top on of the valve. They just have an outer ring that screws on like a jam jar lid Hence the name jar top They are super easy to clean. I find the Orbit coils/ solenoids don't last too long but I have had some last ages. A bit hit and miss. They corrode out where the wires go in very easy. They are easy to replace Toro do a fantastic jar top valve. Different design and coil/solenoid Make sure your system has a "master valve" installed. This is a valve that goes at the head of the system and stops all the valves being under constant mains pressure. The master valve comes on when ever a programmed station comes on With out them, if something goes wrong with the system, you'll wish you had one Re: Which Retic Contoller 6Oct 04, 2010 10:10 pm I hope this isn't making things confusing I will post something that may help you... Re: Which Retic Contoller 7Oct 04, 2010 10:29 pm OK This is made available thanks to the water corporation and Irrigation Australia. 11Mb PDF. It is the domestic guidelines for irrigation in Australia. Should help a few of you http://www.irrigation.org.au/assets/pag ... ations.pdf Re: Which Retic Contoller 8Oct 05, 2010 4:09 pm The water supply will at the moment be mains supplied. When I did the flow test with the meter thingy (lol for lack of a technical term) I had 4.3 bar static pressure and 3 Bar working pressure and it took 11.65 seconds to fill a 9 litre bucket from the mains. I kind of wondered how if you only have 20ml pipe coming into the property, you could ever fill a 40ml pipe but don't know a lot about this stuff. My husband tells me the retic guy recommended 40ml blue line (water shop recommended 25ml) apparently the retic guy has done a few houses up here and thinks it is needed?? There aren't a lot of houses out here yet and I would anticipate that our pressure etc would significantly drop as more houses pop up as it has on the other side of the estate so I want to put less on each line to anticipate for this. I'm not sure really who to listen to. The retic guy used to work for the water shop but left them and thinks they are wrong, and does a lot of work around town, seems to know what he's talking about, I double checked and he's using Hunter MP rotators on semi commercial hunter popups with a double sleeve seal and monted on an arcti riser for easy adjustment later on....the guy at the water shop who did our quote left suddenly so not sure of the cirsumstances there either......Anyway we are having the retic guy install our EZ lawn and the retic in that area and we will do the run in from the water main to the controller and then into where the lawn guy will have the manifold for the lawn. The run in from the mains to the controller is about 70m and then from the contoller to the lawn area is about 50m. We will also be running a mains line around to the grass area so we can set up a couple of garden taps because they are lacking around that side of the house. Re: Which Retic Contoller 9Oct 05, 2010 10:57 pm For success with EZ it is imperative my soil prep advice is followed to the letter. 11 seconds to fill a bucket isn't so good but certainly not bad. You could look to running 32mm or 25 mm just fine. Run 25mm after the valves to the sprinklers. The rest sounds ok to me. You will be able to run subsurface irrigation without a pressure reducer and the MP's will work pretty well. Re: Which Retic Contoller 12Nov 11, 2010 11:29 am I have got 2 quotes, 1 using a rainbird controller and rainbird geardrive sprinklers, the other using a Hunter XC controller and MP rotator sprinklers (both use netafim dripline for the garden). The 2nd quote is about $100 more expensive, which would you go for? Re: Which Retic Contoller 13Nov 12, 2010 1:41 am The hunter one. The rainbird controllers annoy me to use compared to the Hunters. The new Hunter X-Core Controller is the latest and is what would most likely be used. Rainbird gear drive sprinklers are the only smart watermark approved sprinkler but the MPs are better IMO, tough call though. MPs have less di cking around with adjustments in the long term. Both apply the water slowly so what is 10mins for a junk pop up to deliver water is 30 mins to deliver the same water (around 10mm) Set up 3 start times of 10 mins each with a few minutes between the finish of one cycle and the start of the next with that style of system. Re: Which Retic Contoller 14Nov 12, 2010 4:29 pm Thanks Fu, will be getting this tomorrow. Do the controllers need to be sheilded from the weather at all? The place I was going to put it (next to the front tap) isnt covered by eaves. Any advantages/disadvantages putting it in the front or backyard? Re: Which Retic Contoller 15Nov 12, 2010 4:47 pm Controllers need to be somewhere where you can access them easy. We