New Setup - Converting from RainDial - Getting Started / Before You Buy - Rachio Community

New Setup - Converting from RainDial

Hi Everyone,

I’m ready to jump into the new tech age of technology irrigation. I currently have a RainDial 6-zone unit (RD600-EXT-R) and want to get up and running. I’m in Scottsdale, AZ if that matters. I think I’ll need the following:

  1. Rachio 8-zone
  2. Waterproof enclosure
  3. Flow Sensor

Sound about right? Any suggestions as to which flow sensor works the best or is most cost effective?

post by jeremysm1 on Oct 17, 2016

Hi Everyone,

  1. Rachio 8-zone
  2. Waterproof enclosure
  3. Flow Sensor

Sound about right? Any suggestions as to which flow sensor works the best or is most cost effective?

post by mckynzee on Oct 17, 2016

Hi @jeremysm1 !

Super excited to have you join the team! Sounds about right if you are installing outside! The only thing I will say is getting a flow sensor is definitely optional. Depending on your needs, I would say there are probably some more cost and time effective ways to get accurate usage from your app.

We also have a large group of Arizona users on here who are absolutely incredible when it comes to getting your system set up. Once you have gotten your controller up and running I recommend taking advantage of their knowledge when it comes to getting your settings fine tuned to your landscape!

post by Modawg2k on Oct 17, 2016

Welcome @jeremysm1. I’m in north phoenix. I have 5 zones on my system so I went with the 8 zone Rachio. Sounds like you should get the 8 zone system unless you have plans for any type of renovation of your irrigation system. Also you’ll want an enclosure if it’s outside. I’ve had mine for 1 full summer facing the southern sun and it’s working great, so far no worries w/ heat as long as it’s within a box. And with flow sensors, I don’t personally have one so I can’t comment on that… I am just mindful of my yard and where I see water that shouldn’t be, I go hunting for a leak.

post by jeremysm1 on Oct 17, 2016

Thanks for the welcome messages! I ordered the Rachio and enclosure today but will hold off on adding the flow sensor after feeling out the system for a little while. I’m going to shoot for installation over the weekend–so keep an eye out for my frantic posts then.

post by Linn on Oct 18, 2016

I hope you love your Rachio as much as I do, @jeremysm1! I also do not have a flow sensor. I may install one some time in the future as I travel a lot and can’t always monitor my yard. (And with all the traveling I do, I have been very pleased with how my yard looks when I get home, and that I can monitor what’s going on at home from anywhere in the world!)

I was gutsy and went with flex daily from the very start. It took a little bit of effort to understand it and set it up correctly to suit my specifics, but the time spent was well worth it. And the community will be happy to help you out.

post by jeremysm1 on Oct 20, 2016

Got the Rachio in the mail. Here is a pic of my current RainDial. Is this a simple unplug from here and plug into the Rachio setup?

Also, my electricity is piped into the RainDial on the right side, but needs to be on the left for the Rachio. Since it’s a flex cable, that should be easy enough. But I’m no electrical expert, is it the same cables/power for RainDial as the Rachio? I’m assuming that I just need to shut off the breaker box before playing with the electricity?

Also, my landscaper said he’d let me know the settings of the irrigation. But, I’m kinda doing this project because I don’t fully trust the settings that they are using. I went to the RainDial and simply moved the main dial around and marked down the following: Set for ON (Mon/Tues/Wed/Thurs/Sat), Start time 1am, Station3 1hr, Station5 50 minutes. I didn’t check if B or C (top left) does something live there?

post by Modawg2k on Oct 21, 2016

@jeremysm1 I’m no electrician, no landscaper, and no Rachio employee, but I’ll try to help you as best as I can!

Your Irritrol controller and setup on the wall is as same as mine was. I converted to a Gen 1 Rachio… not sure what you got. But your zone wires on the bottom will just go into the appropriate zone plugins on the Rachio. The white wire is your “valve common” and I was told by Rachio support before that it can be inserted into either white port labeled “C”.

I’m assuming that I just need to shut off the breaker box before playing with the electricity, right?

Again, I’m not electrician but yeah! I bought a box for my gen 1 that had an outlet in it and I just had to run the wires into the enclosure box and connect to the outlet (just like you would with wiring any outlets in the house). If you got the Gen 2, I’m not sure what the box has in it.

Those are just different schedules… but the point is moot because that dumb controller is gone! Don’t worry about carrying over any settings from your Irritrol.

And you shouldn’t with most landscapers… but yeah, that’s the point of the Rachio. You can tell your landscaper to not worry about how your plants/grass gets watered, we’ll take care of that here!

