Love this suggestion.
Ever since joining this community and buying my Rachio, I’ve wished I could specify how many heads were in each zone. Haven’t read through the entire thread yet but I’m glad you suggested it.
Best Regards,
Phil
I recently had to install new main lines for my back yard due to a tree being planted over the lines decades ago. I found one zone that had 8 heads on it still under performing. After many hours of researching Rain Birds site, I found their flow/coverage charts. Taking the nozzles from U15’s to MPR12’s (calculated by head spacing), I was able to reduce the consumption by roughly 8 gpm. So, being able to add the amount of nozzles per zone and flow rates would be very helpful. Also, Rain Bird actually gives you flow rates for different PSI’s (dynamic pressure). Dynamic pressure is easy to read by hooking up a gauge to your spigot, turn on the system, and voila, a dynamic pressure is read. Interestingly enough, the difference between a 12’ and 15’ nozzle does not change the PR, but does change the flow rate by 1 gpm. This would be nice data to be able to input into the app for increased accuracy.
BTW, my local irrigation company suggested to leave the set screw flow controls wide open on the nozzles. If you have the right spacing and nozzle, no need to adjust.
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I think number of nozzles would probably just make the system more complicated than it already is. How are the vast majority of users going to calculate the flow rate on a single head? Most don’t even know what model # their heads are. If anything they need a casual user interface and a irrigation expert interface. I can see already that there’s far more to it than I anticipated, but I’m somewhat of a techie (my profile pic is ironic) and I’ll figure it out. Seriously, how many systems even use flow meters. I’m wiling to bet that most people that install this unit are (like me) upgrading their old dumb systems just for the smart watering feature based on weather. My system will run for the first time tonight since I installed it 6 weeks ago because of all the rain we’ve had. I haven’t had to turn the system on and off over and over again like I have in the past because of forecast rain. I love it, but most people have no idea what the flow rate on a zone is. I assure you the casual user setup would be used by the vast majority. For the most part number of heads are really irrelevant. What’s relevant is the amount of water being used per minute over a set area for the zone. That’s what calculates X inches of water. The casual user just wants a button that says this zone is getting too much water or not enough. I feel like all the requests for more features are coming from irrigation professionals just to create job security. 
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