Terribly flawed research at Texas A&M. The researchers were called out for such poor experimental design on that smart controller study. Plus that study was done with old products, many no longer on the market.
@wfm8p, have you seen this online custom nozzle calculator that we’ve built? Additionally, this thread discusses this concept in detail.
@ar-t, yes we do – I personally have installed, maintained and repaired thousands of systems. Happy to personally chat with you or your friend over a call. If you’re interested, please schedule a call with me.
What duration were you seeing? I’d be happy to review the settings and run the numbers. Do you know what type of schedule he was using; Fixed or Flex?
Happy to follow up on his support ticket. Maybe you can direct message me his name?
We don’t enable Smart Cycle on drip zones, but the work around is to create a custom nozzle and set it as a lawn nozzle.
Yes, if you’re using a Flex Daily schedule and the weather station’s data confirms that ET for the day validates the need to water on a daily basis; i.e. allowed depletion is reached.
Sounds like a misalignment of soil and nozzle settings. Will need to review the support ticket to understand what was recommended to the user and how the system is currently configured.
@emil, if you have one emitter per plant this calculator is TOTALLY useless. Have you seen my post in another thread?
@Linn, I’ll need to visit that thread, but I respectfully disagree that the equation is useless. Drip zones and configuration vary in complexity; especially when there’s different application rates of nozzles and different counts of nozzles going to the same plant. In well designed systems, this is all considered and reflected in the layout of the system. Usually you’ll see systems over engineered with numerous zones going to specific hydrazones, or less engineered systems with zones attempting to water multiple hydrazones…sometimes with both drip and turf nozzles on the same zone! 
I’ll review your other post and offer some recommendations. Offer to schedule a call is open to anyone interested. Please remember we DO listen and read all feedback and recommendations.
1 Like
Uh, they used the controllers that were available, at the time. I personally know those guys, so I take slight exception to that.
Not that I am a fan of Aggies, in general. You would have to live in Texas to understand.
I used to live there. I understand. 
1 Like
Again, those problems are HIS problems to solve. He just asked my advice. If he wants to come forward or not is not my call. Not sure what else I can say.
My main “issue” falls along two lines. And since I am no longer in the “bidnis”, I don’t expect anyone to care, since I can not affect their bottom line.
One…
The last thing I ever wanted was for customers to screw around with the controller settings, once they were set. We made quarterly visits, to change them. (No one wanted to pay us to do it on a monthly basis, so quarterly it was.) But, some customers just had to take “advice” from some talk-show horticulturist, who knew diddly-squat about irrigation. And then complain to us when things went awry.
So, controller set, box locked, and we take the key.
This product takes the opposite approach. So, if I was still in the bidnis, I would not install any.
Two…
To make effective use of this, the customer needs to know soil type, root depth, precipitation rate and some common sense to know “Hey, this schedule looks odd.”
Hate to tell you, but a lot of irrigators don’t know a lot of that. (Sad, isn’t it?)
So, you wonder why folks ask so many “How do I…blah, blah, blah” questions.
Yes, I have now poked around a bit, and you do provide some explanations. They may seem straightforward, to us, but to your customers?
Somehow, I think not.
OK, “we” know that gpm x 96.25/area = PR. Fine.
How hard is that to add into the s/w, so a customer, if they can get the gpm, and guess the area, that the s/w does it for them? Can’t be that hard. Give them the choice: “Input PR or flow rate”. Simple suggestion. Might save some time spent with tech support or on this forum.
So, to a curmudgeon retired irrigator, this looks like a toy for the generation that is glued to their phone, and wants that to be their interface to the entire world. Fine by me. They can push buttons, and see that their water usage drops. Most will be happy, if that is their world.
But, in all my years of doing this, the customer always knows more about water conservation than the guy who does it for a living.
Even when he has one of those EPA…what is it called…“water sense” certifications.
Just like you guys do!
Might hold water (pardon the really bad pun, but it was too hard to pass on) for a product, such as yours. (It looks good on the box it comes in.)
But tell a customer that you have one…“HUH? A what? So what? So-and-so on the radio said…etc. I know he would not lie.”
No, just be wrong.