traditionally put them down the side of the house. A habit formed from the days when we could dump water on our gardens for 5 hours everyday and it was cheap and no one cared. you'd set the controller once and if it was raining, mehhh. Now we need to interact with our controllers regularly. Using the seasonal adjust function always to get the best from your system and using the least water. Get an Irritrol wireless rain sensor fitted too. You can do this easy yourself, I've posted a how to for you guys. Sometimes though a rain sensor might say it has rained enough but high winds will dry things out fast so overriding it is sometimes needed. In a laundry is handy, in the garage is good. By a door is great, laundry door or something. Try to get them to install all the valves in one place rather than some out back and some out front. It may cost a bit more in pipe but not that much more and even if possible have the valves above the ground down the side of the house. Why? It is cheap and easy to fix later. Nothing worse than playing find the valve years later and digging expensive awkward holes to make repairs. Cable can be run up the wall and through the roof to any location around the home. If the unit is going to exposed to weather, make sure it is hard wired by an electrician rather than plugged into an outdoor powerpoint. They still give grief later on. Re: Which Retic Contoller 16Nov 15, 2010 11:55 am Thanks Fu, the retic is getting delivered tomorrow, and then its digging time! I will put the controller next to the laundry door for easy access and get it hardwired. The plans that were drawn up for me have all the solenoids in one spot (but the guy has only done 3 stations, with the entire drip system being on 1 station). Looks like I have a fun week or so ahead. Re: Which Retic Contoller 17Nov 15, 2010 11:06 pm Hmmm?? Even though all the subsurfce can be on one station, I'd strongly suggest breaking up the beds a bit. That way you can control water use more effectively. While that may not matter now, I can assure you, you will need it in the near future. Then you can get the right water to the right area. It shouldn't be a case of dump the same water everywhere. We need better control. For the sake of a few more valves and some extra pipe it is easy. The wire for the valves should have it covered with either 7 or 9 core wire used, that should give you a few spares. Re: Which Retic Contoller 18Nov 16, 2010 11:30 am Thought a couple of different stations would be better. I just noticed that our plan doesnt include a pressure regulator or filter, or is this part of the master valve? Also, they have sold me miniscape when I asked for techline, is this a problem? This is getting much harder than I anticipated! Re: Which Retic Contoller 19Nov 16, 2010 12:17 pm No, the flush valve is an absolute must. I would very strongly suggest the techline over the mini scape which is better for pots and hanging baskets or very small garden beds. Even thenm I tend to prefer the features of the 13mm techline AS. Far easier on repairs because you can just use regular 13mm fittings rather than needing special 6mm joiners etc for the mini scape. It needs an air bleed and a flush valve on each line or line terminal. A grey valve (anti syphon back up) and a brown valve (flush). A high flow pressure reducer will be required. Cost $30 ish A canister filter is also required at about $30 ish also. This goes at the head of the line after the master valve of the system. The MP's will run fine at low pressure In fact they work better Have a sqizz at the netafim Australia website. They have some good stuff on there Re: Which Retic Contoller 20Nov 16, 2010 12:26 pm So in the system it should include first the irrigation take off. Then you have the check valve. A brass tube looking thingy. Then a manual ball valve for manually isolating the system. I prefer to use the more expensive nylon ball valves because in 5 years the one time you need to desperately turn off the system manually, you don't find a rusted blob They handle far greater pressures than metal gate valves too. Then you have the master valve which must be pressure rated. Then you have the canister disc filter. Then the high flo-pressure reducer Then there is your manifold made up of the station valves. I specify irritrol jar tops because they are the best to repair and have been around for a lonnnng time so parts are easy to get later Easy. Then you have the poly or PVC pipe out to the locations of the stations. Then you have the techline AS 13mm set out accordingly. Then we do an air bleed or anti syphon valve at the highest point. At the very end of each line is a brown flush valve Black on light wood does look good. 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