Has the Wireless Flow Sensor been discontinued? - Accessories & Sensors / Wireless Flow - Rachio Community
Has the Wireless Flow Sensor been discontinued?
post by 7Natives on May 16, 2020
I am looking on the site at the Gen 3 and looking for the Wireless Flow Sensor. Has the Wireless Flow Sensor been discontinued? I don’t see it listed for sale on the web site.
Thanks,
7
post by franz on May 16, 2020
Yes, that product has been discontinued.
post by 7Natives on May 16, 2020
I’m having problems with a valve or valves being stuck open. I was hoping to find a way to get on top of this in case it happens while I am out of town. Are any of the wired meters worth their salt?
post by Gene on May 16, 2020
No comment on wired meters, haven’t used any myself.
If you are having issues with your valves, you may want to check the spring within the solenoid, if the spring have came off the plunger, or otherwise weak, it may explain why your valves are not closing.
This happened to me not long ago.
post by 7Natives on May 17, 2020
Thanks, I’ll look into that.
@Franz, does the Gen 2 Rachio have some sort of internal battery backup, like a CMOS or small lithium? I haven’t seen anything like that on the material I’ve looked at.
post by franz on May 17, 2020
I believe it does for the real time clock.
post by 7Natives on May 17, 2020
So to truly cut power to the valve I need to disconnect the lead to that particular zone, not just pull the plug from the wall or wall converter. Would that be correct?
post by Gene on May 17, 2020
The clock battery can’t get to the valve. Unplugging the unit will disconnect the power.
post by 7Natives on May 18, 2020
@Gene, do you happen to recall the brand of valve you had the spring issue with?
post by Gene on May 18, 2020
Orbit, though every valve is using the same essential tech. Even within solenoids which hide their plungers (like rainbird), you’ll find the spring connected to the plunger.
post by jbasen on May 21, 2020
I installed a CST FSI Flow Sensor. It was pretty much a pain to install. I had to add another enclosure box to house the sensor and running the wire wasn’t a picnic because my main water supply line for the irrigation system was a good distance from my Rachio. That being said, it has worked like a champ and was well worth the effort to install it.
My $.02
post by PaysonK on May 22, 2020
I have been looking at this one, since it is one of the few models that Rachio has support for. Are you able to use the high-flow auto-shutoff feature with that?
post by 7Natives on May 22, 2020
Is that something in the new G3 models?
post by jbasen on May 22, 2020
I’m using the CST FSI flow sensor with my gen 2 Rachio. It fully supports high-flow monitoring and allows you to optionally turn on auto-shutoff on a zone by zone basis.
When I was looking the best pricing I found was at Sprinkler Warehouse -
Make sure you get the proper shielded wire for connecting it to the Rachio. I remember getting some on eBay for a decent price. If you have to go a long distance, like I did, a Worx electric edger/trencher is an easy way to cut a shallow groove in your lawn to bury the wire. Much easier than trying to use a shovel and the grass will quickly grow over and hide the trench.
Hope this helps
post by 7Natives on May 22, 2020
So you’re saying the Rachio shuts off the zone—essentially the same way it would do when a run completes—as opposed to sending a signal to the flow sensor to stop flow in the main line. Is that correct?
In my application I am concerned about a faulty or blocked zone valve that fails to respond to a shut-off signal. (Technically fails to close when the signal to stay-open is stopped.) As such I’m looking for a mainline smart valve which would give me both flow and closure capabilities. Similar to the Moen or floLogic smart valves, but compatible with the Rachio device (and hopefully a lot less expensive).
post by jbasen on May 22, 2020
Correct. It just works through the rachio to shut down the zone valve when it detects a leak in that zone.
To control a valve that would shut down flow to the entire irrigation system you might look at whether the leak is reported through the Rachio API or the IFTTT service and tie that to control of a separate valve.
post by 7Natives on May 22, 2020
I’ll look into that. Thanks!
post by Texlitt on May 24, 2020
I installed a new Rachio 3 and wireless flow meter last April 2019. Why was the wireless flow meter discontinued? Seems like a really good product…
What options are available to monitor water flow if not by the wireless brand. Thanks.
post by franz on May 24, 2020
Yeah, good product, just didn’t fit into our long term strategy.
