The Short Answer
The short answer
Almost every residential valve box in DFW holds one of six valves. The Irritrol Jar Top and the Rain Bird DV are the two you'll see most, then the Hunter PGV, then a long drop to the Irritrol 2400, the Rain Bird PGA, and the old Weathermatic Silver Bullet and Nitro. All of them are one-inch valves. Five of the six rebuild. The Weathermatic mostly doesn't, because the parts aren't all made anymore.
Why it matters: the valve you have decides whether a dead zone is a rebuild or a replacement, which parts have to be on the truck, and in one case whether the fix is even worth doing. The valve replacement cost guide covers what each of those paths costs. This page is about telling them apart first.
How to Tell Which One You Have
Open the valve box and look at the top of the valve. You're checking two things.
A big threaded ring, no screws
That's a jar top. The whole lid unscrews by hand like a jar. In DFW that is almost always an Irritrol (or an older Hardie, which is the same valve under an earlier name). Orbit sells a look-alike.
A lid held on with screws
That's a bolted bonnet: Rain Bird DV, Hunter PGV, Irritrol 2400, or Rain Bird PGA. Read the name molded into the body or printed on the solenoid, the cylinder with two wires coming out of the top.
If the name has worn off or the valve is caked in clay, the shape of the lid still tells you jar top versus bolted, and that's the split that matters most for parts.
The Six Valves, One by One
Irritrol Jar Top (and Hardie)
Very, very common. The classic DFW valve: threaded ring, no screws, lid comes off by hand. Irritrol started as Hardie, and Toro owns Irritrol now, so a really old Hardie jar top is the same valve and takes the same service. One gotcha: Irritrol changed the thread on the ring at some point in the run, so a new ring won't always seat on an old body. When the original ring is still in good shape, we reuse it. Some of these are old enough to still have metal-can solenoids, and on those the wires break before anything else does. Rebuilds well.
Rain Bird DV
Just as common as the Irritrol jar top, and the valve we install when a valve gets replaced. Black body, bolted bonnet, parts everywhere. There is a small filter inside that meters the water from the body up to the bonnet; we've seen it fall off, and when it does the valve misbehaves in ways that look electrical and aren't. Rebuilds cleanly, and it's the one we recommend.
Hunter PGV
A bit less common than the two above but still everywhere. Bolted bonnet, Hunter name on the body and solenoid. Solid valve, straightforward rebuild with the matching kit.
Irritrol 2400 series
Irritrol's bolted-bonnet valve. Seen sometimes, not often. Rebuilds as long as the body isn't cracked. Orbit sells a look-alike of this one too.
Rain Bird PGA
Rain Bird's heavier valve. We don't see it often on residential, and when we do it's usually a higher-end house. Bigger part, same rebuild approach as the DV.
Weathermatic Silver Bullet and Nitro
The old ones. Far less common than the rest, and neither is manufactured anymore. The solenoids burn out regularly and are expensive to replace. You can still get a diaphragm and, for now, a solenoid, but not every part exists to bring one back fully. This is the valve on the list where replacement usually wins.
About Orbit
Orbit makes look-alikes of both Irritrol designs, the jar top and the 2400 style. They work, and we service them. Just know they're Orbit valves when it's time to match parts, not Irritrol valves.
What Actually Fails
Across all six, the same handful of things.
- Diaphragms. The rubber disc that opens and closes the valve. It hardens, tears, or stops seating, and the zone either won't shut off or won't come on. This is the most common valve failure, on every brand.
- Solenoids. The electric coil that lifts the plunger. They fail one of two ways, open or shorted, and either way the zone is dead but will bleed on manually. Every brand loses them; the Weathermatic ones seem to go more often than the rest, and on a Weathermatic it's the expensive part. On the really old Irritrols, the ones still wearing a metal-can solenoid that could be 40 years old or more, it's usually the solenoid wires themselves that break. The zone troubleshooting guide has the bleed test that tells you whether this is your problem.
- That little DV filter. Specific to the Rain Bird DV: the metering filter between body and bonnet can come loose and drop out. Easy to miss if you don't know to look.
- The Irritrol ring. Not a failure exactly, but a rebuild trap: if the ring is the newer thread and the body is the older one, it won't seat and the valve weeps.
- Cracked bodies. DFW's shrink-swell clay and the occasional hard freeze split valve bodies. A crack means replacement no matter what brand it is.
- Roots and debris. Not the valve's fault, but a live oak that finds the box will wreck any of them. Keeping the box clear is the cheapest valve maintenance there is.
Every brand on this page dies the same way when a tree gets to it. The roots grow through the manifold, wrap the valve, and the fix stops being a rebuild and starts being excavation and a reroute.
The one rule
Don't plant a tree close to a valve box. If the box is already there, keep the tree away from it. If the tree is already there, know that the valve is on borrowed time and don't be surprised when the job turns into digging.
Which Ones Rebuild, and What We Install
Rebuild
- Irritrol Jar Top (and Hardie)
- Rain Bird DV
- Hunter PGV
- Irritrol 2400, if the body is intact
- Rain Bird PGA
Parts are available and the rebuild holds. No reason to cut out a working valve of any of these.
Usually replace
- Weathermatic Silver Bullet and Nitro
- Any valve with a cracked body
Discontinued parts, expensive solenoids, or a crack that won't seal. When we replace, it's a flat rate per valve, quoted first. See the cost guide.
When a valve does get replaced, it goes in as a Rain Bird DV, slip fit, glued. Two reasons. The DV is the best residential valve we've worked with, and glue is the only joint that makes sense in a manifold. A threaded valve just gets a threaded-to-slip adapter glued onto it and then gets glued into the line anyway, so the thread bought you nothing but an extra place to leak.
I highly recommend the DV valve. And I don't put in threaded valves. You're going to convert that thread to a glue joint and then glue it in. It's silly.
Brandon Surratt, TCEQ Licensed Irrigator LI0023963Frequently Asked Questions
How do I tell which sprinkler valve I have?
Open the valve box and look at the top of the valve. A big threaded ring you could unscrew by hand with no screws is a jar top, almost always Irritrol in DFW. A lid held on by screws is a Rain Bird DV, Hunter PGV, Irritrol 2400, or Rain Bird PGA. The brand name is molded into the body or printed on the solenoid.
Are Hardie sprinkler valves still serviceable?
Yes. Hardie became Irritrol, which Toro now owns, so an old Hardie jar top is the same valve as an Irritrol jar top and takes the same service approach. The one catch is the bonnet ring: Irritrol changed the thread at some point, so a new ring does not always fit an old body and we reuse the original ring when it is still in good shape.
Can a Weathermatic Silver Bullet or Nitro valve be rebuilt?
Only partly. Both are discontinued. Diaphragms are available and solenoids can still be found, but the solenoids are expensive and burn out regularly, and not every part exists to bring one back fully. In most cases replacement is the better job.
Are Orbit valves the same as Irritrol valves?
Orbit sells look-alikes of both Irritrol designs, the jar top and the 2400 style. They work and we service them, but they are Orbit valves when it comes time to match parts, not Irritrol valves.
Does the valve brand change what a repair costs?
Not for residential valves. Replacement is one flat rate per valve regardless of brand or type, quoted before any work starts, and valve repair starts at $200 in DFW. What changes the number is access: a buried box, roots in the manifold, or wiring that has to be traced.
Which sprinkler valve is the best one?
For a residential system we install the Rain Bird DV. It is common, the parts are everywhere, and it rebuilds cleanly. That said, an Irritrol jar top or a Hunter PGV that is working does not need to be swapped for one. We rebuild what you have when it rebuilds well.