Rachio not picking up Tempest precipitation

post by Linn on Jul 7, 2024

The first time I’ve seen this problem, and wondering if anyone else has seen it. I will contact Tech Support tomorrow but sure they will be slammed after the holiday and weekend.

We had a ton of rain yesterday. 1.4 inches per my Tempest, yet the zones are only seeing .01 inches of precip yesterday! Have double checked and my Rachio is supposed to be using my Tempest. Screen shots below. I may go in and mark all my zones as full today but don’t know why this is happening.

post by ady624 on Jul 7, 2024

I believe it shows the forecast during the day, will show total rain after midnight. Can you check tomorrow, and possibly check local vs NearCast rain (a Tempest feature)?

post by Linn on Jul 8, 2024

I was able to contact customer support yesterday and they sent the problem on to the engineering team. They got back and said there was a problem with the Tempest communicating with the controller but all should be ok now. Well … we had rain again last night, and again not recorded. WeatherUnderground is getting all the information. And when Rachio updated it said that for July 6 I had 1.71 inches instead of the 1.41 inches that both the Tempest and WeatherUnderground had (a pretty big difference when the lawn puts down .42 inches and the drip does .24 inches!!). Sent lots of doc back to them but haven’t heard from them today. I posted here just in case it might be a bigger problem than just my personal Tempest.

post by franz on Jul 8, 2024

@Linn Our engineering team is reaching out to Tempest and will let you know what we find out.

post by franz on Jul 9, 2024

@Linn Tempest has told us your hardware is reporting that the temperature and pressure sensors on the device have failed.

Please reach out to support@weatherflow.com and their CS team can help you with the hardware issue.

post by Linn on Jul 9, 2024

@franz Thank you for having engineering look at this. I will contact them. Odd thing is that when I looked at things this morning, it had picked up the rain we had yesterday! It’s gone wacky!

post by JBTexas on Jul 9, 2024

That’s because you’re reporting NearCast rainfall from your Tempest. It doesn’t have to rain on your Tempest for NearCast to report otherwise. It seems that both are available in Tempest, and I’m not sure what Rachio gets, but if you’re seeing NearCast (as your screenshot shows) and Rachio’s understanding something else (as you’re implying it does), you might consider ignoring NearCast.

I found NearCast at my location (in East Texas, with 6 other Tempests or other PWS’s within a few miles) to be terrible vs. real observed precipitation (simple rain gauges or Tempest or local WU rain-capable stations). Of course, if your Tempest has just been broken all along, fixing it may be just the ticket.

post by Linn on Jul 10, 2024

Sent all my documentation to Tempest and they are sending me a replacement unit!

post by Linn on Jul 22, 2024

Updating in case any one else runs into this problem. I installed the replacement Tempest and everything is working correctly again. If I check Rachio after it’s been raining, it has already picked up the amount the Tempest said I got, and is the same amount. Have no idea why failed temperature and pressure sensors would impact the precipitation, but it sure did.

post by franz on Jul 22, 2024