TEMPO Station Master Pro Sprinkler Valve Tester and Activator | Activate Solenoids, Chatter Solenoids, Send Tone, Locate Valve Boxes (Pro Grade Model) (24BK)

Don’t waste time on clackers if you are trying to find a difficult, buried solenoid or valve box. For the price, the Tempo 24BK station master pro kit with the 200EP-G tone probe was a life saver. I had a shorted zone with an unfindable buried valve box. I first tested a solenoid clacker on a known valve I had already found, but if you have no experience with this, the solenoids only make a faint buzzing sound. You would never hear them if the valve box has a lid on it mich less buried by layers of grass and topsoil. Instead I was able to energize the line with the built in tone setting and literally follow it with the wand right from my garage through the side yard holding it about 2-3” above the lawn and sweeping back and forth slowly literally mapping the irrigation system. I did use a headset to make hearing easier over the neighbor’s air conditioners but it’s not hard to hear the tone either way. Then suddenly the tone got much louder about 50 feet into my search and it was because I was right on top of the valve box I was looking for, and of course the wires are closer to surface. Bullseye. The 10” box was buried 4” under perfect looking grass. Hope this helps someone else. This was a Sunday over 92 degree temps, lawn starting to fry, and I’m sure a service call would have been triple the cost of the Tempo tester.

I located two buried valves 250' away from the irrigation controller. I used one lead to the colored zone wire and the other lead to an 8' ground rod. I set the transmitter to send tone. I then walked the yard with the receive unit touching it to the ground. I had to use headphones. Basically I used the receive unit like a wand. I tried before without headphones. I tried before with the chatter only. (Neither worked for me) I never thought to use the receive unit in the yard tracking wire like a wand. I found both valves first try. Use brand new batteries.

This thing is terrible. Used it to locate buried valve boxes and it’s awful for that. Need to aerate for fall and wanted to find all my boxes. Chatter feature is useless. Even with headphones on, the tone is quiet and barely picks up anything. Promptly returning today.

Only reason for 4 star: The chatter speed is a little slower than “Clackers” resulting in a quieter sound. But 2 previous “clackers would only work on my Orbit system but not on my Hunter system. This one did. The tone worked great and allowed me find the hidden valve. No need to return.

Very easy to use works great on Operating sprinkler valves and testing them. Not quite as happy about tracing a wire in a wire pack. Somewhat difficulty in doing that.

The manager at TEMPO station helped me save $500. My lawn irrigation system was not working and the average cost to hire a professional to fix it was $250, not including parts. However, with the help of several features available on TEMPO, I was able to diagnose and fix the issue myself for just $15.

The chatter feature works well but line tracing is only effective if the line is a couple inches or less in the ground.

I'm a golf course irrigation tech by trade...The Station Master is a must have in your toolbox. You can save alot of time and frustration during your troubleshooting process out in the field. Toner works great as well. Comes in handy when trying to identify individual wires in a bundle. My recommendation would be to keep the sensitivity/volume down on the toning pen itself. This will make it easier to find the wire you're trying to identify. If you are serious about this industry and want to be more productive out in the field, get one. You won't regret it!