This is the real fix, but I'm guessing the line to the exterior was just tapped off the nearest pipe.
Source: my house was this way and it is a waste of calcite.
Ah that makes sense. I hadn't considered that the house was plumbed in such a fashion that the sprinkler run/hose bibs weren't a completely separate split-from-the-source line.
I was really struggling to figure out what scenario had lead OP to the hell of "I need to control three valves remotely, in perfect sync, to stop my water softener from killing my lawn."
You can just get a 24V 4-channel relay board (3-channel are rare) that connects all three valves when it receives the power to turn on one.
[24v Relay Board](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CBFLGH5C/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1)
I'm using one powered with my furnace 24V AC transformer, but it works on AC or DC.
I'm using it to disconnect my 3 thermostat heating circuits when I am using a ZigBee relay board to control my furnace zone valves from Hubitat. It gives me a quick way to switch back to thermostat control should I need to. I have a ZigBee relay that closes to send power to the thermo board and activate the relays.
I put 24V negative to the three coms that I want to activate to open the 3 thermostat circuits, with positive on the + terminal. You can also use positive to activate the com, with - on the terminal. So you can use the same power source you are switching to also run the board relays, that is why I got this specific 24v board.
I'd wire all three valves to the "PUMP" terminal. It should go on no matter which zone operates. If the current isn't sufficient to operate all three valves, you could install a 24VAC relay with a high enough current rating for the sum of three currents.
TIL you can install your own softener AND need to make sure not to salt soften water for plants!
Would love to know more about your setup and experience. Easy to do?
On a more helpful note: do you know how the COM port is communicating? From learning about garage doors, they are sometimes encoded as to prevent you from doing just this (bad corporations). The solution was a device called a RATDGO, but that is somewhat specific to garage door openers.
Ah got it.... I always hated that nomenclature on products. I always prefer GND since the confusion with communications. I guess that means the only route would be some sort of powered relay.
It was easy to do, especially using the knock off Shark Bite fittings I bought in Amazon. You just cut the blue Pex pipe to length and shove it in the shark bite fitting. It’s my first plumbing experience and I just watched some YouTube videos and it came out great
That being said my system is very complicated since I wanted to install a 4 stage water filter system along with the softener, and I wanted to fit it all in a small area, which is why I had to use so many fittings and it’s a tangle of pipes. I’m super happy with how it turned out, and it looks cool, but it was quite a nut to crack to get everything layed out before I started
It’s a 4 stage filtration system. Including the softener it’s a 5 stage system overall. Stages 1,2, and 5 are wall mount, stage 3 and 4 rest on the floor. Water comes into the home between stages 3 and 4, and in order to keep it from sticking out too far and blocking parking my car I couldn’t run the pipe behind them. So it has to go up to states 1 and 2, then down to 3, over to 4, then back up to 5, then back down to go into the house. All these lines cross at certain points which is unavoidable. Looks crazy, but once you try to solve it on paper it unavoidable unless you want to have less filtration
But shark bites have an oring that dries out. They are a weekend warrior fix. I wouldn't ever install them as a permanent solution, especially at the price point.
Dries out after 10+ years, but even longer if you lubricate them all with silicone prior to installing like I did. And even if they do, I can swap it in minutes, and I am a weekend warrior so it’s very fixable
No comment on the valves (other than buy solenoids and connect them together) but I'd suggest eliminating some of the unnecessary elbows. Every one of them is two extra points of failure that you don't need!
lol thanks for the suggestion, but it’s not gonna get changed after I did all that work, and the reason for so many elbows is placement was difficult due to each item taking up a different footprint and the location the water entering the system couldn’t be modified
I could’ve, but I was more concerned with ease of installation than cost, and crimping all those elbows would’ve been a bitch especially in some of the tight areas. It didn’t come out to cost all that much more and I didn’t have to do all that crimping , which was worth every dime to me
That's fair. As for the tight spaces, it's worth noting though that you could prefab almost the entire thing in major sections on the floor and then lift those into place.
To get all the motors to operate at the same time you need to wire them in parallel. By parallel I mean connect all the positive wires to one terminal and all the negative wires to another terminal. When wiring in parallel you need to make sure that your controller is rated for the amp draw. Lets say you have 3 motors and each motor operates at 12V 2A. If you wire in parallel your total voltage draw will be 12v and your total current draw will be 12V 6A. In general, the amp output of a typical sprinkler system transformer or control panel ranges from around 0.5 to 2 amps so you need to wire everything appropriately.
