Repair service · Wiring & controllers
Sprinkler wiring & controller repair
The electrical half of your system kills more zones than the plumbing does — corroded splices, nicked field wires, storm-thumped controllers. We diagnose with a meter before anything gets replaced, so you pay for the part that failed, not the easiest part to blame.
Diagnosed with instruments, not guesses · You approve the flat price before any work begins
Texas Licensed Irrigator — LI0026061Required by Texas law for sprinkler repair. Ask any company for theirs.
Request sprinkler service
Describe the problem — we'll call back with an arrival window, usually same day.
Electrical services
The electrical half, handled
Every dead zone is a circuit: controller, wire, splice, solenoid. We test the path end to end and fix the link that actually broke.
Dead zone diagnosis
Ohm-tested from the controller before anything is replaced — the method is public, in our wire-finding guide.
Broken wires, located & spliced
Field wires traced electronically to the break, repaired with direct-burial connectors — the same trace that finds lost valves.
Solenoid replacement
The coil fails more than the wire does. Meter-confirmed, swapped in minutes — DIY steps in our valve guide.
Controller repair & replacement
Dead displays, fried transformers, ghost schedules. Repaired where honest, replaced and reprogrammed where not.
Smart controller upgrades
Rachio and Hunter Hydrawise installed and programmed to your city’s exact schedule — with real payoffs in several of our cities.
Rain & freeze sensors
Required on newer systems statewide, on ALL systems in McKinney and Dallas — and the cheapest insurance against freeze damage.
Controllers and components across the board — Rain Bird, Hunter, Rachio, Irritrol, Toro, Orbit, conventional and smart — plus the multimeter, wire tracker, and direct-burial splice kit that make electrical repair a diagnosis instead of a parts lottery.
Diagnosis guide
Reading the electrical symptoms
The pattern of what's dead tells us where to look before the meter comes out. Six patterns, six paths.
One zone is dead
A failed solenoid, a corroded splice, or a cut zone wire — the valve body is usually innocent. The ohm reading at the controller picks between them in seconds.
Several zones died at once
The shared-fate tell: one break in the common wire kills every valve beyond it. One splice repair often resurrects four “broken” zones.
The controller is dead after a storm
North Texas spring lightning takes out transformers and panels every year — and sometimes cooks solenoids down the line. We test the whole path, because surge damage travels.
Zones run at 2 a.m. on the wrong days
Ghost schedules: a second program left active, a backup battery long dead, or a power blink that reset everything. A programming visit — and in our cities, wrong days are violations.
“No AC,” blown fuse, or station error
The controller is announcing a short — wires touching or a fried coil pulling too much current. The error tells us which station; the meter tells us where.
The rain sensor never stops anything
Dead battery, failed sensor, or a bypass switch someone flipped years ago. In Allen and Frisco, watering through rain is itself a violation — sensor or not.
Flat-rate pricing
Flat-rate electrical repair pricing
Every repair is a flat rate quoted before work begins — never hourly, never a running meter while someone digs. The service call covers a full zone-by-zone diagnosis and applies to your repair, so diagnosis is effectively free when we do the work.
| Repair | Flat rate | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Service call & electrical diagnosis | $[XX] | Every zone ohm-mapped from the controller, path tested end to end. Applied to your repair. |
| Solenoid replacement | from $[XX] | Meter-confirmed first, brand-matched, waterproof splices. |
| Wire location & splice repair | from $[XXX] | Traced electronically to the break, repaired with direct-burial connectors, retested. |
| Controller replacement | from $[XXX] | Standard or smart, installed, programmed to your city’s schedule, old programs migrated. |
| Rain/freeze sensor installed | from $[XX] | Wireless on most controllers, tested live before we leave. |
Your flat rate depends on depth, access, and parts — but once quoted, it does not move. You approve the number before a shovel touches dirt. Full breakdown with examples on our sprinkler repair cost guide.
Local knowledge
Where the electrical fails — splices, storms, and old panels
Buried wire almost never breaks in the middle of an undisturbed run. The failures cluster where humans and weather touch the system.
The wire side — splices, shovels, lightning
The number one find, by a mile: corroded splices in valve boxes — decades-old connections made with bare wire nuts or electrical tape, slowly opening in the wet box. Number two: anywhere there’s dig history — a fence line, a planted tree, edging work. Number three: spring lightning, which thumps controllers and travels down the wire to cook solenoids. We check the splice boxes before we ever unspool a tracker, because that’s where the money usually is.
