Sprinkler Wire Question?

[Chatam/Garage]

For starters, I believe my newer house was pre-wired with the blue cat-5 or maybe cat-6 wire, which I believe is rated at about 23-awg or vac? Anyhow, my controller box should be a 24-vac system like most. This system is for ditch water with a 1h.p. pump, six control valves. I'll be using direct bury 18-awg sprinkler wire from all the valves to the control box. The Big Question here is will the blue cat wire be thick enough to work the control valves coming in on the 18? Basically, there is roughly 30' of the blue cat wire running into the house from an exterior wall where your supposed to mount an indoor control box with plug in on an interior wall. Would I be better off to mount an outdoor control box to avoid any hassles with this install? Meaning, to not utilize the blue cat wire going inside, just do an all out exterior mount set up. Thanks in advance for the replys folks!

 

[Norcal]

HD sells direct burial sprinkler cable, CAT 5 or 6 is data cable, IMHO use the cable designed for the purpose, + for additional protection sleeve it in 3/4" PVC conduit for additional protection & for EZ replacement if needed, do not use white PVC so someone does not cut into it thinking it's a sprinkler or water line.

 

[buzz4041]

Data cable is not intended to carry the current of the solenoids. Do not use it.

 

[miketyler]

Each valve will have its own pair of leads. Having all the valves in one place is a great way to manage things. I wish mine was plumbed that way. I have a fully irrigated acre lot with 12 zones all nicely scattered around the yard. How convenient is that?

There may be multi-lead cable solution for a valve station setup like you have thats made for sprinkler system application. While a direct burial data line like CAT5 or CAT6 may work, I wouldn't use it.

 

[rlitman]

Data cable is not intended to carry the current of the solenoids. Do not use it.

It might work, for a while, but it isn't ideal. You should only be running one solenoid at a time, so that helps. Still, you may encounter issues down the road because of a decision to not run proper sprinkler wire. Why not just pull the correct wire?

Oh, and if you have stranded CAT5 wire, it will probably fail pretty quickly. Sprinkler wire is always solid, as it is not prone to having corrosion along the length of the wire from when water can get sucked in between the strands.