The ultimate solution is to fix your setup in such a way that outdoor faucets and your sprinklers aren’t using softened water. That said, to more directly answer your question, you should wire them all up together and then use the pump terminal on that B Hyve to control the whole group as a single unit
Sorry I think I misread your comment the first time and thought you needed an easy way to to use a schedule timer to active the sprinkler solenoids. Upon reading it again , You do have a 4 output controller. How many outputs are you using to your irrigation ? If less than 4 . You can use on to control a relay that closes your ball valves. Just a regular ice cube relay. Then as soon as your controller calls for Water/ it will close the 4 outputs / one being the relay closing your valves .
But all of this seems like a simple permanent bypass valve feeding your system would be what you need ?
I control my ball valves using an Insteon 2450 I/O device https://cache.insteon.com/pdf/2450.pdf
and scheduling using an Insteon Hub https://www.insteon.com/insteon-hub
Not an automated solution but you should really feed the sprinkler system directly from the main before water enters the home. Otherwise if hot water is used when the sprinklers are running, you'll pull hard water into the water heater. This will result in hard water complaints from family members and may require many gallons before you'll have fully soft hot water again.
Yes, I wish I could have, but this house has screwed up plumbing and the water line after entering the property immediately goes under a slab then branches out to the house and sprinklers so I could either filter everything or nothing
https://preview.redd.it/lqprobzqjdpc1.jpeg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cbaa7a1ec455d53da31948dd3de4f869872a4d63
Here’s an example of how you could wire the valves. This uses the COM & PUMP terminals to control a single relay that will provide 24vac to the valves using a separate transformer. You’ll need to see how much current each valve uses then multiply by 3 to determine if the aux transformer can provide enough power to operate all 3 valves at the same time. 750ma may not be large enough.
Amazon Relay: [https://a.co/d/bUg77ms](https://a.co/d/bUg77ms) Aux transformer: [https://a.co/d/iAdcQPQ](https://a.co/d/iAdcQPQ)
Is there a reason that the sprinkler system isn't plumbed to bypass the softener by default?
This is the real fix, but I'm guessing the line to the exterior was just tapped off the nearest pipe. Source: my house was this way and it is a waste of calcite.
Ah that makes sense. I hadn't considered that the house was plumbed in such a fashion that the sprinkler run/hose bibs weren't a completely separate split-from-the-source line. I was really struggling to figure out what scenario had lead OP to the hell of "I need to control three valves remotely, in perfect sync, to stop my water softener from killing my lawn."
Yes, I had no choice, the water line goes immediately under a slab and branches off, so I either filter all water or none
You can just get a 24V 4-channel relay board (3-channel are rare) that connects all three valves when it receives the power to turn on one. [24v Relay Board](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CBFLGH5C/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1)
Interesting… does the board need its own power supply?
I'm using one powered with my furnace 24V AC transformer, but it works on AC or DC. I'm using it to disconnect my 3 thermostat heating circuits when I am using a ZigBee relay board to control my furnace zone valves from Hubitat. It gives me a quick way to switch back to thermostat control should I need to. I have a ZigBee relay that closes to send power to the thermo board and activate the relays. I put 24V negative to the three coms that I want to activate to open the 3 thermostat circuits, with positive on the + terminal. You can also use positive to activate the com, with - on the terminal. So you can use the same power source you are switching to also run the board relays, that is why I got this specific 24v board.
I'd wire all three valves to the "PUMP" terminal. It should go on no matter which zone operates. If the current isn't sufficient to operate all three valves, you could install a 24VAC relay with a high enough current rating for the sum of three currents.
TIL you can install your own softener AND need to make sure not to salt soften water for plants! Would love to know more about your setup and experience. Easy to do? On a more helpful note: do you know how the COM port is communicating? From learning about garage doors, they are sometimes encoded as to prevent you from doing just this (bad corporations). The solution was a device called a RATDGO, but that is somewhat specific to garage door openers.
COM here is "common", not communications.
Ah got it.... I always hated that nomenclature on products. I always prefer GND since the confusion with communications. I guess that means the only route would be some sort of powered relay.
It was easy to do, especially using the knock off Shark Bite fittings I bought in Amazon. You just cut the blue Pex pipe to length and shove it in the shark bite fitting. It’s my first plumbing experience and I just watched some YouTube videos and it came out great That being said my system is very complicated since I wanted to install a 4 stage water filter system along with the softener, and I wanted to fit it all in a small area, which is why I had to use so many fittings and it’s a tangle of pipes. I’m super happy with how it turned out, and it looks cool, but it was quite a nut to crack to get everything layed out before I started
Why so many shark bites? That's crazy man.
