Quick Runs stopped affecting Soil Moisture percentage

post by lumi on Jul 16, 2024

Since yesterday, I’ve noticed that Quick Runs no longer change the Soil Moisture percentage for zones.

Has anyone else noticed this?

Before that, any length of Quick Run would immediately be reflected in the zone’s Soil Moisture.

post by Thomas_Lerman on Jul 16, 2024

The last time I checked, which was within the past few days, a Quick Run did affect the soil moisture.

post by lumi on Jul 17, 2024

Eventually, it did increase. I think I understand what was happening, but I’m not sure if this is correct behavior. It seems like it was subtracting the Crop Evapotranspiration from the Manual Irrigation, and as long as it was a negative value, the soil moisture remained at 0%. I’m not sure if this is correct, though. For example, in my case, I was watering in the evening, so the Crop Evapotranspiration for the entire day shouldn’t offset the amount of water I was applying to the soil.

post by tmcgahey on Jul 18, 2024

IIRC, I believe what you might be experiencing is the soil moisture figures are representative of what it will be at the end of the day, not necessarily “real time”. Yes it will account for water added from runs or precipitation, but it isn’t necessarily the current moisture level.

post by lumi on Jul 19, 2024

@tmcgahey Exactly. I was under impression that the Soil Moisture is a real-time value, but now I’m convinced that as you said, it’s an expected end-of-day value.

post by tmcgahey on Jul 19, 2024

I mean, it still kind of is real time in that it registers irrigation and precipitation, but that number signifies where it will be at the end of the day…so that way Rachio knows if it needed to water BEFORE it reaches AD.