Another Arizona Set-up help thread! - Schedules & Zones / Set Up & Edit Zones - Rachio Community
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Another Arizona Set-up help thread!
Schedules & Zones Set Up & Edit Zones
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34](https://community.rachio.com/u/tmcgahey "tmcgahey")
22](https://community.rachio.com/u/azdavidr "azdavidr")
20](https://community.rachio.com/u/Modawg2k "Modawg2k")
10](https://community.rachio.com/u/sunny "sunny")
7](https://community.rachio.com/u/JPedrego "JPedrego")
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Aug 2016
post by tmcgahey on Aug 4, 2016
1
Anyone in the Gilbert area willing to help me out with some set-up? I installed my Rachio on my side year (independent of the main clock) to get a feel for the system and get everything set-up correctly before deploying to my main yard. I thought I had the drip side of it humming along pretty good until it got hot, for so long, with no measurable rain until this last week.
I had looked through a couple Arizona specific threads and got some really good information, some I understand, other information I don’t.
For one, I used the map that has been recommended time and time again to find my soil type, and it came back with clay loam. Most Arizona people are saying more sandy loam. Is this just in an attempt to fool Rachio a bit?
Also my side yard I am experimenting in is set up very similar to my main yard, just on a much smaller scale. I have a bush/shrub zone, a tree zone, and grass zones. Right now I have my drip zones set up like this:
Advance settings are as follows:
Shrubs
Area - 2 sq ft (Don’t fully understand what this should be, but the default 500 sq ft didn’t seem right)
Available Water - .12" (default setting)
Root Depth - 24" (think I changed this from reading I have done)
Allowed Depreciation - 50% (Default)
Efficiency - 70% (lowered it down from the 90% since the emitters aren’t ideally placed)
Crop Coefficient - 70% (pretty sure I read this somewhere)
Trees
Area - 9 sq ft (again, not really sure what this is or how to correctly calculate)
Available Water - .12" (default)
Root Depth - 24"
Allowed Depreciation - 50%
Efficiency - 70%
Crop Coefficient - 85% (think I changed this to get the run time to adjust to something more favorable)
I have my custom 2pgh emitters set up with a .40 in/hour PR.
My shrub zones have 2gph emitters, and depending on the size of the bush or shrub, smaller ones have 1, larger bushes can have 2. Trees also have 2gph emitters, but smaller trees have at least 3, larger trees might have as many as 5. Sadly, when multiple emitters are present, they are clustered near the trunk or base of the bush. I think I’m having some issues setting up the drip zones to water correctly based on the variance of emitters. Can anyone shed some light on this for me?
That will be a good start. I’ll chew through one thing at a time. I won’t get into the addition of citrus trees that we run on the same loop as the trees. Thankfully I have flood irrigation that can cover most of that…
15.5k views 74 likes 8 links 8 users
34](https://community.rachio.com/u/tmcgahey "tmcgahey")
22](https://community.rachio.com/u/azdavidr "azdavidr")
20](https://community.rachio.com/u/Modawg2k "Modawg2k")
10](https://community.rachio.com/u/sunny "sunny")
7](https://community.rachio.com/u/JPedrego "JPedrego")
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post by tmcgahey on Aug 4, 2016
I will add that with the current set-up the scheduled run time for the shrubs is 4 hours, and trees come on for 4 hours 24 minutes. Following this post here from Mr. @azdavidr , I feel like that might not be far off?
post by azdavidr on Aug 4, 2016
@tmcgahey Welcome to the forums! It seems we’re getting quite a few from Arizona, which is great. On the soil, most of the Phoenix area is Sandy Loam, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t other soil types around. If you are Ok with sending me a private message with your address I can confirm it for you.
The area for each zone with regards to drip is confusing, and is only used to estimate water usage, so I would leave it alone right now. Just know that your water usage estimate for drip zones will be off. Your AW of 0.12 is default for Sandy Loam, but you said you are using clay loam, so I’m a bit confused as to why you don’t have 0.2 listed there. For the drip, can you describe how many emitters you have for each tree and plant, and what the flow rate is on them ? The precipitation rate defined for the nozzles is in in/hr, and it can be confusing to find the right setting by only knowing GPH. Here’s the link showing step-by-step what I did.
