Wireless Flow Meter - Lack of flow detection

post by Brian.Asplin on Jul 4, 2018

Hi All,

I’m a new customer to Rachio and just installed the Rachio Gen 3. I must say I’m not mechanically inclined by any means, but removing my old controller and installing the new one was a breeze! Nice job Rachio!

That said, I ordered the Wireless Flow Meter (WFM) too; which I believe ships mid-July. I’ll most likely seek professional help with installing that. LOL.

While installing the new controller, I noticed one of the control valves for a zone was not working as expected. This did not stop me from installing or setting up the new controller, but it did get me wondering about the WFM.

As I understand things, the WFM detects flows when they should not occur; which could be an indication of leak detection. Considering my broken control valve for a single zone, I’m curious to know. Any chance the WFM will do the opposite as well, and report a lack of flow when water should be running during a schedule? I’ll understand if it’s not designed to work that way, but think it could have value add for detecting bad control valves that break and prevent water from flowing.

Be curious to hear what folks think about this. Thanks much!

-Brian

post by azdavidr on Jul 4, 2018

Yes, it works that way. That is assuming that you have high enough flow in your zone to be able to calibrate it (>0.5 GPM).

post by franz on Jul 4, 2018

Thank you

That’s an interesting correlation. I know we detect “low” flow but I’ll followup with the engineering team to determine if we detect “no” or “empty” flow.

post by franz on Jul 5, 2018

Engineering confirmed if there is a “low” flow threshold set to anything > 0 % you will get an alert if there is no flow reported.