Help me understand the logic in the Rachio

So I am set for flex daily schedule and have a local weather station KALB.

In some of my zones (one in particular) I see moisture levels going all over the place and it’s not even rained and there has been no irrigation. I’ve been watching one zone that was way low… 10-15% on moisture so it was scheduled to run the next day (which was this morning). However, it never was. The moisture level then shot up to 90%… so watering was skipped… (I guess)

It looks like it’s forecasting .29 inch of rain? That’s whats under the moisture detail for flex daily irrigation. Ok so maybe we get some rain, but I have two questions…

  1. What if the forecast is wrong and we get no rain? When does that get corrected, and how?

  2. Why do I only see this forecast in ONE zone and not my other zones which are showing 15-20% moisture now?

The logic seems really off and I’m seeing my turf dry up. I’m assuming the other zones now showing 15-20% will water in the morning as they are scheduled to do, but now I have this one zone saying it’s 90% even though we’ve got no rain… so I’m assuming that will be skipped, but it’s real moisture level is probably 15-20% as well.

Hi Robert,

Would you mind DM’ing me your username or email address for the account? Alternatively screenshots are always great so we can see exactly what you’re seeing.

Our Rachio controller is reliant on the weather data being received from our third-party provider, Aeris, a global weather data source. In turn Aeris receives the information directly reported from the weather station.

If you’re finding that the weather forecast does not align with what your region is actually experiencing, I recommend revisiting your selection of weather stations and looking into nearby Personal Weather Stations (PWS). There may be a weather station closer to you with more accurate data.

If the data itself is incorrect, we’d need to open an investigation with Aeris.

Regarding your 2nd question, I am going to withhold and wait for the requested information above so I can directly analyze your account. The forecast data should be applied to all zones, however your individual zones may have different moisture balances and needs based off how you’ve configured them.

Hey Robert, so after your reviewing your account it would appear to me that your Flex schedule is operating as expected. Here is a snapshot of your Zone 6 moisture graph:

As you can see, your Zone tracked & allowed your moisture balance to reach 11% before scheduling a watering for the next day. It also looks like you manually emptied the zone.

Please note that your Flex Daily watering schedule is more of a forecast as your Rachio will track your moisture balance on a Daily basis and adjust accordingly. This means that if weather conditions change within the 24hr window of your scheduled watering, it’s possible that your schedule may intelligently decide to push back the watering until needed.

Have you continued to experience any further ‘abnormal’ weather over the extended weekend? While I did not observe any wildly fluctuating moisture levels, if you witness something you believe to be abnormal again I might recommend capturing some screenshots.

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