Set your efficiency to 100% for those emitter zones if you use the method I’m suggesting in the link. When you’re done compare your watering schedule and run times to how you were watering before, and share it here.
On the crop coefficient for trees and shrubs I’d leave that at default right now, unless you have desert adapted trees or something pretty lush. By the way, the effect frequency of watering, not run time.
post by tmcgahey on Aug 4, 2016
Sorry, I had it set to clay loam based on the map link that floats around the boards, but switched it this week to sandly loam based on what I have been reading (much of it from you).
Like I said, all emitters on my property are 2gph (I believe them to all be the pressure compensating kind if that matters). Small shrubs will have 1 emitter, larger shrubs can have 2. Trees will have at least 3 (smaller trees or desert based trees), with some of the larger trees containing 5. Like I said, placement isn’t ideal since more are near the trunks or bases of bushes. Shrubs and trees are on independent zones. Based on the 2gph, I have the PR set to .40 in/hour.
I’m working in my “test bed” if you will (in the red). Once I dial it in, I will deploy my second Rachio to the rest of the yard…
post by azdavidr on Aug 4, 2016
My apologies, I missed this part in your original posting. You certainly seem to have the right approach of having more emitters for larger shrubs, and single ones for the smaller guys. On those my suggestion would be to run through the approach that I sent you twice, each time taking into account the canopy size, and appropriate flow rate. For example, if you had a 2 ft. diameter shrub with 1 emitter, run that through with 2GPH and the 2ft diameter. Record the recommended duration from ‘Water It Wisely’. Next if you had some 6 ft. diameter shrubs with two 2 GPH shrubs, run through the exercise with 4 GPH and the 6ft diameter. Record the recommended watering duration from ‘Water It Wisely’, and compare it to the recommendation for the smaller shrub. The conservative option would be to target the longer of the two times when you manually adjust the nozzle PR for that zone, but you can use your judgement on using an average. The risk would be that you might underwater some of the plants. Again, I’d love to see your results.
post by Modawg2k on Aug 4, 2016
I have 2GPH emitters and I’m curious what is the ground like after a 2 hour soak? When I first got the Rachio this spring I ran for 2 hours and I had significant runoff here with my sandy loam soil in North phoenix
post by azdavidr on Aug 4, 2016
If you feel like you went through the link right stick with what it’s telling you. Then, look at the schedules and see if the frequency makes sense relative to what you’ve had in the past. You might post a screenshot of the soil readout here. Look for the ‘Available Water’ in the website. It’s great to see that you’ve done your homework.
Nice looking property by the way !
post by tmcgahey on Aug 4, 2016
Modawg2k](https://community.rachio.com/t/another-arizona-set-up-help-thread/5787 "Load parent post")
I haven’t had a cycle run yet with the changes I have made. I’m still drying out from the storm the other afternoon. What I had before was only netting me about an hour run time and things weren’t looking good.
post by Modawg2k on Aug 4, 2016
How often did that run?
post by azdavidr on Aug 4, 2016
@Modawg2k, do you still have that reverse Eeyore-Storm-Cloud kinda thing going over there?
post by tmcgahey on Aug 4, 2016
Modawg2k](https://community.rachio.com/t/another-arizona-set-up-help-thread/5787 "Load parent post")
Not nearly enough! I think it would run about once a week. It was fine when I first got it set up and the weather was cooler. Once it got hot, it wasn’t even close to enough. Changing soil type, and fixing a bad calculation on the 2gph emitters (pulled from the boards here) bumped it way up and trees are set to run on the 10th, shrubs on the 15th.
