Home | Support | Status Page

Best way to schedule Automower and Rachio?

Lawn Nerds
#1

Our town has permanent odd/even watering restrictions in place and they cannot run from 6AM to 6PM.

With that in mind, what advice can everyone give me on how to schedule the sprinklers and the mower for the best health of the grass. I am torn on when to run the sprinklers mostly. If I run them in the AM, then the mower isn’t cutting the grass while wet (mower mostly runs overnight), but the moisture likely burns off during the day. If I run the sprinklers in the evening, then my mower is cutting the grass wet.
If I run the mower during the day, then the grass is getting cut when it is the hottest out. Thoughts?

Rachio: Sprinkler is currently running for ~50 minutes on odd days after sunset.

Automower: Currently runs from 10PM to 6AM every weekday, then all day Sat and Sunday (yard is 0.5acres) except for late afternoon.

#2

I feel like the easy answer is mow when your sprinklers can’t run. Can you let us know why the mower runs daily? Sprinklers should run and end before sunrise on the days you can run. It’ll give the most chance to soak in and your mower won’t run on wet grass.

1 Like
#3

If you water “into” night the water has time to “sit” on the grass and promote mold. Landscapers and landscape architects generally recommend watering in the morning from about 4:00 am -7:00 am. The next best thing is to run so that it finishes by sunup. Smart Daily can do this without a problem and leave your lawn least likely to develop mold. So, instead of watering “after sunset into the darkness”, it’s better to water “into the light of day”.

Water AM, mow evenings. Make sure mowing is finished before watering begins.

1 Like
#4

So the mower uses razor blades to trim a tiny bit of grass every pass and the blade width is only about 9" wide. The mower also runs in a random pattern so it needs to run every day for ~9hrs to ensure full yard coverage.

I can switch to have the mower stop by 4AM so that the sprinkler system can finish by the 6AM required stop time.

Thanks for the help!