New Setup - Converting from RainDial

post by jeremysm1 on Oct 17, 2016

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 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 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, right?

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:

• Zone 1, Zone 7, Zone 8: blank / not used / not wired
• Zone 2: all of the bigger trees seem to be on this zone. Most have red emitters.
• Zone 3: seems like everything in the backyard (except the bigger trees) are on this. Vines, bushes, shrubs, plants.
• Zone 4: all I could find turning on is 1 emitter for a plant near the garbage cans.
• Zone 5: the entire front of the house (except bigger trees)
• Zone 6: all could find is 1 small 4ft tree in front…nothing else on this

I went online to this amazing site, AMWUA Plants to identify the types of landscaping we have. Seems like we have an assortment of these: desert spoon, agave, slipper flower, golden barrel...

Questions:

1. What time of the day should I set the system to water each zone?
2. How many times per week should these zones each get water?
3. What type of emitters should be used for each?
4. How do I set this up in the Rachio?

post by azdavidr on Oct 26, 2016

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.

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

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.

Next step, set your vegetation correctly. 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.

post by jeremysm1 on Nov 4, 2016

Question: believe it or not it rained pretty hard and long here in Scottsdale last night. I have the flex daily schedule setup and it seems like it knew to push the watering schedule back several days. How can I check that it actually did that?

post by Modawg2k on Nov 4, 2016

Go to a zone, click on the moisture graph, and you’ll see the graph on November 3rd reflect a slight increase due to rain. Hit the More Detail button and you’ll see how much it accounted for precipitation.

post by jeremysm1 on Nov 4, 2016

That is so cool! Here is a screenshot of mine. Got .18 inches of rain. What is the moisture balance supposed to be?

Summary

The discussion centers around setting up an irrigation system using Rachio for users transitioning from a RainDial unit. Specific focus is on configuration, identifying effective settings for plants, zones, and responding to environmental changes such as rainfall.