I don’t really follow that world too closely, we do support a variety of wired Toro, CST, and Badger meters.
post by Aquaman30k on May 31, 2020
This is a major bummer! Will support continue to be provided for the foreseeable future? If so I’m going to buy up a few as spares.
post by Apocrathia on Jun 4, 2020
Ewing still has a couple of the Wireless Flow Meters in stock.
I grabbed myself one because I want more accurate measuring of my water consumption per zone. I think they probably had some manufacturing issues with it, which is why it was discontinued.
post by franz on Jun 4, 2020
No manufacturing issues, just not aligned with our long term business strategy.
post by 7Natives on Jun 4, 2020
Stops Leaks. If a high-flow leak is identified, Rachio removes the affected zone from the queue, continuing the rest of the schedule as usual.
@Franz, I’m assuming this is only effective for a failed sprinkler head, pipe, etc., after the valve as the only way Rachio could shut off a zone would be to not hold the valve open (energizing the solenoid) for that zone. Still, that would be beneficial in nearly all cases. How long does Rachio anticipate continuing support for the Wireless Flow Sensor?
post by Apocrathia on Jun 4, 2020
Was it just that too many users were having issues getting it installed or working? I can understand not wanting to be in the business of giving people plumbing support.
post by franz on Jun 4, 2020
Install friction probably the biggest (underground, so many piping variations and combinations, cutting pipe, probably need a pro, not really DIY, total addressable market), no knock on the meter, that is stuff is just hard, overall margin, and support costs (one call could wipe out margins, and its not a simple product). Also, hardware in general is difficult and is compounded when all the headwinds listed.
post by SouthernRain on Jun 5, 2020
I would recommend installing a master valve after your backflow allowing the system to be shut off remotely if a valve were to stick. I think if you can’t get a rachio wireless flow sensor install a compatible wired one. There are several sold by third-party manufactures.
post by 7Natives on Jun 6, 2020
That’s sort-of the current plan but I’m calling it Plan B because I really really don’t like the cost of it. The flow-sensor only route is Plan A because it costs less and it’s beginning to look like I could buy a nice home in another state for what it will cost to get my landscape watering to fail safe-ish.
If I’m reading the data correctly, once calibrated to the wireless sensor the Rachio Gen3 will skip a “leaking zone” during normal operation. That’s good.
I don’t see anything about Rachio Gen2 calibrating a wired sensor nor any indication it will do that at zone-level with a wired sensor. If it will calibrate and skip a leaking zone with a wired sensor, great! If I have a spare wire. Well, maybe great. Then the only issue is backflow. If the Gen2 will calibrate a wired flow sensor before the backflow (I have backflow valves), then I’ve covered > 99% of my probable issues. @Franz, can you chime-in here?
So it all comes down to $ and ¢.
post by Gene on Jun 6, 2020
To the best of my knowledge, Gen 2 will perform similar leak detection to gen 3 when used with a wired flow meters. I do not have one set up as such, but when going through the process of adding a flow sensor to a Gen 2 controller, similar calibration prompts show up as if Gen 3 was used.
Setting up flow sensor before or after the back-flow presenter does not, by itself, affect the readings. The reason the wireless flow meter was designed to be installed downstream of the back-flow presenter is that it makes the certification process easier since the device does not have to be certified for potable (drinking) water. If you don’t tend to lose city water pressure, there is little reason to worry.
post by 7Natives on Jun 8, 2020
My concern is the lack of absolutes. The now-discontinued setup of a Wireless Flow Sensor calibrated each zone and said comparisons between calibrated values and measured ones were used to ensure “good zones” were not skipped when a leak was noted. It failed to state categorically that a leaking zone would be skipped, but inferentially the statement was adequate.
Your statement stands in contrast to what I saw here in the Help Center. There is nothing about zones being skipped or not skipped, nor about calibration, only about absolute gallons being measured.
This may work in some circumstances, but where the user is away from the property and has multiple zones, the only options left to them are to allow all zones to keep running or to shut off all zones—thus risking or killing their landscape.
On the other hand, if your assertions are correct, I might be home free on the zone-level control providing I can find the needed wire pair without having to physically wire the sensor (which would be quite difficult as it is on the far side of multiple large concrete expanses).
Hence the questions: Will the Gen2 with a wired flow sensor calibrate zones? If a wired sensor is used on a Gen2, will the Gen2 shut off (bypass) only the leaking zone and allow the others to run?
post by 7Natives on Jun 8, 2020
Thanks! That may prove very helpful.