Question before I buy

Greetings.
I have heard some good things about Rachio, but also some not-so-good things.
Be that as it may, I have some questions that I would like addressed before I purchase a unit.
I am looking to purchase a 2nd Gen, 8-station unit

• Can I create an automatic watering schedule that DOES NOT rely on weather forecasts?
• Can I create an automatic schedule that will run ALL zones at the specified times and days, but also run one or two of those zones at different times and days?
• Do I HAVE to perform all the rigmarole specifying plants, soil, coverage, etc. I have so many mixed conditions, there would be NO WAY to input that information to be of any practical use.
• We are under water rationing and relegated to two days per week. Is there a way to block out days of the week?
• Can I create more than one schedule? eg Manual Seasonal, run once, etc. and save them to load and run at will?
• Can I “snooze” a pending schedule for certain period of time? eg, hours, days, etc.

I just want a system that I can program to run at specific times and days, and be able to easily and wirelessly adjust and re-schedule, and run manually if need be, in an app and web site.

Yes

So, you can create fixed schedules to run any combination of zones. You can not create a single schedule to run multiple times a day, instead you have to create multiple schedules.

No but if you want accurate water usage estimates the you need a correct percipitation rate. If you don’t want water runoff the you need reasonable soil type and accurate percipitation rate.

Fixed can be run on day of week (mon, tue … Sun) or odd even days. There are some,scheduling enhancements in the works but I don’t know what.

Yes, I think 8 or 16, can’t remember. You can not select a schedule and manually run it…for now, the ability to do so is in the back log.

You can snooze the controller for number of days.

It sounds like you are just looking for a dumb timer connected to the net, rachio can do that well. I’ll add a few more things., ou can attach a rain sensor, a flow meter and a master valve (and control a pump). There is ifttt integration which allows for some additional,automation, like a temperature trigger syringing, email alerts, triggering schedules off of google calendars and many more. I personally have one to disable my system for 24 hours if my rain sensor trips.

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You CAN select a schedule and run it manually. I have a fixed schedule that I just did that with today.

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Sweet, I have not used a fixed schedule in almost 2 seasons so I’m very rusty there…thanx for the correction…

Thanks for the replies…
That’s all good info.
“Dumb” is not exactly the descriptor I would apply to the type of system I am in search of. “Flexible” and “User-Friendly” and “Delivers what it promises” would probably be more accurate. While it’s nice to know all those “bells and whistles” are available, my situation would not necessarily benefit from all that.
I have had my own experience, and fill of, wifi enabled, programmable systems that offer all kinds of “extras” and fail to deliver the “dumb” basics. Miserably. Ergo, my list of questions.
I have been hopelessly frustrated by wifi systems that fail to connect, or connect and seem to work fine for a while… until we have a brown-out or complete loss of power, and find that the controller needs to be completely re-configured because it did not keep the scheduled program or the wifi credentials. An hour or two later, I am back to working.
Believe me when I tell you, this is not my first rodeo when it comes to these products that promise a gilded lilly only to discover a stink-weed.
I have read many reviews that, on one hand praise Rachio Iro, and almost an equal number with horror stories that give me pause.
Again, thank you folks for your replies. Hopefully I will get more. I will continue to look into this.
You have been helpful.

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No I hear ya and mean no insult. I mean dumb as in no frills standard turn of turn off when explicitly instructed to.

I’m not promising a,panacea but the iro is very robust in the wifi department as long as you have a properly configured network. I mean, do not have your 2.4 and 5 ghz bands sitting on the same ssid.

I bounce my antennas every single night so the iro gets good ongoing testing from dropped/reemerging wifi networks.

I will say this, at some,time, if you are watering turf, and you get an iro, let us help you set up a flex daily a turf zone. It’s a real work of art/science.

If you are on fixed,schedule, the iro will do pretty well if it is not connected to the Internet, BUT I mean that it has to be connected to receive the schedules, after that it will run the fixed,schedule, so it is brown out robust in this area too.