post by tmcgahey on Aug 4, 2016
azdavidr](https://community.rachio.com/t/another-arizona-set-up-help-thread/5787 "Load parent post")
HA, no, we got DUMPED on Tuesday night. My front yard is set up for flood irrigation, so they are kinda like retention basins…
Lower portion is about 8", upper is about 16" tall just for reference…
post by Modawg2k on Aug 4, 2016
haha… actually we got rain for the past few days, rained pretty hard for a little bit yesterday, but definitely no floods developing outside
post by tmcgahey on Aug 4, 2016
So I set my efficiency to 100% and set the crop coefficient to default and it brought the trees down to 3h 45m, shrubs 3h 36m. Again, still assuming sandy loam, 2gph emitters (.40 in/hour).
post by azdavidr on Aug 4, 2016
How does it compare to the runtime recommendation resulting from the Watering Use It Wisely directions ?
post by JPedrego on Aug 4, 2016
JPedrego Enthusiast
One quick note, if your trees are established you might want to change the root depth to 36 inches, which is what water it wisely recommends
post by tmcgahey on Aug 5, 2016
Changing root depth to 36" (landscaping is at least 12 years old, so I’d say it’s established) pushed the next run time out a few more days to the 15th and is now set to run for 5h 24m.
Water use it wisely is calling for 4-4.5 for trees and shrubs depending on emitter count and guesstimating canopy size. That kind of tells me the guy who owned the house before me knew what he was doing since everything is set up pretty well for even watering regardless of plant size. I would certainly hope this was the case since he owned a landscape design and installation company.
post by azdavidr on Aug 5, 2016
@tmcgahey That’s great. Since this is a new schedule I’d recommend keeping your eye on things for a while. As the days go by after your last watering pass, start to take quick daily strolls around the yard to see how things are doing. After a cycle or two you’ll know if you need any adjustments. I had one or two shrubs that were looking stressed a day before the next watering cycle, so I bumped up my crop coefficient to make it water one day sooner. Also check immediately after the watering cycle to see if you get excessive pooling or runoff anywhere. From the sounds of it you’ll probably be fine.
post by tmcgahey on Aug 5, 2016
Even though it is true that my root depth on the trees is every bit of 36" after 12 + years of growth, it does put me over “Water Use it Wisely” recommendations. Should I switch it back to get it to align closer to the 4-4.5 hour range?
Also when I first set this up winter/spring of this year, I mentioned that things were looking good and healthy. At that time, Rachio was only watering for about 1h 45m every 7-10 days (granted, it wasn’t really set up correctly). I’m assuming that Flex schedules will scale back the 4 hour run time a bit in the winter months? That is the whole purpose of this, right?
post by JPedrego on Aug 5, 2016
JPedrego Enthusiast
The run time won’t change for flex daily, only the frequency. That’s also what water it wisely recommends. If the run time is too long you might want to increase the precipitation rate a little bit.
post by tmcgahey on Aug 5, 2016
In your experience, how much longer were the intervals in the winter months? I really don’t care if it stays at 4 hours, I just want to make sure it seasonally adjusts somehow. My Hunter Pro-C I can manually seasonally adjust, but it adjust watering times, not frequency.
post by JPedrego on Aug 5, 2016
JPedrego Enthusiast
I only added drip for my trees this spring so I don’t have winter data for them but for my lawn it was watering about once a month in January compared to every other day for a while in July.
post by tmcgahey on Aug 5, 2016
@JPedrego, are you in AZ? I’m assuming you didn’t overseed if you were only running sprinklers once a month…
post by azdavidr on Aug 5, 2016
tmcgahey](https://community.rachio.com/t/another-arizona-set-up-help-thread/5787 "Load parent post")
@tmcgahey When I started my flex schedules in the spring I looked at the frequency, and watched it into early summer when we went from the mid-80s to 117F within about a 10 day spread. It matched very well to the intervals suggested by Water Use It Wisely.
