Powering Light and Charging Doorbell - Lawn Nerds / Hacks & Magic - Rachio Community
Powering Light and Charging Doorbell
post by phedrick on Dec 2, 2025
The separate transformer for my doorbell / house number light stopped working. My Rachio was mounted just a few feet away, so I wired them to my Rachio3 in unused zone12. Then I set a schedule to run that zone daily at sunset for 5hrs. Valve monitoring (open circuit monitoring) also helps. This seems to be working great for a few months. I’m sure the small but extra load on Rachio’s transformer would void any warranty, yet we’re years beyond that. My Eufy doorbell also has a battery, but this seems to help keep it charged with just 5hrs per day.
Anyone else found other non-recommended usages for their out of warranty Rachio controller?
post by eeeeees on Jun 30
Yes, I run my pool pump and Landscape lighting using solid state relays for these two zones. Two other zones are used for a delay to get the timing right. Pool pump on at 12 AM, then 8 zones of sprinklers in the morning followed by a delay zone and lastly the landscape lights come on in the evening. There are a bunch of Rachio no-no s to get around setting it up but works great when its done.
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