Understanding Sprinkler Controller Schedule Types
Understanding Sprinkler Controller Schedule Types
Summary
Rachio offers three main types of schedules—Fixed, Flex Monthly, and Flex Daily—designed to optimize your watering based on your preference for manual control versus automated efficiency. Rachio uses advanced calculations based on your zone's soil, plant type, and local weather data to ensure your landscape remains healthy while minimizing water waste. Understanding how these schedules operate, particularly the concept of Management Allowed Depletion (MAD) and Moisture Levels, is key to maximizing Rachio's smart features.
Contents
Rachio Schedule Types
Rachio offers four different schedule types to fit varying user needs, from highly manual control to fully dynamic, water-saving automation.
1. Fixed Schedule
Fixed Schedule offers the most manual control, similar to a traditional controller.
- How It Works: You select the precise days or intervals you wish to water (e.g., every Monday and Thursday, or every 3 days). If a watering day is skipped due to weather, the next scheduled day remains the next programmed day.
- When to Use: Ideal for users with strict watering restrictions or those who want maximum control over the watering days.
- Weather Intelligence Compatibility: Fully compatible with Rain Skip, Freeze Skip, Wind Skip, Saturation Skip, and Seasonal Shift.
Video Overview - Fixed Schedule
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2. Flex Monthly Schedule
Flex Monthly Schedule provides a good balance between predictability and water savings, based on historical weather.
- How It Works: Rachio uses 10 years of historical ET data for your area to calculate an optimal, predictable schedule. The watering interval and duration are automatically adjusted at the beginning of each month to reflect seasonal changes.
- Flexibility: The system only runs on the "allowed watering days" you set, but it determines which of those days are necessary based on the monthly calculation.
- Weather Intelligence Compatibility: Works with Rain Skip, Freeze Skip, Wind Skip, and Saturation Skip. Seasonal Shift is automatically " baked in" to the schedule logic.
Video Overview - Flex Monthly Schedule
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3. Flex Daily Schedules
Flex Daily Schedules is the most advanced and water-efficient option, determining when to water dynamically on a zone-by-zone basis.
- How It Works: Intervals adjust daily based on real-time weather and estimated soil moisture levels. A zone waters only when its moisture level is calculated to reach its allowed depletion (MAD).
- Dynamic Nature: Since Flex Daily is dynamic, the actual watering schedule can change daily based on the latest weather data. The watering duration remains fixed, but the frequency (interval) changes.
- Watering Restrictions: Flex Daily will obey them, but it is not recommended if you cannot water 4 days or more per week.
- Weather Intelligence Compatibility: Features like Saturation Skip, Rain Skip, and Seasonal Shift are " baked in" to the schedule's dynamic calculations and cannot be turned off. You can still customize Wind Skip and Freeze Skip.
Video Overview - Flex Daily Schedule
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4. Grow-In Schedules (For New Seed/Sod)
Grow-in Schedule (formerly Hourly Interval) is designed for repetitive, frequent, light watering necessary for establishing new growth.
- How It Works: This schedule waters repeatedly throughout the day in hourly intervals (1, 2, 4, or 6 hours) within specific Start and End times you define. This keeps the topsoil moist for new seed, sod, or plants.
- When to Use: Essential for new seed, sod, or plants to ensure healthy growth and deep root development.
- Compatibility: Not compatible with Rachio Generation 1 Controllers.
- Weather Intelligence: No Weather Skip features are included, as the periodic watering is vital for new growth.
Understanding Flexible ("Flex") Schedules
Flex schedules (Flex Daily and Flex Monthly) operate on the principle of watering only when your soil truly needs it, promoting deep root growth and a more drought-tolerant landscape.
The Science: Management Allowed Depletion (MAD)
- What it is: MAD is the practice of allowing soil moisture to deplete to a managed level before watering again. This promotes deep root growth, reduces watering frequency, and ensures your lawn is watered when needed, not just on a recurring day.
- How it Works (Gas Tank Analogy): Imagine your lawn is a car's gas tank. Rachio calculates the size of the tank (your soil's water capacity). The system is programmed to refill the tank anytime it hits a certain point, typically a half tank.
- Default Refill Point: By default, Rachio sets the refill point (Allowed Depletion) at 50%. Watering deeply and only when the bucket is half empty ensures you completely refill the soil to Field Capacity (soil saturation) without wasting water on runoff.
