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My house has Rainbird valves and I am thinking about buying an Orbit Timer/Controller. Can you use a Rainbird valve with the Orbit Controller.

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My system has older, now discontinued, Rain-Bird solenoids that require a minimum .30 amps 24Vac. The Orbit "Easy Dial" controller that I purchased puts out .25 amps 24Vac per valve...They are not working together. The water will not turn on by itself during a cycle without me messing with the manual/purge setting on the valve. Once I get the water flowing to the heads it will then remain ON until the controller times off. I may well find the Orbit controller does not provide enough the initial "uuumpff" to pull in the plunger on the Rain Bird solenoid - only enough to 'hold in' the plunger. T – user2883 Jun 8 '11 at 16:35

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it should work. find out what kind of rainbird valves you have, then look online to see what their voltage/current requirements are. you have to match voltages between the timer, and the timer must provide at least as much current as the valve require.

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They should all be interchangeable. The only caveat is that some timers and values are DC instead of the normal AC (yes, AC, but stepped down to low voltage). DC valves and controllers are used with battery-only controllers and perhaps solar controllers. DC valves are pretty unusual and you will have to go out of your way to find them. – Jim May 17 '11 at 17:56

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