On the watering time, if you were watering at 1.75 hours before on a weekly schedule, you should be fine by tweaking the pr to drop to the 4.5 hr range (per @JPedrego’s recommendation).
post by JPedrego on Aug 5, 2016
JPedrego Enthusiast
tmcgahey](https://community.rachio.com/t/another-arizona-set-up-help-thread/5787 "Load parent post")
I am, I’ve been too lazy to overseed so I just let the lawn go dormant
post by azdavidr on Aug 5, 2016
tmcgahey](https://community.rachio.com/t/another-arizona-set-up-help-thread/5787 "Load parent post")
I overseed but haven’t had the Rachio long enough to test out winter lawn schedules. I plan to disable the summer lawn schedule and create a new one for the winter.
post by Modawg2k on Aug 5, 2016
This wil be my first winter with Rachio, I overseed every year, so should be interesting
post by tmcgahey on Aug 5, 2016
azdavidr](https://community.rachio.com/t/another-arizona-set-up-help-thread/5787 "Load parent post")
I’ll be continuing on my discussion about grass once I dial in the drip side…I have been brainstorming on how to work Rachio in an overspeed situation, especially early on in the seeding. I like your idea of creating a completely different schedule, but it would be nice if you could create a separate cool season grass “zone” so you can keep your settings in place for each season.
I will also add, that playing with flex scheduling is not for the faint of heart, but I didn’t by Rachio for a glorified wifi enabled sprinkler device. I loved the “set it and forget it” idea. It is going to keep me on my toes making sure the drip system emitters are working correctly…
post by Modawg2k on Aug 5, 2016
azdavidr](https://community.rachio.com/t/another-arizona-set-up-help-thread/5787 "Load parent post")
@azdavidr So I ran my 2 drip zones this morning with the lower 0.9 PR estimated by @plainsane. Even with our weather, we haven’t had any downpours so I wanted to get some water deep down to help my struggling plants… and then low and behold, I get over 1" of rain this morning like an hour after running my zones.
post by tmcgahey on Aug 5, 2016
What emitters do you have? Changing my 2pgh to a .40 PR per @azdavidr in another thread seemed to get me VERY close to where I should be per “Water Use it Wisely” recommendations. I had mine set to some crazy high PR based on what I had read on here from emil.
post by Modawg2k on Aug 5, 2016
2gph emitters… i plan on doing a more thorough evaluation of them based off the use it wisely site once the threat of heat exhaustion and lightning strikes passes this fall
post by azdavidr on Aug 5, 2016
Modawg2k](https://community.rachio.com/t/another-arizona-set-up-help-thread/5787 "Load parent post")
@Modawg2k Perfect, so now you know what to do when you’re in need of some rain. When I’m desperate for some rain, maybe just a spattering, I wash my car.
post by Modawg2k on Aug 9, 2016
reverse eeyore in full effect today… Pay no attention to my location marker
\ image.png1242×2208 971 KB](https://community.rachio.com/uploads/db1097/original/2X/0/0a0706a8c24877f30644f36bd7df5ac8e72602bb.png "image.png")
post by azdavidr on Aug 9, 2016
@Modawg2k Time to start a manual run ??
post by tmcgahey on Aug 9, 2016
My local weather station is showing no rain yet either, but I got quite a bit at my office…
My local weather station has a cool timelapse of the storm rolling in though! http://www.dw5071.com/
post by azdavidr on Aug 9, 2016
@tmcgahey That’s really cool! Do you know what kind of PWS that is ? The dust cloud appears within just a single frame.
FRAME X:
FRAME X+1:
post by Modawg2k on Aug 9, 2016
tmcgahey](https://community.rachio.com/t/another-arizona-set-up-help-thread/5787 "Load parent post")
Is that just someone’s PWS?
post by tmcgahey on Aug 9, 2016
Yes, it is someone PWS about 1.4 miles from me. I watched a few of them for a while and this one seemed to be the closest to what I was seeing at my house and seemed to stay online 24/7.
Website says it is a:
Station type/software: Weewx version 3.2.1 / Vantage
post by azdavidr on Aug 9, 2016
@tmcgahey I see, it’s a Vantage Vue running Weewx, maybe running on a Raspberry Pi since it’s unix based. The camera feed must be separate from the Vue I guess, as I don’t see it on their product page. Seems like a fun project, given the time.
Here’s a GIF of the storm. I figure that link to the video will change or go away over time.
post by Modawg2k on Aug 9, 2016
english please
post by azdavidr on Aug 9, 2016
Sorry, the Vantage Vue seems to be a popular entry level station from Davis:
http://www.davisnet.com/solution/vantage-vue/
The software that plugs it into the web is Weewx, which is a program that runs on unix machines (not Windows or Mac).