Note
You can change the allowed depletion percentage to adjust the watering duration and interval for each zone within Advanced Settings. From the "Zones" tab, tap the zone you would like to adjust. From the zone details screen, select "Edit" and then "Advanced". You can then change the percentage of allowed depletion using the slider (default allowed depletion is set at 50%).
Moisture Levels Explained
Moisture Levels are the estimated moisture balance of each zone, recorded using Evapotranspiration (ET) data from your preferred weather station. Zone Moisture Levels and soil moisture graphs are only displayed for Zones which are part of a Schedule with Saturation Skip enabled. Flex Daily Schedules always have Saturation Skip enabled.
Accessing Data: You can view the soil moisture percentage and graph by going to the " Zones" tab, selecting the zone, and clicking on the Soil Moisture percentage.
Graph Display: The Moisture Level graph displays the percentage of moisture available in the soil.
If MAD is set to 50%, a Moisture Level reading of 50% means your lawn's "gas tank" is really 3/4 full.
- Flex Daily will always water when the Moisture Balance hits the Allowed Depletion threshold (e.g., when the moisture graph hits 50% depletion).
Manual Adjustment: On rare occasions, you can manually adjust the moisture level:
- Select " Fill" to push out watering (e.g., if you watered manually outside the schedule).
- Select " Empty" to trigger watering sooner (e.g., if the zone is dry and needs immediate water).
Runoff Limit: You will not see a moisture balance higher than 110%, even after torrential rain, as amounts above this are dismissed on account of runoff.
Data Used for Flex Schedules
To determine when your zones need to run and for how long, Flex schedules utilize specific data gathered on a zone-by-zone basis:
| Zone Configuration Data | Real-Time Weather Data (via Weather Station) |
|---|---|
| Soil Type (Available Water Capacity) | Evapotranspiration (ET) levels |
| Nozzle Precipitation Rate (Nozzle Type) | Precipitation, Minimum/Maximum Temperature |
| Managed Allowed Depletion (MAD) | Solar Radiation, Wind, and Relative Humidity |
| Crop Type (Root Zone Depth) | — |
Flex Monthly Best Practices
- Flex Monthly Schedules group zones together and recommend watering times and intervals for all zones within the schedule. Because of this, the most sensitive zone (for example, annuals) will determine the watering interval, which can result in more frequent watering overall. A simple solution is to group zones with similar vegetation types together (for example, all grass zones) and avoid mixing different vegetation types within the same schedule (such as grass and annuals).
- Flex Monthly Schedules leverage 10 year historical data to determine the watering interval, which allows for smooth transitions month over month. Saturation Skip uses real-time ET data to skip watering events, but will not delay to reschedule the skipped watering event; think of it like your car telling you that you can keep driving as long as you have "x" miles left in the tank.
- Smart Cycle might appear to work differently on Flexible Monthly Schedules pending the zones you have on the schedule. Unlike Flex Daily schedules, which could run any combination of zones on a given allowed watering day, As Needed Schedules run ALL zones in the schedule in the same watering event. Remember, Smart Cycle does not work on ANY zones that have drip nozzles.
- Flex Monthly Schedules will check the weather to see if the schedule can be skipped roughly 1 hour before the scheduled watering time. Unlike Flex Daily Schedules, the calendar will not dynamically adjust with the weather. Think of the raindrop icon on the calendar as a watering appointment that can be skipped if weather conditions allow.
- You cannot add zones to Flexible Monthly Schedules after the schedule has been created. To do this, please create a new schedule. Don't be afraid to delete and play around. Zone durations can be set to zero to "disable" a zone in an As Needed Schedule.
- Restrictions are not allowed on Flexible Monthly Schedules.
Weather Intelligence Integration
Rachio's Weather Intelligence (WI) features help conserve water by automatically skipping a scheduled run when the weather makes it unnecessary.
| WI Feature | Schedule Compatibility | Function |
|---|---|---|
| Rain Skip | Fixed, Flex Monthly | Skips watering if rain is observed or forecasted. |
| Freeze Skip | Fixed, Flex Monthly, Flex Daily | Skips watering if the temperature is forecasted to be too low. |
| Wind Skip | Fixed, Flex Monthly, Flex Daily | Skips watering if wind speeds exceed a threshold. |
| Saturation Skip | Fixed, Flex Monthly | Skips watering if the soil moisture level is already above the Management Allowed Depletion threshold (i.e., the ground is saturated). |
| Seasonal Shift | Fixed, Flex Monthly (Automatic) | Automatically adjusts watering durations (Fixed) or intervals (Flex Monthly) throughout the season based on historical weather trends. |