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. This community is excellent in helping with getting that done!

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 my 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.

post by jeremysm1 on Oct 20, 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!)

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 (followed the RainDial setup for zones)
• 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, 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 (ie 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

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.

post by Modawg2k on Oct 31, 2016

From a settings standpoint, let’s get your proper soil listed. Here is a great reference provided by @azdavidr Getting the correct soil is vital to knowing how fast your ground will soak up the water and how long it’ll hold onto it. We tend to have sandy soil out here in the desert. Let us know what the AW is per the link.

post by jeremysm1 on Nov 1, 2016

Can you describe the Flex Daily setting? Does it take into account my weather, season, and water requirements based on the settings we setup for each zone? Do you know when it’s scheduled to water and for how much or do you just read the logs? Thanks!

post by mckynzee on Nov 1, 2016

If you haven’t checked out the support docs, give them a once over. I think Rachio did a good job of making them user friendly. http://support.rachio.com/article/382-flex-schedule-faq

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? Also, how do I check how much rain the local weather station received? I just want to see how to make sense of it all. Thanks!

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. My system accounted for 0.24 inches yesterday.

post by jeremysm1 on Nov 21, 2016

So far, nothing seems to be dying and the watering schedule seems to be working! I still haven’t had time to start hunting for those little used zones, but that’s on my list. Here is my newest focus: when logged into the Rachio app (or web page) I can see how much water we used in the last month. How is that figure being calculated? For instance, I never told the system how many emitters we have per line.

post by rbeck on Nov 21, 2016

The amount of water is figured as rate of nozzle (e.g., 0.5"/hr) multiplied by the time run and by the area for the zone. For example, 0.5"/hr x 1 hr x 12000 sq ft gives 500 cu ft (3740 gallons).

post by mckynzee on Nov 21, 2016

If you want to improve this calculation, @azdavidr created this calculator that should help!