When a true mid-run break needs finding, the tracker follows the wire’s signal until the tone dies — one small hole, exactly there. It’s the same trace that finds lost valve boxes, which is why the two jobs so often share a visit.
The controller side — panels older than the rules
Whole eras of our territory run controllers installed before rain/freeze sensors existed: the retrofits of Richardson and East Dallas, the originals east of US-75 in Plano and Allen. Texas has required the shut-off technology on systems installed since 2009 — and McKinney and Dallas require working sensors on every system, age be damned.
A controller visit brings the whole panel current in one trip: sensor added, schedule set to your city’s exact days, surge protection where the storms have already collected once.
Smart controllers
Where a smart controller actually pays — city by city
A Rachio or Hydrawise is a nice gadget anywhere. In this territory it's a compliance device with a payback schedule — and the payback differs by city.
The payoff map — verified, per city
| City | What the smart controller earns you |
|---|---|
| McKinney | Register an ET controller for $25 and you’re exempt from the watering-day schedule entirely |
| Allen | City rebates on smart controllers — and rain-skip keeps you clear of the watering-during-rain violation |
| Frisco | Tracks a schedule that changes four times a year, including the winter shut-off, automatically |
| Dallas | Holds the permanent twice-weekly days and covers the rain-and-freeze sensor mandate in one device |
Plano and Richardson get the quieter payoff: assigned days held perfectly, rain skipped, and the sensor requirement satisfied in one device. We install, program to your address’s exact schedule, and in McKinney point you to the registration. Details on each city’s rules live on its page, starting with sprinkler repair in Plano.
Storm season — surge is a repeat offender
Spring lightning is the single biggest controller killer in North Texas, and it rarely stops at the panel — surge rides the field wiring and cooks solenoids rooms away from the strike. After a storm outage, the honest diagnosis tests the whole electrical path, not just the box on the garage wall.
On replacement we add inline surge protection where the property has already paid the lightning tax once. A full sprinkler inspection verifies the rest — sensors live, schedule legal, every station firing.
Your specialist
Meet Jonathan, your irrigation specialist
Eldorado isn't a call center dispatching whoever's available — when you call, you're talking to the licensed irrigator who shows up. Jonathan has been chasing North Texas wiring faults with a meter and a tracker since 2013, holds Texas irrigator license LI0026061, and works out of east Plano.
His rule on every job is the one customers keep repeating in reviews: fix only what's broken. You get a zone-by-zone diagnosis, a flat price before work starts, and an honest answer when something doesn't need replacing.
The visit
How a repair visit works
No mystery invoices. The price is on the table before a shovel touches dirt.
Call & describe
Tell us the pattern — one zone dead, several, or the whole panel dark. The pattern alone narrows the diagnosis before we arrive.
Zone-by-zone diagnosis
We ohm-map every zone from the controller and test the path end to end — controller, wire, splice, solenoid — before anything is replaced.
Flat quote, your call
You get the exact price before any work begins. The service call fee is applied to the repair.
Repair & prove it
We fix it, fire every station with you watching, and leave the controller set to your city’s exact watering days.
Field record
Recent electrical work
Real jobs, our own photos — valve boxes, manifolds, trench lines, and the lawns after.
Reviews
What our customers say
"Many charge outrageous fees and try and upsell. Eldorado doesn't do that. Pleasant, responsive and most importantly, honest... 5 star and will be my go-to sprinkler guys."
"Came out same day and took care of business at an unbelievable price. Took about 30 minutes to diagnose and repair. Would absolutely utilize again."
"They gave me options and fixed only what needed to be fixed. They are honest good people that do good work."
Questions
Wiring & controller repair, asked & answered
Why is one sprinkler zone not working?
A single dead zone usually means a failed solenoid, a cut or corroded field wire, or a bad controller station — and the valve body is usually innocent. We ohm-test the path from the controller before replacing anything: 20–60 ohms is a healthy circuit, an open reading means a break, near-zero means a short. The reading picks the repair.
Why did several zones die at the same time?
