Schedule fine-tuning

New user - just installed my Iro controller last weekend just in time to winterize it for the year, and I have to say that the installation and initial setup went amazingly well. No hitches at all other than having a bad connection on one of the common lines. Once that was corrected everything is working as expected.

We’re many months away from actually needing this, but in looking at the scheduling options, I’m not clear on a couple of issues.

First, I like the Smart Cycle watering - one of the reasons I invested in the Iro controller. However, the properties of each zone allow for topsoil, sand and clay. Our lot is about 8"-12" of topsoil over sand. Water soaks into the soil very quickly and the soil dries out quickly when we have a dry spell, and I’m not sure if any of the three are accurate. I’m thinking that “Sandy loam” a seen on the Smart Cycle page on this site would be more accurate, but that’s not an option.

Second, I’ve designed our sprinkler layout so that if we run into a period of dry weather, I can continue to water the gardens when things get dry, but allow the lawn to get a little dry and go dormant. We’re not the least bit fussy about the lawn (evidenced by the crabgrass and violets in the lawn), but we spend a lot of time and money on the gardens, so I’m trying to keep them looking good without having to face that huge water bill every fall.

Is it possible to vary the watering schedule, giving more attention to the gardens (which I identified as “perennials” in the app) than the lawn?

I can see that I can adjust watering times for an entire schedule, but not for individual zones, or categories of zones. I suppose I could create two schedules, one for the lawn areas, and a second for the gardens, and then manually adjust the watering time for the lawn schedule if we get into a dry spell, but it would be nice if the Smart Cycle could be told about our preferences for this schedule and prevent it from working too aggressively to combat the dry conditions in the lawn areas. Maybe the correct approach is to put the lawns on a separate schedule, and adjust of the Weather Intelligence sensitivity?

Thanks!

@ssawyer‌ Welcome aboard! We are adding a lot more options in regards to zone characteristics.

The 1.7 release will be available this week, waiting for Apple approval :slight_smile:

http://www.support.rach.io/article/258-version-1-7-new-features

Smart Cycle is way more dialed in now after this release:

http://www.support.rach.io/article/98-smart-cycle-faq

Regarding watering times, you can create as many as you like to ‘fine tune’ for watering your garden.

I would create at least two separate schedules, and for the non-garden schedule I would definitely leverage Weather Intelligence (rain delay) and Water Budgeting.

http://www.support.rach.io/article/233-waterbudget
http://www.support.rach.io/article/101-weather-intelligence-faq

By the time you start using the Iro again we will have a ton more water savings feedback, charts, etc.

Please let us know if you have any more questions or feedback. Thanks!