I set up the watering schedule for the lawn for 15 min. see screen shot.
But history this morning says it watered for 52 minutes. How did it go from 30 min (2x15) to 52? What controls that?
because you have smart cycle enabled, after a 5 minute watering period it stops for a moment to let the ground absorb the water. this stall period is based on your soil type, etc.
@garmanmd @plainsane More on smart cycle…it is one of the best things that you can do for your lawn to help with runoff.
So is the 52 minutes elapsed time and not actual watering time then? Can you see actual watering time or just elapsed time? Sounds like a good idea, just wanted to be clear on what the data meant as I had assumed that meant duration.
the time is total elapsed time. i think it is safe to assume that the amount of time watered is what you defined in your schedule. i have not seen the ability to have the watering period shortened outside of seasonal adjustments.
@garmanmd Yes elapsed time. If you look in your history it shows each cycle duration. The soak duration is from 0 - 30 minutes. If you only have one zone in a schedule, the soak time will be 30 minutes. More than one zone than it determines if you need to have a soak time based on if the other zone durations are greater than 30 minutes. In the calendar view on mobile app also shows cycle/soak times if you zoom in 2x. Version 2.0 in May will do a better job of representing this data. 
Calendar view and History watering times appear to disagree on my setup. The watering times per zone in my calendar view display “(29m)”. My current watering time per zone is 26m, which shows correctly in the History.
Along this same note, when I first setup the IRO, my initial watering times were set to 29m. On April 20th, water budgeting was applied and I received a message that the watering times were updated from 29 to 26 minutes. On April 27th, water budgeting was applied again and I received a message that the watering times were updated from 29 to 27 minutes. Shouldn’t that have read updated from 26 to 27 minutes?
I’m assuming that this is all minor buggy stuff that you guys are cleaning up in version 2.0 or is my situation unique? Thanks
Hi @landru, hmm, that sounds a bit buggy. Could you reach out to our support team (support@rachio.com) to have your account reviewed?
Thanks, Emil
I am also having a bit of confusion on schedules. I’m evaluating the device. It is not hooked to any valves. Yet. In Sacramento area we have littler rain to interfere. But the run times do not go along with depletion data from CIMIS weather station probably next door to the one Rachio uses. The run times for the equipment programmed do not match Et depletion. And when i change from 3 days/week to 7 days/week the run times don’t change. What am I missing?
Thanks,
Doug
Hi @dhouck, good afternoon, thanks for reaching out. A few comments below:
Can you send me the CIMIS weather station ID you’re referring to? I’d like to cross reference the weather it’s reporting to the one your Iro is reporting. At this time, the schedules are created based about the water requirements of your zone attribute settings (veg type, exposure & nozzle precip rate), then on a weekly basis the Iro will apply a seasonal adjustment to account for ET.
Sorry for any confusion. At this time the watering times are static and do not dynamically change if you adjust the interval.
Our Version 2.0 release will correct both of the issues you’re experiencing. If you haven’t already, please check out Flex Schedules and let us know your thoughts.
Best, Emil
Emil, Thanks for the quick response. I have data from the Davis-Sacramento Valley-Station 6 CIMIS site. This past week ETo was about .25 inch/day with a total accumulation of 1.27. I looked at the history and see that it differed from the projected schedule for that day. I look forward to the issue of FlexScehedules.
Hi @dhouck, good afternoon.
Any chance you could PM or email me (support@rachio.com) your Rachio username for further review?
Best, Emil
emil, username is dhouck email is brass.shovel@gmail.com
i am very interested in learning about the timing. I changed the day of watering to every day and the program merely replicated the times use in 3 days to every day.
thanks
Doug
Hi @dhouck, good morning.
Thanks for your account information. I’ll pull your weather logs so we can compare them against the CIMIS site.
This is expected behavior for the watering times as they are static and do not change with updates to the zone or watering time settings after the initial watering times are created. We’re working on fixing this. In the mean time, we’ll need to manually override the zone durations to account for changes to interval.
Hope this helps.
Best, Emil
Emil, When I look at history or read the notification after a scheduled watering they seem to go along with what it said it would do. i did change the times to very low duration and would expect that it would adjust for conditions. What am I missing?
I’ve been installing controllers, with weather stations, as a contractor, and am familiar with run times and et programming.
Doug
Hi @dhouck, good afternoon.
Could you elaborate a bit on the adjustment you’re expecting that isn’t taking place? The Iro will make recommendations per the zone attributes. Any changes made to the watering times override the Iro’s recommendations and will not automatically adjust.
Perhaps you could let me which controllers you typically install and I can compare and contrast how the programming is different.
Best, Emil
Emil, Thanks for your responses. I’ve been observing the operations over the last 10 days or so. What I’ve noticed and am interested in knowing is how often it changes durations. For Instance, when I select every 3 days it waters X minutes, then a few days later I change to every day it is X again. The duration is close to what Et for this area is but I’m concerned that it will over water. I am looking at the History to get what happened rather than what it shows it proposes to do off the calendar screen.
I have been installing Weathermatic SL 1600 with both their wired or wireless weather stations.
Thanks,
Doug Houck
Brass Shovel Landscape
@dhouck, good evening. Currently, using the 1.8.x version of the app, the watering times are static and do not change once they are created. Any adjustments made to the watering intervals will need a manual override to change the watering durations.
However, watering times will soon become dynamic and change on a daily basis. With our v2.0 release, we’ll be adding Flex schedules, which will water as needed (using user imposed restrictions). Each zone will have it’s own “bank account” that will increase with “deposits” (watering events, rainfall, etc) and decrease with “withdrawals” (evaporation, wind, etc). A minimum and maximum budget for each zone will be set and the water level will automatically be kept within this budget given watering rules you set. Think of it as automated watering times with real time, seasonal adjustments on a daily basis.
If your calendar screen and history do not match, could you please send us screenshots to review? Please email them to support@rachio.com
Just curious, how does the Iro compare?
Thanks again for reaching out.
Best, Emil
Emil, Thanks for the reply.
Currently, using the 1.8.x version of the app, the watering times are static and do not change once they are created. Any adjustments made to the watering intervals will need a manual override to change the watering durations.
I will await the new version. That will mirror the performance of the Weathermatic equipment. So the way Iro works now to generate durations is by the parameters during setup? It is only affected by rainfall?
If your calendar screen and history do not match, could you please send us screenshots to review? Please email them to support@rachio.com
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They do match. But I am learning that the Flex Schedule version will address this.
Thanks,
Doug
Brass Shovel Landscape
Davis, CA
@dhouck, yes that’s correct. If [zone] parameters are changed after the watering times are made, the watering times do not update.
Watering times can be affected by any combination of our smart features (if enabled):
- Smart Cycle (automated cycle/soak durations based upon nozzle, soil and slope settings)
- Water Budgeting (ET adjustments for changes in weather once a week)
- Weather Intelligence (automated rain delays/skipped schedules based upon observed and forecasted rain fall)
Let me know if you have any other questions or concerns we can help with.
Best, Emil