Have you signed up on the app and did some initial setup of how many zones you have, etc?

post by jeremysm1 on Oct 25, 2016

Got the Rachio gen 2 installed yesterday. Had to run to Home Depot to get some connectors so the outside case is connected to the feeder pipes properly. Today, I need to setup the programs. The great thing is that I don’t have a lawn, just desert landscape. I’ll dig through the other Arizona threads…but if anyone wants to chime in with best practices for programmed times of desert trees, shrubs, vines and sequencing (ie time of day, duration, and how many days per week to run the program) that will be just about all I need. Thanks!

post by mckynzee on Oct 25, 2016

@jeremysm1-

Welcome to the team! I’m sure some of our Arizona members will chime in- they are some of the best on here!

post by jeremysm1 on Oct 25, 2016

I’m going to come clean, I have the faintest knowledge in landscaping but am ready to learn. In fact, I don’t even know anything about my landscape and/or system for irrigation. I did copy down the settings from the previous RainDial, but don’t know (yet) what method to the madness the irrigation uses. We built the house in 2007 and had brand new landscaping that included a backyard lawn. In spring 2015, we got rid of the lawn and replaced it with artificial turf–so I’m sure that explains some of the inconsistencies in the irrigation (ie not using zone 1 for instance).

Also, I don’t know much about the plants/trees/shrubs nor do I know anything about the emitters, drip rates etc. I’m going to map out my yard and find every shrub, plant, vine, tree, cactus etc. and also mark down the type of emitters. I may need some help identifying the emitters, and will call in my landscaper to help identify each live plant/tree etc.

In the meantime, I don’t want them to die, so I’ll probably turn things on between now and when I get the info from the landscaper. I’ll try to post with my landscape findings soon and will hopefully inch my way towards setting the system up properly.

post by sunny on Oct 25, 2016

Welcome, @jeremysm1. You will find this forum to be very helpful and the Arizona gang to be a great resource.

post by Modawg2k on Oct 25, 2016

You’ll learn as we go and probably enjoy it. First, are you all setup with the Rachio? I think you said that earlier, but just want to confirm that your Rachio is hooked up?

post by jeremysm1 on Oct 25, 2016

Yes, got the Rachio setup outside and is online and ready for programming. I haven’t tried turning any zone on yet. Later today I will try to turn on each zone one at a time and see which areas are controlled in those areas.

post by Modawg2k on Oct 25, 2016

Awesome. That will take some time but having a remote in your hand (i.e. phone) vs having to walk to the box every time will be a great time saver. From a settings standpoint, let’s get your proper soil listed.

post by azdavidr on Oct 25, 2016

A bit off topic, but I think most of the AZ folks are watching this thread. Here’s an update of the landscape watering classes some of you guys were talking about earlier. I noted one coming up at Agave Library, which I think is out by @Modawg2k and maybe a couple of others?

Classes Information

post by Modawg2k on Oct 26, 2016

Nice, yeah that’s just down the street from me around I17 and Pinnacle Peak.

post by jeremysm1 on Oct 26, 2016

My first test is complete, and the Rachio worked! I’m a little baffled that I actually got my system converted from the RainDial to the Rachio on the first try. Okay, so walking around the yard, turning on/off the zones one by one I found this to be the setup:

I went online to this amazing site, http://www.amwua.org/plants/ to identify the types of landscaping we have. Seems like we have an assortment of these: desert spoon, agave, slipper flower, golden barrel, cereus, mesquite, ironwood, palo brea, firecracker bush, green feathery senna, golden eye, lantana, grape ivy, goodings verbena, cherry red sage–at least that is my best guess until the landscaper comes to help identify.

HERE ARE MY QUESTIONS:

  1. What time of the day should I set the system to water each zone (for simplicity, let’s say front yard, back yard and trees as the 3 zones)?
  2. How many times per week should these zones each get water?
  3. What type of emitters should be used for each? Assume most can be classified into 1-2 types of emitters (i.e. Shrubs or Trees)
  4. How do I set this up in the Rachio so it knows how many emitters I have and/or how much water I’m using?

post by azdavidr on Oct 26, 2016

@jeremysm1 I encourage you to look at the ‘Water Use It Wisely’ site as a great orientation to how your drip zones should be configured, and how much and how often you should water your plants.

Once you do that, try out this post to see if it helps you set up your Rachio according to what you learned from 'Water Use It Wisely. Be sure not to skip any steps, especially dialing in your soil and root depth settings before using the calculator!

post by Modawg2k on Oct 27, 2016

@jeremysm1 Did you do the soil test online yet? I don’t remember seeing you post those.

