Rachio Missing Opportunity in New Home Market

I really like my Rachio Gen 2. I have WIFI at my house. Unfortunately, if a home builder or irrigation contractor wanted to install these controllers at vacant homes there is no easy way for a contractor to set up manual watering for landscapeople establishment. Need a landscape establishment feature with more buttons like dumb controllers. Then, when the homeowner moves in and gets wifI they can then program with the Rachio app. Does this make sense? Need to get the word out to builders and contractors. The big irrigation manufacturers are so far behind it is embarrassing.

@robertokc. Although I agree with what you’re pointing out, I kind of like the lack of buttons on my controller. My landscapes were constantly changing my schedule on me and it drove me crazy. When I installed the Rachio that stopped! Of course the first time afterward that the landscape came out, I found my system wasn’t watering for a week. It turns out he wanted to disable watering while he was there. He couldn’t do it on the Iro, so he shut off the water supply with the manual supply valve and forgot to turn it back on before he left!

I guess with buttons I’d just put a lock on the box, no big deal. I just found it a bit comical to think of what he thought when he saw a slick white box with just a button and some cool LEDs.

Hi. No I am referring for a new install at a home before someone moves into the home. These idiots will keep installing dumb controllers. Trying to find a temporary way to get the system going until the homeowner moves in and establishes Internet. Do you get my point

Definitely. I could see it being an obstacle for new neighborhoods.

@azdavidr @robertokc Is this similar to what you are suggesting?

Limited schedules that work without WiFi.

:cheers:

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@franz. Unfortunately I’m not sure that would work too well in Arizona, unless I’m missing something. For everything but turf the installations tend to be drip systems here, with much longer run times. Maybe it’s suited for other areas of the country?

Thanks for the ideas. Are you saying the issue here would only be that the Limited Schedules aren’t suited for Arizona?

@benblackmer In my limited opinion. Those that are aware of contractor needs may have opinions regarding other aspects. It seems to me that the preset setup that you have would be a good non-WiFi starting point, but for desert climates the durations don’t work, and maybe a once-a-week option would be good. I don’t recall the buttons, if any, on the face plate, but giving the ability to increase or decrease durations manually might also be nice. On the other hand given that there isn’t a display to show the resulting run times that might be a bit dangerous.

Yep that would work. I understand the process, but I seriously doubt the average contractor could do this. They are so obsessed with Rain Bird and Hunter products here in Oklahoma City.

I don’t see a lot of builders spending $250 on a sprinkler controller. Unless the buyer specified it at contract time (which almost no one will…too many other things to think about) the builder will put in the cheapest times they can find.

Home builders advertise their homes as Energy Star homes, so why not build on that and get on the smart irrigation bandwagon. Builders for many years had special deals from HydroPoint, the first company to come out with a smart controller (they are no longer in the residential market), so I don’t see any builder or con tractor paying retail price. Builders can sell Rachio as an upgrade. When a buyer is rolling all of this into a mortgage payment, the added cost is peanuts.

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