Orbit WaterMaster Underground 57034 3/4-Inch Brass Automatic Converter Valve

In my yard watering system I have nine brass Champion 3/4" sprinkler valves; the earliest date from the 1960s when the house was new. When I converted to automatic sprinklers in 1970, it was done by adding these brass sprinkler adapters to the existing Champion manual valves and adding new brass Champion valves that also used these adapters. Over the 50 years since the first installation I've accumulated a lifetime of experience of various sprinkler-valve failure modes and how to fix them. The key thing I've learned is to have a quick sure way to get a failed valve up and running so that you can save the plants and lawns while you implement or purchase a longer-term solution. The super nice thing about these adapters is that you can just unscrew a failed unit and pop in an available replacement unit and be up and running in minutes....no pipe disassembly required, etc. So what I do is always have a lease one spare adapter on the shelf for a quick replacement. With my collection of 9 valves, which date back over 50 years, I get a failure every year or two when they get older...and having a quick replacement to pop in is a life saver. In general these valves are very reliable, but after 10-20 years things start to happen. When I was younger I used to try and repair the adapters. That never really worked very well, so now I just replace the adapters. As a contrast, on our ranch, we have plastic valves that are directly bonded into the PVC piping system...when one goes out, one has to tear the whole piping system apart to repair the issue...a big problem.As a note to folks with some old Champion valves, like some of mine, the sprinkler folks, like Champion Superior and Orbit, all make essentially these same adapters, but they all changed there "standard" mounting thread size a bit in the 2010 timeframe. They are still 1.25"dia by 16 tpi, but the newer ones are 0.020" larger in diameter and won't fit properly in the old valve bodies. I have a metal lathe and machining capability, so I just re-machine the thread on these newer units down to a 1.223" dia....then they fit all my valve bodies, both new and old. They work perfect in the older valves once the thread is fixed. I'm not sure when exactly they changed the thread size, but I started machining them down in 2010 on some Superior adapters I bought back then. Same fix is required to make these new Orbit units on Amazon fit the real old valve bodies. I just machined two of them and they're working perfectly.Highly recommended!

Had a plastic bodied controller in place and it was leaking through the body somewhere. Replaced it with the brass Orbit controller and no more leaks.

The valve was is very good condition. It did not come with a washer but they are easy and inexpensive to buy.

Works great. I never should have used a plastic one earlier.

Product is well made and was easy to install. Good value

The product started to leak within 6 months of my purchase. Tried to go get a warranty and no one can give me a straight answer even though Orbits website clearly states 6 years warranty on valves. The website warranty link won't work and when you call they tell you that when the product is in stock you can ask for a warranty request; which is odd as it's available on Amazon and usually with a warranty the manufacturer at least allows you to fill out a warranty request.

Having had a plastic valve actuator fail (massive leak) many years ago, I've been using brass valves and actuators for over 40 years. While they sometime fail to actuate after many years of use, I find them far superior to the plastic valves and actuators. I've never had any luck rebuilding the actuators, so I simply replace them and they're good for years. I've been using them long enough to still have some made by Champion. I don't know the back story, but they're now made by Orbitz and are compatible with the old Champion valves. I highly recommend them. They are pricey, but you get what you pay for.

We have a single valve system on our small front yard with 8 sprinkler heads. I upgraded the manual to automatic with this valve and the b-hyve timer. The problem I ran into was this - when I open this valve manually via the manual bleed screw it works great, but if I open it electronically using the timer/app/solenoid it doesn't have adequate water pressure to pop-up my sprinkler heads. I replaced one of our sprinkler heads with a lower pressure head and that fixed the problem, but it still takes about 50 seconds for the system to accumulate enough water pressure to pop-up the sprinkler heads. But again, they pop-up immediately if I use the manual bleed screw...so, in my opinion, there's something wrong with the design. It loses one star there.Second, the customer service is not very good. There is a number to call, and the automated service asks you if you are a customer. If you say yes, they direct you to their website and hang up on you. So, why do they supply the phone number? Ok, so you go to the website and the troubleshooting tips are all very basic, and it's difficult to find a way to contact anyone. I eventually found the chat function, enter in my long story and submit it to the chat, and then it deletes the entry and replies, "We're closed, try again later." Certainly there must be a way to tell me that before I initiate the conversation. I try again during their business hours, and wait over 30 minutes for someone to reply to me. When they do reply, they recommended that the solenoid might be overtightened. Good suggestion, I'll give that a try. Still, it loses two stars there for wasting so much of my time.