Helpful Information
If there is one thing in a sprinkler system that you want to be able to count on, it’s the lawn sprinkler valves. When the Texas heat is blistering, and the lawn is struggling you need to be able to count on them to turn on and supply water to the sprinklers. Put the control valves need to fire when you ask them to reliably and every time.
Toro Flo-pro, a Leaking Sprinkler Valve You Can’t Count On
Toro’s flo-pro valves were popular in the 90’s especially around the Austin area. When American Irrigation started servicing irrigation systems we’d see these valves many times per week around the Austin, Round Rock, and Georgetown service areas. They were common and during that time some contractors seemed to prefer them.
Why Should the Toro Flo-pro Sprinkler Valve Be Replaced?
There were a handful of issues with these particular valves. I suspect they were trying to release something new and improved with the jar-type style valve being promoted as a quicker tool-free way to enhance the serviceability of control valves. Honestly, jar top valves just aren’t necessary if you build a high-quality valve that doesn’t need to be serviced often.
A Poor Valve Solenoid Design
In continuation of the idea of easier servicing / easier on contractors, Toro used a proprietary solenoid on the valve that was sold as quicker to install and didn’t need wire splices to connect the wires. The solenoid was like the push-to-insert light switches where they have a copper spring-type conductor that is supposed to hold the wire and contact it. Contact with the wire was iffy at best, and removing the wire from the solenoid would easily damage it or make it difficult to reconnect.
Later versions of the control valve were manufactured with an improved solenoid more like those sold today, however, the other issues with the valve remained.
Prone to Leaks
It was not uncommon to see the jar top threads work their way loose over the cycles. American Irrigation Repair responded to calls finding a dead dying lawn with green dots where the flo pro valves were located. The top of the bonnet would loosen over time causing the control valve to leak. Often the leak would start small – roots would search out the water and you would end up with a control valve in the middle of a big wad of muddy root ball.
The Valve Diaphragms Were Notorious For failing.
The diaphragms would fail resulting in a no-open condition. The marker for a failed diaphragm was that you could open the control valve from the controller and the solenoid would trigger but the valve would not open. Most of the time the valve would hiss, you could hear it was trying to open. This was caused by the bleed opening on the diaphragm becoming oversized which prevented the solenoid from being able to bleed enough water from the top of the diaphragm to open the valve.
Photo of Flo-pro with the push to insert solenoid:
Picture of the diaphragm:
Grouping of the valves with the later improved solenoid:
Helpful article: How To Tell If a Sprinkler Valve Solenoid Is Bad
Hunter and Rain-Bird Control Valves Have Raised the Bar
If you have toro flo-pro valves in your system, I wouldn’t necessarily replace them if they are working correctly. Once they act up or if you see any signs of leakage you should consider replacing them with a Rain Bird DV valve, or Hunter PGV control valves which have proven to be solid reliable performers.
If you need help, give us a holler at American Irrigation Repair at 512-943-6080. We can do a full tune-up and 20-point analysis of your system and present you with any recommendations we find.
Because of the age of these valves, I did not have recent photos so I grabbed a couple of photos from other sources so I want to give them credit and shout out below!
Sources:
https://www.lawnsite.com/threads/help-identifying-this-toro-valve-pic-attached.327979/
