I’ve currently got 7 zones - 3 lawn (much larger back yard is split into two zones), and 4 trees / shrubs / roses. I put all the plant zones onto a daily flex schedule (I’m in Fresno, CA, we have day and time restrictions for watering, my days are Sunday and Wednesday), but I have a quandary with my lawn zones. I generally water early in the morning (before daylight, watering must be completed by 9am), but our gardening service occurs on Wednesdays. So I water my lawn on Wednesdays after 8pm, after they’ve mowed.
If our restrictions hold steady, on November 1, we’ll cut back to one day / week watering (Sunday for me), so the Wednesday issue will disappear, but I am trying to use the Rachio for all its benefits. My non-lawn zones look better than ever (almost 5 years in the same house), but I wanted to switch my lawn to as much flexible scheduling as possible, so I have the lawn on a Sunday morning flex, and a Wednesday afternoon fixed.
My issues / questions - The Wednesday afternoon fixed smart cycles, but the Sunday morning flex waters longer, yet doesn’t smart cycle. Also, will the fixed watering be accounted for in the moisture level for the alternate flex cycle? If not, do I just have the lawn on two separate fixed schedules during the Summer, then go to a flex cycle in the Winter?
Thanks for all the support.
The ideal solution would be to water early enough so that it is complete well before your gardening service on Wednesday. Then you would use just one Flex Daily schedule with Sunday/Wednesday watering days. This is what I do since I have the same issue. But my service comes about noon, so maybe more time for the lawn to dry out. I water starting at 4am. (Southern California, so maybe a little more mild climate than Fresno.)
But what you are doing will work, if not ideal. (Aside: it is interesting that uninformed watering restrictions will now, with smart controllers, cause us to use more water, not save water.) The moisture calculations will include both waterings and the Flex Daily will skip watering if it thinks it can make it until the next Sunday. Unfortunately the pending fixed cycle is not taken in account in this projection–something the Rachio team might want to consider. I have a garden on Flex Daily that I have added plants to, so I give it an extra 3 minute FIxed run in the afternoon for the new plantings. It works fine for that.
You should be able to use smart cycle on your Flex Daily schedule. Check to be sure it is enabled and that your “slope” settings are correct. Our watering restrictions limit us to 10 minutes per zone. I have interpreted this to mean per zone per watering and have set my slopes artificially to insure that the 10 minute run is not exceeded.
Thanks for your reply. My flex zones are in so much better shape, I’m just going to switch my lawn over to flex only as well. I’m going to try mornings for the lawn, but I’m going to keep them on a different schedule, in case I decide to move that schedule to late at night.