Unix tends to allow for smaller, more efficient programs that can be left to run on very inexpensive computers like Raspberry Pi based designs:
post by Linn on Aug 9, 2016
Modawg2k](https://community.rachio.com/t/another-arizona-set-up-help-thread/5787 "Load parent post")
@Modawg2k, thanks for asking! I understood UNIX and the rest was Greek to me!
post by johnny2678 on Aug 16, 2016
Took some time to learn a little about weewx today. Turns out it is exactly what I needed to populate CWOP with data from my Ambient WS (which only supports wunderground out of the box).
It was burning me up (pun intented) that PWSweather wasn’t sending Aeris UV/Solar data, which is important here in FL. CWOP does track UV/Solar and apparently it does get sent along to Aeris, which is Rachio’s data provider. Enter weewx to fill the gap.
Not for the faint of heart, but if you have a weather station and like lab projects, check out the weewx socketlogger documentation here: https://github.com/vinceskahan/weebuntu-docker
The other paid option is setting up a meteobridge here: http://www.meteobridge.com/wiki/index.php/Home
26 days later
post by tmcgahey on Sep 11, 2016
Where do palms come into play on a system? I have a hodgepodge of different palms in my system, but in the “tree” zone in question, I have a mixture of trees including a Japanese Bottle Brush Tree a Queen Palm, a Mediterranean Palm, a Jacaranda Tree and an unidentifiable tree (possibly a desert adapted tree)
Canopies vary from 6’ diameter (small, rather unhealthy Jacaranda) to probably 12’ diameter (unidentifiable tree), to a massive Queen Palm with almost 16’ total canopy overhang (sadly, it has been fighting crown rot since I moved in, but it is still hanging on 6 years later, just leans to the right a bit). I used the Water Use it Wisely to calculate the zone run time based on an average canopy diameter of 7 feet and each “tree” has 3 2gph emitters that were sadly all placed near the trunk of each tree. Based on those calculations, I have it pretty well dialed in that the “trees” run about 3h45m, and the flex schedule is running it every 7-10 days, which matches Water Use it Wisely to a T. Is this going to be too much for the palms? I am thinking that it is going to be way too much for the Mediterranean, so I think I may plug at least one emitter, but I am unsure about the others.
Also factoring in that the emitters are all within 2 feet of the trunks and not at the canopy line, should I be worried? This is way longer run times than I ever had with my dumb controller, but it also ran twice a week.
post by azdavidr on Sep 11, 2016
@tmcgahey I just checked my Mediterranean Fan Palms, and I have three 2 GPH emitters on two of them, and only two 2 GPH heads on a third. They should be the same. Two of them are close to shrubs and lawn sprinklers so I don’t think that overwatering is a problem. I also have heads pretty close to the trunk, but maybe they should be moved out. I know I have them further out on my larger Ficus and Brazilian Pepper trees. All of these trees are at 15-20 years mature, so my watering time is 5 hours about every 10 days right now. I have some Pigmy Date Palms that are on my shrub cycle as I’m told they need more frequent watering.
The only concern I would have is that if you’re going from watering twice a week to every 7-10 days watch your trees in the second half of the cycle and see if you start to see wilting on them. If so, you might start a manual cycle. After that increase the frequency using a higher crop coefficient, then every three or four weeks increase it a bit until you eventually get back to the cycle recommended by Water Use It Wisely. If you need to go this route it will allow for those roots to stretch and the trees to become more drought tolerant. Congrats on doing your homework on this stuff. It’ll pay off!
post by tmcgahey on Sep 12, 2016
I think they will be ok with the change in watering. The plants left on the property survived a foreclosure in 2010 and went a few months without any water (other than rain of course). They seem to be pretty harty now.
I’ll keep an eye on the watering and make sure I don’t see any issues. This winter I may work on moving the emitters away from the trunks a bit to get better dispersion of the water.
post by sunny on Sep 12, 2016
Many varieties of palms grown here in Phoenix are very drought tolerant. Once established, they rarely require irrigation and do quite well with the rain we receive.
