@franz - Thank you for your candid transparency. I understand fully the effort I worked as a software developer for many years. I have decided to continue with my install of 3 - g3 controllers, 1 is up and running now. The other two will require testing of common wires first before I put the remaining two on line. I am going to install 3 - wireless flow meters, each operated separately by one controller - see here:
I made a drawing of how I want to install them. I will place the flow meters in a 14x21 irrigation box, then in the same size box along side I will install the master valves. The layout of the boxes will give me at a minimum 16" between the master valves and flow meters and on the tail end 16" to a tee back to my current system. Any thoughts or advise would be greatly appreciated. I will take photos when installed, “waiting for my 3 flow meters” .
@emil - I have 40 live right now with another 8 coming on next year. These remaining eight are plumbed with 8 zones for a raised garden area which could be broken down to more if I have more than 8 boxes. I have all 3 G3 controllers running with only one Rachio controller running 15 zones. Two lawn areas and the wiring is very well laid with correct commons. The reason I have so many zones is that I made sure my max GPM per zone would not be too low. I do however have 2-3 zones that I run for shrubs and trees “bubblers” that may be over maxed out. All plumbing is 1" running fairly close to the spray heads and bubblers then 3/4" to the actual head. No funny pipe or poly.
@franz@emil - I have 15 zones “all lawn” live on Rachio G3, the other 25 I am working on testing wires and making sure all is ok before I hook into the other 2 - Rachio G3 that I have. All three on plugged in and showing up on the app. I have pictures attached to my attached zones “Rachio-2982C2”. Once all 42 zones are hooked into the Rachio G3 controllers and running smoothly I will start the process to hook up the flow meters (have not arrived yet). I will start prep work on the boxes they will go in and other work that needs to be done. I will have to run new wires to the controllers for the master valves. Cutting a little concrete to get to the building. I am just obtaining parts and planning out the configuration. I hope I answered your question
@emil, @franz Looking at the underground instructions for the wireless flowmeter, my layout will still work with the additional fittings required. My question is - when I pair a flow meter is it paired to the controller I have selcected in the Rachio app. If so can I switch controllers and pair the next flow meter and then on to the 3rd and last in my case.
Please let me know. @jsore
Yes, thought about this design - however, if two controllers run at the same time, two valves are open. Then you do have no idea how much water hits each zone on each controller individually. With same sized valves/pipes, you would just see 50% of the total flow, but not which zone gets what.
I did a similar system with only 1 master valve and 3 WFM but they were inline. Each controller runs to the same valve but each one has a diode which protects the integrity of each common on each system but share 1 master valve. The flow meters go inline in a series set up since a parallel set up would cause an inaccurate flow reading per flow meter.
Yours makes sense and only costs a few dollars more to make it happen.
I have 30 stations and must use 2 Rachio Gen3 controllers. I am installing Wireless Flow Sensors (WFS). Should I mount these in parallel with each WFS having its own master valve (as the original poster proposed)? Or should I mount them in-line with only 1 master valve (as spscoutenPhD stated)? If do mount the 2 WFS in-line, how much pipe do I need to have between each WFS? In my set-up, the line will be horizontal.
For me, getting accurate water usage measurements is the most important for me.
@JimBobSD - I’d install the Wireless Flow Meters in parallel with their own master valve. More of a KISS approach. That way if Rachio checks the inactive Wireless Flow Meter for usage (leak) it won’t be a false alarm.