Anyway, this isn’t my fight. I am just commenting on what I have observed. That is all. My buddy can continue to…well, I am not sure what he is going to do. I suspect call me to see if I have a spare controller around.
Oh, and aside from the fact they are Aggies…
We have used a lot of those “flawed” controllers. And, yes, our empirical findings track theirs.
Sounds like a case of severe butt-hurt, by some manufacturers that made lousy products. We ditched all of them, except one, and disabled any existing “weather stations”.
But speaking of that…an anecdote, along those lines, aimed at amusing anyone who reads this…
A few years back, I did an audit, at a local Wells Fargo bank. A certain landscape company was trying to get them to “fix” the large turf zone, located in the front of the property. They needed to show them how bad it was, so time for Mr. Auditor.
And it really was bad! I think the DU was something like 32%. Which is dreadful.
Now, why would the local branch care, and why would they spend $$$$$ to have someone tear out all the rotors, and replace it with…
Drip irrigation. A dirty word, to most people.
Well, here is why:
The PTB seem to be concerned about water conservation. Hey, being from CA, I can see that. OK, fine by me.
The problem is…
They used what we call a “Crap-o-matic” smart controller. With a link back to Crap-o-matic Central.
And no one, repeat, no one, is allowed to futz with any of the settings, other than someone from Central Control.
(Anyone old enough to remember the weird TV show, The Prisoner? “Contact control…Number Six approaching restricted area!”)
So, when I submitted my report, I asked the landscape company if they ever looked at the irrigation schedule, and if it made a lick of sense to them.
The answers were “yes” and “no way in ###”, respectively.
I wished them well, if they got the contract to install drip, on getting someone to change the controller!
Texas A&M feels like a cult whenever I have visited. The place creeps me out. So glad they are out of the Big 12!
Yep. Now, we are stuck with them in the SEC.
A lot of the “ag” schools seem to have that mentality.
I refer to aTm as the “Auburn of Texas”. A cult that I am unfortunately familiar with.
Which is why I moved to Texas…
(But Auburn has a much better School of Engineering, don’tcha know…)
I, too, am going to drip and many communities such as ours are offering rebates to customers who make the change from overhead irrigation to drip. I can get a 50% rebate from the city on a controller designed for drip but I won’t buy a Rachio until they decide to go after this share of the market. This is probably why companies such as Sprinkler Warehouse don’t carry their products. Rachio is pretty much quiet on drip systems when you surf their website - that’s telling you something! I would like to get some really clear answers from them when these updates will arrive.
Rachio is the best of the bunch. The fact Rachio has no buttons on the faceplate is a deal breaker for many. But should not complain. I don’t think Skydrop has drip as setting either. Hunter Hydrawise and Rain Machine just have you set your own run times. What were people doing before smart controllers? Cannot complain.
No mention of soil, sun exposure or slope or sprinkler type.
1 Like
I have one controller that is all drip (4 zones) to water vegetable gardens and fruit trees. I have another controller that has drip zones for my xeriscape and veggie garden and a couple of zones with fixed spray heads for the lawn. Both Rachio controllers work great for me!
1 Like
It’s similar for me. I have 1 small lawn and 4 drip zones (shrubs, trees, garden and potted plants). It could be made easier to program with the software for sure, but it certainly works quite well once it’s set up. This was my proposal on how to make it better. You can follow the steps in the link today if you’d like to use Flex on your drip systems.
1 Like
I hate drip irrigation. Period.
Sunny does your drip system run off a hose bib?
No, we have dedicated systems directly connected to the water service line. That way the hose bib is available for other uses.
Hi,
I just installed a drip system, but withOUT any emitters.
Each plant is enclosed by a circle of perforated hose.
As you enhance drip scheduling, please add variables such as number of plants per zone, so that water consumption can be calculated.
Thx,
M.
1 Like
@marcfeldman
My only concern with this would be it’s difficult to estimate the usage per plant when we don’t know how much water the perforated hose is putting out…
Do you have an estimate for GPH or GPM for the perforated hose?
Hi,
According to Rainbird’s site their hose is rated at 0.9 GPH per 18 inches.
Have the user enter the drip rate rate per length and number of linear feet of emitting hose, letting them calculate circumference = Pi * D if they run circles around the base of each plant.
Thx,
M.
