There used to be a way to manually adjust a watering schedule by percentage based on what I see the grass needing. Sometimes we go through droughts (like now) where I need to water 115% or so of the normal watering times because temperatures have been in the mid 90s, RHs at 15%, and winds gusting to 25mph. This feature has been taken away and it’s been frustrating for me trying to work around it. Please can it be added back?
2 Likes
It could be you need to consider changing your landscape plant materials. For example, if you have fescue take it out and plant Bermuda or ground cover or better adapted plants. It’s an endless battle fighting this when the plants are not right for the site. Just my idea.
My Kentucky Bluegrass lawn is very well suited for the climate here. But every so often there are long periods of hot dry weather. What I need is Rachio to finally put back this basic feature that even non-smart controllers all have. It’s been requested by other members ever since they removed it. I don’t understand why that decision was made.
@alexlc13 Good to hear from you. You can still change the watering durations of any schedule if you like by adjusting the minutes.
Have a great day!
Adjusting the minutes doesn’t work. Some of my zones run a lot longer than others. Let’s say I have zone 1 running for 20 minutes and zone 2 that runs for 50 minutes. By increasing each zone by a blanket ten minutes, I get a 50% increase in watering zone 1 and a 20% increase in watering zone 2. That will waste water in some zones and under-water in others. Increasing by percentage is the answer, not minutes.
1 Like
I strongly agree with, and also need this improvement. My 15 year old Hunter controller had this (10%-150%) and it is very handy to PROPORTIONALLY increase for very hot/dry spells and decrease for cold/cloudy weather and new grass seeding.
1 Like
I had a similar problem. I was having dry areas and was using the default precipitation of 1 inch per hour for rotors. This is too high. Check the nozzle output in manufacturer spec charts… A smart controller wont fix a bad system or one that needs a tune-up.
Check all zones. Are all the rotors or sprays operating correctly? Do you have uniform coverage? Do you have high or low pressure? Are mature shrubs blocking your sprinklers. If you are talking about rotors, check the manufacturer charts. I have Toro T5P-Rapid Set rotors. Their precipitation rate is .5 inch per hour. So i created a custom rotor. No more problems.
2 Likes
Has this been resolved and I cannot find it? Like MichaelD my old dumb Rainbird controller had a simple way to adjust all of the durations of a schedule by a percent (example +15%). Rachio also had that when I bought it. Is there anyway to do this today?
1 Like
Hey @MattS-
Our Seasonal Shift feature adjusts your schedule monthly to compensate for weather changes. For a manual adjustment on your schedule, you can add minutes to all of your zones by editing a schedule, however there is no percentage adjustment.
McKynzee 
Listen to your customers. Adjusting by minutes doesn’t make any sense. It needs to be by percentage. Even “franz” agreed a year ago. Adjusting by percentage is such a basic functionality of any irrigation system that Rachio should be embarrassed by not having this feature (even worse - Rachio used to have this feature, but a couple years ago or so replaced it with the current useless format).
2 Likes
I’ve had a rachio for 3 years. I liked it so much after the first year I upgraded from a Gen 1 to Gen 2 and gave my dad the Gen 1. That first year I recommended Rachio to many people. I gave it a 5 star review on Amazon.
Then Rachio took away the percentage adjustment feature and it has been a hassle ever since. We have been having an extra hot summer and my lawn has been dry. Two weeks ago I adjusted each zone by +15%, but since rachio isn’t “smart” enough to do that I had to calculate the 15% for each zone individually and then adjust every zone individually. Today, my entire lawn is dry again and I need to go through the whole process again. This sucks. I’m about ready to give up on rachio because of this one feature (or lack of feature). Very frustrating.
2 Likes
I give up. It has been 3 years since they took away the ability to adjust a schedule by a percentage. I’m so frustrated with my rachio. It drives me nuts that once again my entire lawn is dry, but I can’t just increase the watering duration by 15%. I give up. Any suggestions of a good alternative? Thanks.
I agree. @mitchell @mckynzee This was removed to reduce complexity but actually added complexity. It feels like an easier way to reduce or increase across all zones with something that is more measurable than minutes.
1 Like
@franz, I was encouraged by your comment last year about an easier way to adjust all zones. Any update on this? Is this feature planned for this year? Thanks.
1 Like
Thanks for bringing this up again. Three years ago this issue was brought up. I hope this is the year they finally bring back the ability for percentage-based seasonal adjustments.
1 Like
I agree with those here requesting manual control of seasonal adjustment %. Please bring it back.
Thank you.
Unfortunately not on the roadmap for this season. Some big announcements will be coming out this Spring, stay tuned!
1 Like