No more soil moisture info without Flex

The “As Needed” schedule is missing the moisture information. You’ve taken away all the visual cues that show me how smart my Rachio device is. Why the step backwards?

A month ago I loved my Rachio, now I’m like… meh, it’s just another controller. Don’t pretend to replace Flex schedules if it’s not at least at feature parity.

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I’ll provide this feedback to the product team, we are still tracking all of that data to make decisions from run to run, just not providing a view of the detailed data. Continuing to refine the product, we are building a completely new interface and will be revisiting all these topics. Thanks again for the feedback.

:cheers:

I agree, I think it would still be nice to see the moisture graph reflect the as needed watering cycles. I understand it’s not really necessary, but it was kinda neat to visually see the theoretical moisture levels in the soil.

+1 to being able to view moisture levels, especially to see if it is in sync with observed conditions. Sometimes my soil is drying out at a much slower rate than predicted by ET and I use the manual fill option to adjust the moisture level.

Thanks @Brg468 @wx16. The product team is listening and will take all of this feedback for our next major release. Great discussions and input.

If anyone deleted flex accidentally more than willing to help you add it back. It’s not our intention to penalize anyone for using it, we are trying to converge everything into a simpler model :wink:

We will get there with your help.

:cheers:

Please leave Flex as a third schedule option. I would agree with the OP - a month ago I was over the moon, now this is looking like just another smart controller.

Flex gave the “stats-nerds” among us something fun to look at that made sense.

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Another HUGE +1 to view moisture levels!!! It was a way for me to check and see if things are working as expected in stead of taking it on totally blind faith. Like when the PWS 5 miles away from me got rain, and I got nothing. I could adjust for that.

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I’ve used 3 different “smart controllers” over the past few years - just a glutton for punishment I guess :slight_smile:

I started with a CyberRain a few years ago - it was ok but their weather models and ET calculations were goofy at best, and resulted in massive overwatering. My lawn is still recovering all these years later.

I went on to a Hydrawise - decent, but didn’t show me the “under the hood” ET and precip information I wanted.

The Rachio Flex schedule was exactly what I wanted - all there, plain as day. It is smart enough to skip and delay a single zone at a time, also what I needed.

I can understand the desire to simplify for some - but keep Flex around and call it the advanced option…or something like that.

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Thanks for the feedback. We are continuing to find the right balance and mixture of schedule types. The product team is listening.

:cheers:

+1 for keeping Flex schedules around. They are EXACTLY what I needed. As Needed feels like a real step backwards.

As a long-time product manager, I totally understand the desire to simplify the product. Take-aways are hard, though.

I’d like to keep Flex please. :slight_smile:

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Thanks for the feedback @mdadgar . I’d also like to encourage you to try out As Needed schedules and let us know what you like/don’t like so we can continue to iterate.

Fair enough. I will suspend my Flex schedule and implement an As Needed to play with.

I’ll report back. :smile:

Thanks @mdadgar! Looking forward to your report.:slight_smile:

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I like the new schedule, but I agree that it is nice to check the moisture level graph and table and be able to fill or empty it. But above all I like that I can set an “as needed” schedule and set a precise duration for watering instead of the “more” or “less” scale. That’s a huge plus in my book.

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Well, I didn’t see an official announcement yet, but I just checked my phone app and web app and I see moisture levels have returned!
:thumbsup: :grin:

Edit: Oops… spoke too soon. They are back for any zone in a flex schedule.

I totally agree, keep flex as an ‘advanced option’ for us nerds who really like to get under the covers of things. I took a bunch of time last season to gather all of information about my system/yard, percip rates, root depth, etc and really gave the Iro good data and got the system really dialed in last year that at end of the season it was water just enough to keep the lawn REALLY green and not waste water. I know a lot of users might just want to set it and forgot it and not put a lot of effort in, I get that and the desire to keep things simple. But please consider keeping / creating an advanced area for us power users and stat geeks. I true think things like the Flex schedule set you far a part from other controllers.

I also really like the moisture graphs, please do keep those in the interface even if the Flex schedules go away.

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I agree, this is a major disappointment that the soil moisture graphs are gone. How exactly am I suppose to verify the quality of the weather station data if I have no way of seeing the recent history of precip data? This may be a minor annoyance for a homeowner that only needs to check once, but as a contractor installing these over a wide area, I’m picking new weather stations all the time. Several days later I will login and check the moisture graphs and determine if a different weather station should be used.

It also appears that the new schedules continue with the tradition of assuming the zones are bone dry. So after setting up the new schedules, it has scheduled watering for tomorrow and Sunday. We’ve just had 5+" of rain the last few days. Other nearby Rachios that I have access to show watering delayed until May 1st on Flex schedules. Without the moisture graph, how am I suppose to “adjust” the moisture levels to reality? I guess I could delay the schedule starting, but that’s just a guess an date if I didn’t have other units to look at.

Do you guys have an professional irrigators doing software testing before you release updates? Anyone on the product management team with professional irrigation experience to bounce these changes off before green-lighting? Really need to decide if your customer is the homeowner DIY’er or the professional installer. This latest update appears to be a move toward the DIY’er crowd.

Thanks for the suggestions and thoughts. We do greatly appreciate it.

To be clear, moisture graphs are still available for zones that are in a flex schedule. @SmartWaterTX, are you not seeing them any longer in your app?

The graphs are available on the units I have access to that have Flex schedules setup. My complaint is that they are no longer available if you delete flex schedules or, as a contractor, I install a new unit and Flex is not available at all, which means there is no option for me to adjust the current soil moisture condition when setting up new schedules.

I could understand moving soil moisture and graph data so that it was inside the Advanced Settings tab of each zone, but removing it all together from the zone information was unnecessary.

Building on @SmartWaterTX , it would be nice if when programming new units, the initial moisture levels are estimated by loading the past 7-14 days of precipitation data from the nearest weather station. Yes, the system can’t know whether any irrigation was applied prior to setup, but at least this avoids initial overwatering in the case of very recent rains.

We also had 5"+ of rain this week, so if I installed a new unit today and programmed it, watering would be scheduled for tomorrow instead of when the unit would think water is needed starting with full moisture levels.

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