You’re probably on the right track and if you see stress, you can always replace that emitter. Agreed–why water a plant that doesn’t need it?
post by azdavidr on Sep 12, 2016
1
Good to know @sunny. I always figured the palms weren’t very drought tolerant, but the only reason I thought that is that they had a lot of them on Gilligan’s and Fantasy Islands. I guess that’s not very scientific.
post by sunny on Sep 13, 2016
Mary Ann was probably watering those on Gilligan’s Island–after all she was a farm girl from Kansas.
post by sunny on Sep 13, 2016
These are the most drought tolerant/low water use and grow very well here in Phoenix.
Fan palms: Washington and Mediterranean
Sago palms
Date palms: Phoenix and Canary Island
post by tmcgahey on Sep 13, 2016
I’ve got a mix of Mediterranean, Queen, Sago, Sabal, Pineapple, Pindo, and Pygmy Date. The guy that owned my house before me owned a landscaping design and install company so I think he used the property as a showpiece to show off all the different plants. I literally have a little bit of everything, including a small cactus garden, but it is all done very well!
post by Modawg2k on Sep 13, 2016
I’ve got just two pygmy date palms one next to the grass which does great (it ges a lot of water from the grass), and one that is in a little islande all by itself and it’s struggling, not sure how to tacklet it, it got frost one year and hasn’t been the same
post by sunny on Sep 13, 2016
You might want to check with Moon Valley nurseries. They carry a product called Super Palm Juice. They would be able to help with information about when and how often to apply the fertilizer.
post by tmcgahey on Sep 13, 2016
They have some really good fertilizer products for palms and citrus!
post by sunny on Sep 13, 2016
Oops, I meant that comment for @Modawg2k and his frost-damaged palm.
With the variety you have on your place, @tmcgahey, that nursery must know you well.
You have citrus, too?
post by tmcgahey on Sep 13, 2016
Yes, a number of the trees are ornamental oranges, I’m guessing to provide privacy to the back yard. I also have a couple orange, a white grapefruit, and pomegranate. One of the orange trees must be one of those weird grafted trees because the lower portion has a normal big leaf, and the top half of the tree is a very small leaf tree. Both produce a different fruit. I have been trying like heck to keep these around, but I fear the foreclosure left them in shambles. They green up nicely, load up with fruit, then the fruit just kind of shrivels up and falls off. What fruit is left isn’t overly appetizing. The grapefruits have been decent per my wife…I hate the stuff.
Citrus and fruit are all along the right (east) side of the property behind the fence and this area has the benefit of flood irrigation every 2 weeks when I am home to accept it.
post by JPedrego on Sep 14, 2016
JPedrego Enthusiast
From what I understand, most citrus trees here are grafted, with the lower portion being root stock that is more drought tolerant while the upper part of the tree produces better fruit. If it is obvious the lower leaves are root stock I think they recommend removing any branches from that portion since they will just waste nutrients to grow bad fruit.
post by sunny on Sep 14, 2016
To add a bit to what @JPedrego said, citrus trees purchased from a nursery are grafted onto rootstock that was selected for disease resistance for the roots. The upper part, or scion, produces the fruit. The graft on this tree is pretty obvious.
It’s common practice to graft fruit trees to produce desirable traits or disease resistance.
A citrus can be grown from seed, but it may take 15 -20 years to produce fruit if ever.
post by sunny on Sep 14, 2016
What do you think, @JPedrego? @tmcgahey’s trees still showing effects of improper watering from during the time the property was in foreclosure?
post by tmcgahey on Sep 16, 2016
Well for the first time in probably almost a year, I have a completely leak free irrigation system! For the next 7 hours anyway until the next schedule runs!
I still have a bit of tweaking to do on the sprinklers and drip, but I finally capped all the unused emitters (this yard would be NUTS if every plant was still here!), fixed all the split tubing, and fixed broken sprinklers. I started with two known issues, and once those were fixed, other areas in the drip system became an issue.