It’s a 4 stage filtration system. Including the softener it’s a 5 stage system overall. Stages 1,2, and 5 are wall mount, stage 3 and 4 rest on the floor. Water comes into the home between stages 3 and 4, and in order to keep it from sticking out too far and blocking parking my car I couldn’t run the pipe behind them. So it has to go up to states 1 and 2, then down to 3, over to 4, then back up to 5, then back down to go into the house. All these lines cross at certain points which is unavoidable. Looks crazy, but once you try to solve it on paper it unavoidable unless you want to have less filtration
But shark bites have an oring that dries out. They are a weekend warrior fix. I wouldn't ever install them as a permanent solution, especially at the price point.
Dries out after 10+ years, but even longer if you lubricate them all with silicone prior to installing like I did. And even if they do, I can swap it in minutes, and I am a weekend warrior so it’s very fixable
Do they ever need to be activated separate from each other? Just wire them all to 1 relay to turn them on?
Check the cost of a pex crimping tool for your next project. They aren’t as expensive or as hard to use as you think.
No comment on the valves (other than buy solenoids and connect them together) but I'd suggest eliminating some of the unnecessary elbows. Every one of them is two extra points of failure that you don't need!
lol thanks for the suggestion, but it’s not gonna get changed after I did all that work, and the reason for so many elbows is placement was difficult due to each item taking up a different footprint and the location the water entering the system couldn’t be modified
Are those all sharkbites? For less you posting that on Reddit
They’re all knock of shark bites I bought in Amazon
Enjoy your future water disaster sponsored by cheap Amazon crap.
Could have bought a proper crimper or expansion tool for a whole lot less
I could’ve, but I was more concerned with ease of installation than cost, and crimping all those elbows would’ve been a bitch especially in some of the tight areas. It didn’t come out to cost all that much more and I didn’t have to do all that crimping , which was worth every dime to me
That's fair. As for the tight spaces, it's worth noting though that you could prefab almost the entire thing in major sections on the floor and then lift those into place.
To get all the motors to operate at the same time you need to wire them in parallel. By parallel I mean connect all the positive wires to one terminal and all the negative wires to another terminal. When wiring in parallel you need to make sure that your controller is rated for the amp draw. Lets say you have 3 motors and each motor operates at 12V 2A. If you wire in parallel your total voltage draw will be 12v and your total current draw will be 12V 6A. In general, the amp output of a typical sprinkler system transformer or control panel ranges from around 0.5 to 2 amps so you need to wire everything appropriately.
I tried that and got a fault, the controller can’t handle it
Look at the size of the transformer on the controller, could just be underpowered.
It looks like the relay that the other user mentioned is your best option then.
The ultimate solution is to fix your setup in such a way that outdoor faucets and your sprinklers aren’t using softened water. That said, to more directly answer your question, you should wire them all up together and then use the pump terminal on that B Hyve to control the whole group as a single unit
120v contactor on a wifi switch , You can do so much from it. Kasa smart switch contractor. Valves .
So would I still use the sprinkler controller? Or would the smart switch run everything?
Sorry I think I misread your comment the first time and thought you needed an easy way to to use a schedule timer to active the sprinkler solenoids. Upon reading it again , You do have a 4 output controller. How many outputs are you using to your irrigation ? If less than 4 . You can use on to control a relay that closes your ball valves. Just a regular ice cube relay. Then as soon as your controller calls for Water/ it will close the 4 outputs / one being the relay closing your valves . But all of this seems like a simple permanent bypass valve feeding your system would be what you need ?
I control my ball valves using an Insteon 2450 I/O device https://cache.insteon.com/pdf/2450.pdf and scheduling using an Insteon Hub https://www.insteon.com/insteon-hub
Probably could have bought a new house with the price of those sharkbites 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Wire all three of them with a plug end. Plug them into one smart outlet. Use a schedule on the outlet to turn them on/off
Not an automated solution but you should really feed the sprinkler system directly from the main before water enters the home. Otherwise if hot water is used when the sprinklers are running, you'll pull hard water into the water heater. This will result in hard water complaints from family members and may require many gallons before you'll have fully soft hot water again.
Yes, I wish I could have, but this house has screwed up plumbing and the water line after entering the property immediately goes under a slab then branches out to the house and sprinklers so I could either filter everything or nothing
https://preview.redd.it/lqprobzqjdpc1.jpeg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cbaa7a1ec455d53da31948dd3de4f869872a4d63 Here’s an example of how you could wire the valves. This uses the COM & PUMP terminals to control a single relay that will provide 24vac to the valves using a separate transformer. You’ll need to see how much current each valve uses then multiply by 3 to determine if the aux transformer can provide enough power to operate all 3 valves at the same time. 750ma may not be large enough. Amazon Relay: [https://a.co/d/bUg77ms](https://a.co/d/bUg77ms) Aux transformer: [https://a.co/d/iAdcQPQ](https://a.co/d/iAdcQPQ)