I believe it does for the real time clock .
So to truly cut power to the valve I need to disconnect the lead to that particular zone, not just pull the plug from the wall or wall converter. Would that be correct?
The clock battery can’t get to the valve. Unplugging the unit will disconnect the power.
Orbit, though every valve is using the same essential tech. Even within solenoids which hide their plungers (like rainbird), you’ll find the spring connected to the plunger.
I installed a CST FSI Flow Sensor. It was pretty much a pain to install. I had to add another enclosure box to house the sensor and running the wire wasn’t a picnic because my main water supply line for the irrigation system was a good distance from my Rachio. That being said, it has worked like a champ and was well worth the effort to install it.
My $.02
@jbasen
I have been looking at this one, since it is one of the few models that Rachio has support for. Are you able to use the high-flow auto-shutoff feature with that?
Is that something in the new G3 models?
I’m using the CST FSI flow sensor with my gen 2 Rachio. It fully supports high-flow monitoring and allows you to optionally turn on auto-shutoff on a zone by zone basis.
When I was looking the best pricing I found was at Sprinkler Warehouse -
Make sure you get the proper shielded wire for connecting it to the Rachio. I remember getting some on eBay for a decent price. If you have to go a long distance, like I did, a Worx electric edger/trencher is an easy way to cut a shallow groove in your lawn to bury the wire. Much easier than trying to use a shovel and the grass will quickly grow over and hide the trench.
Hope this helps
So you’re saying the Rachio shuts off the zone—essentially the same way it would do when a run completes—as opposed to sending a signal to the flow sensor to stop flow in the main line. Is that correct?
In my application I am concerned about a faulty or blocked zone valve that fails to respond to a shut-off signal. (Technically fails to close when the signal to stay-open is stopped.) As such I’m looking for a mainline smart valve which would give me both flow and closure capabilities. Similar to the Moen or floLogic smart valves, but compatible with the Rachio device (and hopefully a lot less expensive).
Correct. It just works through the rachio to shut down the zone valve when it detects a leak in that zone.
To control a valve that would shut down flow to the entire irrigation system you might look at whether the leak is reported through the Rachio API or the IFTTT service and tie that to control of a separate valve.
I’ll look into that. Thanks!
I installed a new Rachio 3 and wireless flow meter last April 2019. Why was the wireless flow meter discontinued? Seems like a really good product…
What options are available to monitor water flow if not by the wireless brand. Thanks.
Yeah, good product, just didn’t fit into our long term strategy.
I don’t really follow that world too closely, we do support a variety of wired Toro, CST, and Badger meters.
Thanks franz…
You mentioned that you do not follow the world of wired flow meters and have now discontinued the wireless flow meter that was being sold by Rachio and which I chose to integrate into my system last year. How then is flow rate calculated and without a flow meter wired or wireless how does the controller know when the low flow and high flow set points are hit. Can each zone be calibrated and high/low flow limits set for automatic shutoff without some sort of physical flow meter? Thanks in advance for a reply…
For flow rate without meters we estimate based on zone size and nozzle rate. We do not have high/low settings or shutoff without a wireless/wired flow meter.
This is a major bummer! Will support continue to be provided for the foreseeable future? If so I’m going to buy up a few as spares.
Ewing still has a couple of the Wireless Flow Meters in stock.
I grabbed myself one because I want more accurate measuring of my water consumption per zone. I think they probably had some manufacturing issues with it, which is why it was discontinued.
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No manufacturing issues, just not aligned with our long term business strategy.