Also, still have a few spray heads to match up on the backyard sprinkler system, but now I am looking at doing away with my Hunter VAN, and going to the Rain Bird HE-VAN nozzles. Not completely in love with the coverage of the Hunters.
post by tmcgahey on Sep 18, 2016
Well, I guess I jinxed myself…
After plugging off probably 60 or so emitters that not longer had bushes/trees (figure 1-2 gph per emitter, so much waste!), apparently the new found pressure produced on the long runs wreaked havoc on other areas of the system. Each and every end of a run started leaking out of the flush valve cap, and of course each and every one of them was buried.
Also, like I have mentioned before, my “Tree” zone uses 2gph emitters and depending on the type/size of tree there are 2-4 emitters per tree. That being said, how many emitters would you guys put on these big Pineapple Palms?
22 days later
post by tmcgahey on Oct 11, 2016
I see SRP and the Town of Gilbert are hosting some classes on drip irrigation design as well as smart controllers! Wonder if Rachio will be one of those smart controllers? Assuming this would be open to everyone, not sure how they would police it…might be neat to hear what they have to say!
\ blob.jpg648×773 216 KB](https://community.rachio.com/uploads/db1097/original/2X/0/07f04633f516123ad8778ff0b0172b501c572675.jpg "blob.jpg")
post by JPedrego on Oct 11, 2016
JPedrego Enthusiast
I think the person that teaches the irrigation work shops does the same classes for Scottsdale. I took the drip workshop in the spring and it was pretty informative, really helped me install my own drip systems. I think I saw his name mentioned around these forums by one of the rachio guys. They mentioned they sent him a controller and were receiving feedback from him so it might be covered.
post by azdavidr on Oct 12, 2016
tmcgahey](https://community.rachio.com/t/another-arizona-set-up-help-thread/5787 "Load parent post")
@JPedrego Do you mind sharing the direct link ? I can’t seem to find the classes from the main SRP website. Thanks!
post by JPedrego on Oct 12, 2016
JPedrego Enthusiast
For the Scottsdale classes? They are offered by the water department.
http://www.scottsdaleaz.gov/water/workshops
Looks like the drip workshop is this Saturday. I’m not sure if they restrict registration to just Scottsdale residents, I doubt it. But if you did want to go you can always walk in too. I’ve never attended a workshop that was so full they had to turn people away.
ETA: Looks like they do specify on the website free for Scottsdale residents but I don’t think they have anyway of enforcing that for walk-ins.
post by azdavidr on Oct 12, 2016
Thanks @jpedrego!
post by sunny on Oct 13, 2016
I have attended several of these workshops. The city wants people to learn to water wisely. Like @JPedrego says, many of these workshops don’t have full attendance and a walk-in close to starting time is not turned away. Registration helps them determine numbers for the hand-out materials.
post by jeremysm1 on Oct 14, 2016
Hi guys, I’m new to this and also live in Greater Phoenix (Scottsdale). I had a water bill double the average and has happened several times over the last year or two–so finally want to jump in with a smart controller and monitor it actively. Any recommendations for where to purchase and/or other add-on parts to get? I’ll read your posts about setup–was it difficult?
I’m coming from a Raindial old school controller and am completely computer literate–so I should catch-on. But know nothing about plants and irrigation control. BTW–we got rid of our grass 2 years ago, so we’re just watering trees and plants (decent size yard).
Also, interested in the beta flow testing–anyone doing that?
Thanks!
post by Modawg2k on Oct 14, 2016
@jeremysm1 Welcome! You should start up your own thread and we can start from step 1 to figure out how to get you up and going. Just post it under the General category. Just to clarify, you are wanting to know where to buy a Rachio first and possible accessories?
9 months later
post by Modawg2k on Jul 17, 2017
Bring it on!
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post by tmcgahey on Jul 17, 2017
I’m a bit scared to go home tonight to see what the house/yard looks like. Hopefully the trampoline isn’t three streets over…Still blowing my mind that these storms keep coming from the north/northeast. This time of year they should be coming up from the south.
We were up in Prescott this weekend and got storms Friday, Saturday, and Sunday afternoon…yesterday was a doozy though!
