Can Rachio 3rd Gen Do Better

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post by rraisley on Jun 19, 2020

I’m thinking of replacing my 6 zone irrigation timer with a Rachio, but I want to be sure it will do what I hope it will do. Currently, this is what /I/ do (I’m an engineer - sorry):

I’ve measured the exact water flow in gpm for each zone, calculated the area of each zone, and have a spreadsheet that can then calculate the minutes for each zone to put X" of water down. I water 3 days a week (Monday, Wednesday, Saturday), and would like to keep doing that. Each zone waters 3 times per active day, as I get runoff from the sloped front otherwise (100% clay soil). I check the NOAA web site every Sunday and get the weekly FRET for my area (Columbia, SC), and set the Budget setting on my controller accordingly. If it’s going to rain, or has recently rained, I’ll set the Rain Delay. If I get or expect say 1/2" of rain throughout the week, I’ll guess and reduce the Budget by 50%.

I’ve ordered a set of Orbit’s sprinkler catch cups to try to calculate watering time more accurately. I used to set my sprinkler Budget setting to 100% for Summer, thinking 1" of water was required then, but that seemed too little. Today, I use the Budget setting based on the FRET which can easily give over 1.5" of water or more per week in the summer; I’m thinking now that might be too much.

Anyhow, I’m looking for an automated system that will equal or better the steps I’m doing and information I’m using, but with my limitations. I do NOT want a system that will water whenever it wants to, I’d rather a system that waters when /I/ want it to, but with the correctly calculated amount that it determines. And - if that calculated amount leaves my lawn too dry or too wet, there should be a way to generally modify it, probably by a constant.

Is Rachio for me? Would another system be better? What /won’t/ Rachio do that I expect it to do, and what additional things will it help me with?

post by franz on Jun 22, 2020

Don’t apologize!

We love data. The system can be adjusted as low level as you would like in advanced zone settings.

This will help dial in nozzle precipitation rate settings for sure.

Little confused here. Do either of these match?

Flex Daily Schedules

Flex Monthly Schedule

I hope so, we have the most advanced schedules on the market, and big plans next year for making them even smarter and easier to adjust based on customer personalized feedback.

post by rraisley on Jun 22, 2020

Thank you SO much, franz, for answering!

As to the schedule, I really like the idea of watering only 2 or 3 days a week, currently doing Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. I want the Smart system to water only those days, and vary the time of watering automatically, based on temperature and other “real” (not historic) factors, to keep my lawn healthy. Including actual rainfall, I know, is problematic, as local stations around me can vary a lot. Plus, I don’t want the system to not water at all, just because I got (or will get) a small amount of rain.

And, if the calculated/applied amount of water seems insufficient, it would be good to be able to apply a constant 10% or whatever more or less. I’m certainly interested in saving water, but not at the cost of a properly watered lawn.

I agree Rachio seems to be the most advanced. It seems like Orbit B-hyve only varies the frequency of watering rather than the amount of water each time (I could be wrong on this), and I definitely don’t want that. And I read somewhere that Orbit was difficult to apply modifications to without defeating the Smart watering (thus my mention of mods in the previous paragraph).

I’m also concerned as we’ve had like a week of 40% plus rain chance around here, without having a drop of rain. Or so little that it adds up to less than 0.1" a week. And am unsure how a Smart system can still water the appropriate amount, without a local and connected rain gauge. I wouldn’t mind inputting actual rain received into the app to help it apply the right amount of water, but don’t know that there’s provision for that.

post by franz on Jun 22, 2020

We don’t currently adjust like that. We lean more towards adjusting frequency in flex daily schedules (adjusted real time, every day, we forecast three weeks out). Our fixed schedules will adjust watering minutes monthly but it is based on historical weather. Flex daily is our most efficient and advanced schedule, you might actually prefer that after adding one or two zones and tracking performance.

post by rraisley on Jun 22, 2020

Thanks very much. Looks like I might be best just continuing with my system, and checking out the changes you’ll be making next year; maybe they’ll fit a bit better for my needs.

post by inkahauts on Jun 23, 2020

I have found that the more data you give it the better it will do than you can. You don’t need to water on certain days to keep your yard green, you need the water available to the roots of your grass to stay between certain levels, and that’s what rachio has accomplished for me quite well.

