Pretty much all 24 volt valves and controllers are compatible with each other.  The most common exception to this rule is valves operated by controllers that are battery or solar powered. (By battery powered I mean they are not plugged into a power source other than the battery.  Many controllers have a battery to prevent program loss in case of a power failure, these are not “battery operated”.) So in most cases you can buy a brand “X” controller and it will work fine with brand “Y” valves. You can even mix two or more brands of valves together if for some reason that appealed to you.  For example the irrigation system where I test valves and controllers has many different brands all running together.  If the valve is not “universal” or compatible it will typically have a warning on the packaging.

I strongly recommend that if you are going to use automatic valves, you select a valve model that has a manual flow adjustment control feature on it. Don’t confuse the flow control with a manual on/off switch. The flow control is a separate handle (sometimes a screw) in addition to the manual on/off control on the valve. This flow control feature is not found on many of the less expensive “budget” valves. The flow control bypasses the automatic valve features allowing the valve to be closed in an emergency by turning a handle just like a standard manual valve. More important is that it also allows the valve to be “throttled”, that is, the water flow may be adjusted to any rate desired. This ability to adjust the flow rate is very useful in many different situations, both when installing your sprinkler system and later when managing it.  It can literally make the difference between being able to make a troublesome valve work and having to remove and replace it!  

§  Using the manual flow control you can manually force the valve closed if it sticks open. The manual on/off switch will not close the valve if it is stuck open. Failure to close automatically is one of the most common valve problems, so there’s a good chance that someday you will use the flow control to force closed a valve that is stuck open.

§  If your flows are on the low end of the valve’s operation range, it may be helpful to throttle down the flow control to make the valve close faster and more reliably. Without the flow control feature you may have a lot of problems in this situation, you will probably have to replace the valve.

§  Partially closing the flow control will make the valve close faster, which is not something you want to do normally, but sometimes it is desirable. On automatic systems it is common for the next valve to open before the previous one fully closes. The resulting loss of pressure due to two valve circuits being on at the same time can cause the first valve to never fully close. A flow control on the valve can help correct this problem.