I currently have a fixed schedule that waters twice a week (Tues/Sat) due to city watering restrictions. I also have it set to not water if .25 inches of rain is forecasted. We have recently gotten rain on and off and my zone’s were all around 80% of their moisture level. This week we had .2 inches forecasted and normally this would have still watered the zones because it did not go over the threshold. However I was under the impression that the zone moisture balance would also be taken into consideration with the forecast and prevented a watering however after opening a ticket with support I was informed that moisture balance is only included in the calculations for flex schedule.
That being said, I am now curious as to why zone moisture isn’t also taken into consideration for fixed schedules?
I would recommend switching to flex schedules. To my understanding, fixed schedules do not look at the moisture balance and only at accumulation totals since last watering. @emil or @franz needs to confirm this, but I have been using flex schedules since the beta and I love them. The best thing to happen to irrigation controllers since electricity!
Also, I’ll take a shot at the last question. Fixed schedules are for the old schoolers that don’t believe in big data. So if you want a controller that is remote capable but do not care about new fangled gizmo widgets, rachio accommodates you with fixed schedules. If you are generation data, flex schedules provides more efficiency at the expense of somewhat opaque behavior.
As I stated, I would try flex schedules, you may need to tweak your zone attributes a touch, maybe not, but I have been so dang happy with my “dj flex master mow” schedule. It’s spot on…
Correct, moisture level is only used in flex. For fixed, we do have a virtual rain sensor (weather intelligence) and weekly adjustments. The virtual rain sensor is fairly sophisticated in that not only does it look at today/tomorrow but will also look at significant rain events for the week, to make sure you didn’t get 2 inches of rain a day or so ago.
Incoporating soil moisture would be very difficult while incorporating all of those other features.
For next Spring, we will be doing a major release to simplify a lot of things, including adjusting flex schedules if they need fine tuning. Currently, if you want to adjust the frequency (duration is really easy to adjust) there is a bit of a learning curve.
@Striker169, since you’re in an area with a restriction, would having the ability to skip the Fixed schedule if ANY rain is forecasted help? We can utilize an IFTTT recipe to automate a rain delay anytime rain is forecasted.
Flex schedules work best when they can run whenever needed (one or two black out days a week is okay), but in areas with restrictions, Fixed schedules are recommended to comply with both the schedule and watering duration limitations.