Flex daily does seem to adjust how long it will water each month, in addition to how often based on weather. So example, for me, it automatically will plan on watering for longer time frames in July, and water more or less often depending on how hot it actually is to maintain a certain amount of moisture in the ground. It will water for shorter lengths and more or less often in December. Heck I have ST Augustine, and there can be weeks go by when it doesn’t need water and it doesn’t water in the winter.

If it rains, it simply waits a bit longer before it waters. This is not going to result in anything different than what you are already doing, depending on how you set up your data and allowances in the system. It might wait an extra day or two before it waters, but it’ll keep the same moisture level in your yard.

And if you want longer watering times or shorter, there’s a lot of ways to adjust the data to make that happen. You can also even go in and specifically adjust the actual planned minutes.

post by rraisley on Jun 23, 2020

Sorry, haven’t figured out how to include previous text to comment on this forum.

I realize that varying days between watering works fine compared to say twice a week and varying times, but I’m not convinced it’s better. Even if my lawn needs only .5" of water in a month, I would never water only once a month. While I have mostly lawn, there are flowers here and there, which would die in the meantime, without a little water each week, preferably more often.

I used to water every 3 days. But then I’d never be sure when watering would happen. It would water the morning when my lawn was going to be cut. Or the day /before/ it was fertilized rather than the day /after/. We don’t have great water pressure, and I’d go to get a shower, only to realize I couldn’t, because it was watering. So I’ve arrived at my Monday, Wednesday, Saturday schedule: Fertilizer is always on a Tuesday, followed by watering the next day. Lawn cutting on Friday, on dry lawn. Garbage pickup, whose garbage cans block sprinklers, always on Friday. Etc.

I like the idea of using weather data (temperature, humidity, etc.) to modify the Budget setting or sprinkler time, but feel historic data is not really useful. We just had a week where temperatures were in the 60s with low humidity, followed by a week in the 90s with high humidity. Historic data would not work, but NOAA Fret data takes that into account.

post by rraisley on Jun 25, 2020

I notice that Costco sells what is apparently a customized version of the Rachio 3, one with 12 stations, rather than the normal 8 or 16. As I now only have 6, either the 8 or 12 would certainly do the job. As it is custom, will Costco’s version get the same updates/improvements mentioned for next year as the standard 8 or 12 stations?

post by Rich_from_Houston on Jun 26, 2020

Based on what you are looking for it’s seems a bridge too far for the Rachio.

Since you are an engineer, I think you would enjoy building a system driven by a Raspberry Pi. You could program it. Everything you are doing manually including checking weather forecasts.

post by inkahauts on Jun 26, 2020

The rain calculations… basically the rain calculations fill your moisture level or % of it, and it then recalculates when it will water. Again it won’t adjust how many minutes but when it waters. So it might skip a time but then water the next day it otherwise wouldn’t have watered (but not on a day you don’t allow it to water). Even if you only allow watering on say three days a week chances are it won’t water all zones all those three days every week every month unless your soil doesn’t hold water well and your roots are all super shallow.

Example, you only allow watering mon wed and Friday Saturday. zone 3 is in the shade and it is currently scheduled to water Monday and Friday. But Sunday it rains enough to push soil moisture back up where it won’t need water till Wednesday. So it skips Monday and waters Wednesday and then schedules the next one after that for Saturday instead of Friday. Etc etc. it recalculated daily based on how the weather has been and will be before the next water ability and the next water window after that one as well so it will know if it needs to water.

post by inkahauts on Jun 28, 2020

That should give you an idea of some of the things it shows for moisture level. And you’ll see it doesn’t necessarily need to get it to 100% or let it drop to the minimum either before it will water again. Again it’s kept my lawn greener than it used to be when I water on a set schedule but shorter times more often and even adjusted when it was hot.