That's the common wire talking: every valve shares one return wire, so a single break in it kills every zone beyond the break. It looks like four failures and is usually one corroded splice — which is why multi-zone outages are often the cheapest “big” repair we make.
My controller is dead after a thunderstorm — repair or replace?
Test first: sometimes it's just the fuse or the plug-in transformer, a $[XX] fix. If the panel itself is fried, replacement is usually more honest than board-level repair — and we test the field wiring and solenoids too, because surge travels down the wires. On replacement we add inline surge protection so lightning doesn't collect twice.
How much does sprinkler wiring repair cost?
Solenoid swaps from $[XX]; wire location and splice repair from $[XXX] including the electronic trace; controller replacement from $[XXX] installed and programmed. The $[XX] diagnosis covers the full ohm-map of every zone and is applied to your repair. Full breakdown on our sprinkler repair cost guide.
Can you find a broken wire without digging up the yard?
Yes — that's the point of the method. The splice boxes get checked first (corroded connections cause most “broken wires”), and true mid-run breaks get traced with a wire locator until the signal dies, which marks one small hole. The full sequence is public in our guide. See our DIY wire-finding guide.
Is a smart controller worth it here?
In this territory it's a compliance device with a payback schedule. McKinney exempts registered ET controllers from the watering-day schedule entirely ($25 registration); Allen offers rebates and treats watering during rain as a violation a rain-skip prevents; Frisco's schedule changes four times a year; Dallas's twice-weekly cap is permanent. We install, program to your exact city schedule, and point you to the registrations and rebates.
Which smart controller do you recommend?
Rachio and Hunter Hydrawise cover almost every situation we meet — both hold assigned-day schedules properly, skip rain, satisfy sensor requirements, and have survived years of North Texas service on our customers' walls. The honest answer between them usually comes down to your zone count and whether you want the Hunter ecosystem.
Are rain and freeze sensors actually required?
Texas has required rain/freeze shut-off technology on systems installed since 2009 — and two of our cities go further: McKinney and Dallas require working sensors on all systems regardless of age. Beyond the rules, the freeze half is what keeps your system from running during an ice event and splitting the backflow. Wireless installs fit most controllers in a single visit.
Can you just reprogram my controller for the right watering days?
Gladly — wrong-day watering is a violation in every city we serve, and ghost schedules (a forgotten second program, a dead backup battery) are behind most of it. Every visit of any kind ends with the controller set to your address's exact schedule; a standalone programming visit is a quick, cheap call.
My system has two-wire / decoder wiring — can you work on it?
We diagnose and service conventional wiring end to end, and we'll give two-wire decoder systems an honest on-site assessment — some faults are squarely in our lane, and where a manufacturer specialist is the right call, we'll say so plainly rather than learn on your clock.
Does wiring repair require a licensed irrigator in Texas?
For paid work on an irrigation system, yes — the TCEQ license covers servicing and altering the system, wiring included. Eldorado is owned and operated by a Texas Licensed Irrigator, LI0026061. The low-voltage side is DIY-legal on your own home, and our guides show the method.
Can I diagnose a dead zone myself?
Yes — it's the most meter-friendly fault on the system, and our guide walks the exact ohm-map method we use, including the splice-box shortcut that closes most cases. Where it stops being DIY: multi-wire traces, surge damage, and anything that has you opening the panel wiring. See our DIY wire-finding guide.
Do you offer same-day electrical repair?
Same-day or next-day for most calls. Call (469) 970-2715 with the pattern — one zone, several, or a dark controller — and we'll give you an honest arrival window with the likely diagnosis already narrowed.
What areas do you cover for wiring and controller repair?
Everything within about 30 minutes of our east Plano shop: Plano, Frisco, McKinney, Allen, Richardson, Dallas, and North Dallas.
Service area
Wiring & controller repair available across North DFW
Licensed repair within about 30 minutes of our east Plano shop:
Searching “sprinkler controller repair near me” after a storm or a dead zone? Our east Plano shop puts a licensed irrigator — meter, tracker, and controllers on the truck — within about 30 minutes of all of Collin County and North Dallas.
Electrical trail that ends at the hardware? See sprinkler valve repair — or run the diagnosis yourself with our DIY wire-finding guide.
Zone dead? Controller dark?
The diagnosis is the hard part, and ours rides a meter — call for an honest window.