Im wondering if anyone has any helpful information on hooking rear and front yard valves to one Rachio 16?
It’s about 120’ and will connect the rear 6 valves via 7 wire roll under the house then about mid way go up into the attic and exit into the garage where the front controller is as well as WIFI access.
Seems straight forward to me but any support is welcomed!
Thank You!
If you are having concerns about the distance, don’t worry. Your situation should easily be covered.
As far as the setup, it seems you’ve already figured out a good way to do it. Feel free to run the wire along the perimeter if you wish, again the length should be within the limits.
In my answer to a similar question Jul 20th, I answered :
Using 16 gauge wire on a 400 foot run (800 feet total for 2 conductors) should be no problem. I replied in another post my current readings and voltage drop over the 800 feet and it was only about a loss of a little over 1 volt. see: Size zone wiring This was using Orbit sprinkler valves
Bob
Thank you Bob!
My 120’ runs using 18 will be just fine going by your info.
So a 120’ run plus the common is really a 240’,is this what your saying?
I run 4 separate controller boxes And 15 zones with my Rachio Gen3. Each box taps water from separate points of my water lines. The biggest issue is that Rachio doesn’t support more than one master valve which increases risks from valve failure and water loss. Such failures could be a huge water loss plus subsequent damages with our frequent absences but Rachio offers no realistic options for a fix.
4 separate control boxes,you mean 4 flow meters?
Why not just run the MV’s in series,yes they all will open when any valve is running but all master valves will stay closed when they are off.
Is this not on option?
My question was just asking about two groups of valves 120’ apart.
Adding two flow meters (when available) in each area looks supported by Rachio but the single supported MV is fishy if one controller can support two flow meters why only one MV?
You should have no problem. I did the exact same thing this summer. Put my controller in back yard, but have 2 valves in front yard right now that are manual. And wanted to add them to the system. Ran wire under home through crawl space. And out the other side to the valves (which I changed from just a manual valve to a controled valve. All works great without any issues. Your distances should be well within the limitations set forth by Rachio.