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post by Modawg2k on Jul 17, 2017
Be careful of those flash floods, the news was reporting that like 9 members of a family were killed by a flash flood this past weekend up north.
post by tmcgahey on Jul 17, 2017
No flash floods around us, just a bunch of rain and hail!
post by Modawg2k on Jul 17, 2017
We had Flash Garbage Cans in my neighborhood, someone posted a video from their house of 2 cans going down the street at like 50mph. My neighbors love to put out their trash cans sunday for monday pickup with no regards to wind and storms sunday night.
post by tmcgahey on Jul 17, 2017
I hope my trampoline is still in place. Didn’t get around to installing the new tie downs before I went out of town for work last week…
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post by tmcgahey on Jul 23, 2017
Hope Rachio skips for the next few days…based on my pool level I’ve already got well over an inch and no signs of letting up!
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post by azdavidr on Jul 23, 2017
Ahwatukee …
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post by tmcgahey on Jul 24, 2017
It’s still raining here…
post by Modawg2k on Jul 24, 2017
My backyard
post by tmcgahey on Jul 24, 2017
Are you serious @Modawg2k? The PWS that I point to says I got 1.53" last night, and I think that might be a bit on the low side…
Rachio has already accounted for the 1.5" of rain and has pushed off watering!
post by Modawg2k on Jul 24, 2017
Yeah my area is right up against some mountains and apparently we suck at getting rain, it always goes around us. @azdavidr coined a funny term last year which I think about every time it looks like it’s going to rain
Here’s the closest PWS to me and Deer Valley Airport repoted 0 also
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post by azdavidr on Jul 24, 2017
Crazy. It’s still raining here.
post by Modawg2k on Jul 24, 2017
Yeah, clouds are moving north, but like Moses at the red sea, it’s parting ways when getting to my area
post by azdavidr on Jul 24, 2017
For you @Modawg2k, in case you leave the neighborhood today.
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post by tmcgahey on Jul 24, 2017
AHAHAHAHHAAH!!!
post by Modawg2k on Jul 24, 2017
Just took a picture of the yard again to reflect the current storm…
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post by tmcgahey on Jul 24, 2017
Damn, it is raining at my office again…our retention basins are full!
post by sunny on Jul 24, 2017
I feel your pain, @Modawg2k. Same situation here. Last night we got .05 from around 6 until midnight. We sure got the wind, though.
This is the total from the storm this morning.
It’s just not fair!
post by tmcgahey on Jul 24, 2017
Dang. I got the 1.53" last night, and another .67" today (according to the PWS I point to)…Based on my yard this morning when I left for work, I got every bit of that and some!
post by azdavidr on Jul 24, 2017
Is that your own PWS @sunny ?
post by tmcgahey on Jul 24, 2017
Holy cow! Middle of Arizona summer, and right now I am scheduled to have a 7 day lapse in watering my grass!!!
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post by sunny on Jul 24, 2017
azdavidr](https://community.rachio.com/t/another-arizona-set-up-help-thread/5787 "Load parent post")
It is. It was a gift a couple of years ago. I’m a science geek–what can I say. Costco was carrying this Acurite 5-in-1–not sure if they still are.
It registers temps a bit high, but I’m thinking repositioning it would help.
post by Modawg2k on Jul 24, 2017
My neighbors’ have this and theirs has been about 10 degrees higher.
10 days later
post by tmcgahey on Aug 4, 2017
Damnit, I know you got pounded tonight @Modawg2k! That storm came right down your land!
Another. 89" here…too bad forecasts are horrible during monsoon. Rachio watered everything today!
post by Modawg2k on Aug 4, 2017
@tmcgahey haha, yeah we got above 0.7", but unfortunately i wasn’t home to enjoy it/see my dog poop bucket fly around the backyard. I immediately put the yard into a 3 day rain delay.
post by azdavidr on Aug 4, 2017
The monsoons hit just in time this year. I have some plants that can only take so many 115F dry days of direct sun before they start to fry. It’s amazing how they’ve recovered thanks to the added humidity and cloud cover, not to mention some rain.
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