A lot of your questions can be answered with having the appropriate settings.

post by jeremysm1 on Oct 27, 2016

I went outside this morning to first see which plants actually have emitters and if any were broken. My findings upset me.

Anyone know how to fix a cracked feeder hose? See picture. I’m planning on stopping by Ewing later today to start on some fixes.

post by Modawg2k on Oct 27, 2016

You get a replacement line big enough for that section and a couple of connectors, and then splice out the bad part and replace with the new ones. It’s an easy fix.

post by azdavidr on Oct 27, 2016

Here are a couple of links to back up @Modawg2k’s description. The Ewing guys will show you too.

If your irrigation is greater than 5 years old, you might find that you’ll start playing whack-a-mole with these leaks. I’ve already had to completely replace my system in our front yard, and will have to do so again soon. I just went through a repair like this last weekend in my front yard. I ended up pulling a 6-foot section that had two leaks. When I pulled I found it had already been repaired with couplers 5 times! We just renovated our backyard last year and we put in a PVC-based drip system there so we wouldn’t have to deal with this issue.

Good luck.

post by Modawg2k on Oct 27, 2016

My setup is about 6 years old and I had to repair the same general area about 4 times now in the past year.

post by jeremysm1 on Oct 28, 2016

The absolute best part of the Rachio system is that I can use the app on my phone to turn on a zone and start inspecting. Upon finding a broken emitter or one that needs to be plugged I can use the app to shut off the water, fix it, and turn it back on without running around to the other side of the house. That alone is worth its weight in gold!

I’m pretty sure that all the leaks are now fixed and the emitters are working correctly. I now need to figure out an irrigation plan. I checked out the Water It Wisely website but can’t believe that I should go so many days between watering cycles.

Can you guys share your watering cycle/setup? Thanks!

post by Modawg2k on Oct 28, 2016

What’s your soil AW from the link provided?

post by jeremysm1 on Oct 31, 2016

Okay, I finally was able to go through that link in order to confirm/find the soil type. Here are the items that I think we’re looking for:

Momoli gravelly sandy loam, 1 to 5 percent slopes. Rating 0.08

Typical profile:

Please let me know your thoughts and next steps. Thanks!

post by Modawg2k on Oct 31, 2016

So for Soil, you can set it to something like “Sandy Loam”, but then go into advanced settings and change your ‘Available Water’ (AW) to 0.08. The lower this number, the more sandy the soil is. Sandier soil allows water to flow through it faster, but it also does not hold onto water as long as clay-type soils.

Next step, set your vegetation correctly, so if you have the one zone with all trees, set that one to trees. Your Zone 3 looks like all shrubs, so set that to shrubs. I would probably treat your zone 6 small tree as a shrub and water accordingly.

Next step is exposure… pretty self-explanatory.

Any questions on those steps?

post by jeremysm1 on Oct 31, 2016

Those settings make sense. I updated the zone setting accordingly. Some questions:

  1. In the advanced, there are settings for Area, Root Depth, Allowed Depletion (i.e. 50%), Efficiency (90%) and Crop Coefficient (75%). Do I just leave these alone?
  2. Regarding the Area from question above, how do I calculate? I’m assuming it’s generalizing the qty of emitters based on the area, is that right? I don’t have lawn, so everything is shrubs/vines/trees. How would I change that to reflect the amount of emitters?----- For instance: Zone 2, I have about 6 trees with 3 x 2gph emitters on each–how would I set that up?

Thanks!

post by Modawg2k on Oct 31, 2016

Area: This has no impact on your watering and is used only by Rachio to give you an estimated amount of water used. To be honest, I wouldn’t even mess with this out of the box. Once you feel comfortable that your Rachio is watering your yard correctly, then you can play around with this setting.

Root Depth: This will default to the type of plant you have set for the zone. So if it’s a tree only zone, it’ll be one length, if it’s a shrub zone, it’ll be 15" I think. I would leave it for now on the default for whatever plant type you set… example: your shrub zone will default to 15", and Rachio will water to a depth of 15" every time.

Allowed Depletion: default is 50… basically it says that your Rachio will water when it thinks your soil is about 50% depleted of moisture... i believe Rachio uses this number because it’s been shown to have the best effect for plants… i keep mine at 50.

Efficiency: how efficient is your zone at putting the amount of water out that it says it is… not as big of a deal with drips (used more for sprinklers), I’d just keep it at 100 since your drops are appropriately placed at the plant.

Coefficient: How fast does your plant use up water resources, it will default based off the plant setting… again, I’d leave it alone assuming you have the correct plant setting, you can tweak it once you get a feel for the system. You’ll notice shrubs have 0.5 vs trees of 0.75.

Some people say put a 1 for each emitter.