Interface doesn't allow designating multiple master zones and subzones or zones independent of master?

I have 3 valve manifolds around my property primarily for lawn and border planting irrigation but also for drip circuits on trees, garden, potted trees, container planting, etc.

I would like add 3 separate zoned drip systems with 1 off each manifold. Each would use a traditional irrigation anti-siphon valve as a master valve and connect through a filter and pressure regulator to 1/2" flexible drip supply tubing. Each of these zones can add clusters of smaller cheaper 24VAC 1/2" barb valves to customize watering for various types of plants. This would make it easy for seasonal planting, etc to move tubing and valve clusters or turn off leaky or unused drip lines or groups.

Note the use of an antisiphon valve as a master valve isn't recommended in most circumstances. It is said the potential pressure surge due to valve operation or air in the line can break the antisiphon valve. I've had no problem using one with a old controller in this setup, but probably because of a couple factors: 1) The 25psi pressure regulator limits the outgoing pressure and magnitude of returned pressure spikes. 2) I've used this with thin wall flexible polyethelene tubing to distribute water to clusters of drip zones and the thin tubing absorbs most of the energy of any pressure surges. Violate common wisdom, experiment, or use this approach at your own risk. Comments and feedback may help refine the approach.

I have an HD-16 and a Pro-16. This is more zones than I really intend to setup, but isn't flexible enough with master zones. Each controller can only assign 1 master zone and if selected it switches on with every other valve. I wouldn't want drip zones pressurized every time a lawn circuit comes on.

As a compromise, I'll use 1 controller to run only independent zones and 1 controller for a single drip master and longer tubes to distribute clusters of subvalves.

Alternative, I could use 4 separate controllers (1 for independent valves and another for each of 3 master connected drip clusters). This wouldn't be so bad if there was aggregated control, but it really seems excessive and a nuisance.

Is there any hope this can be fixed in software or firmware or is it fundamental to the hardware? There is enough power to run 2 valves simultaneously. Can 2 valves be turned on in more flexible ways such as selecting indepedent valves or associated with multiple masters?

RainMachine Support Agent February 11, 2019 17:46

This is something that has been brought up before, and I think is a great idea to be able to add more flexibility to the "Master Valve" programming.

Lets see if we can get some more votes, and drive up the priority.

Brandon

Christopher E Fuentes August 23, 2022 17:04

I voted for this feature. I need to be able to have multiple master valves because I have multiple valve boxes around the house that run off one main water line. There are other things connected to that main water line (hose, garden timers, etc.) so I can't just put one master at the beginning of the main line or else it cuts off water to everything. Plus we can't control the master valve so I can't really turn it on when I want to use the hose or something (without having to turn on a zone).

How can we help?

Interface doesn't allow designating multiple master zones and subzones or zones independent of master?

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