Does it matter if 2 valves are connected to the same zone in the controller. I’m planning to schedule 2 areas of yard that have separate sprinkler valves to be watered together.
I believe the biggest concern is the possibility of getting an overcurrent on that zone. Another concern could be not enough pressure. Do you not have enough zones on your Rachio to keep them separate?
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i have enough zones but not enough number of wires from the controller to the valve assembly location (its more than 60 feet away). so i was thinking to connect 2 valves to same wire coming from the controller. i’m ok with the low pressure for water flow but definitely be concerned for the high current draw
Do you know the current draw of your valves? Another option might be a sprinkler wiring doubler (I think that is a generic name for what they are called).
Thank you Thomas_Lerman for suggestion. I appreciate it. Unfortunately i don’t know the current draw. These are old rainbird sprinkler valves… Anyway, i changed my mind and decided to run new wire. some extra work would be needed but i guess its better to go this route. I have already had 3 of my rachio controllers going bad after power outages.
Okay, hopefully it is not too difficult for you. I ran more wire last year, but mine is probably easier than most.
I forgot to mention yesterday, you might consider a surge protector, UPS, or similar.
Yes you can wire multiple zones together if you’d like. If you have a master valve, you can wire 2 zones together, if you don’t, you can actually wire 3 together. I’ve done this on a couple areas of my yard that I was too lazy to re-pipe.
Like @Thomas_Lerman said, the bigger concern is making sure you have the pressure to support multiple zones at the same time.
I ran out of zones for on my Rachio 3 16-zone controller. I keep expanding my empire! Now have 18 zones. So I combined 2 sets of low flow flower bed zones. One pair of zones traverses over 200 feet of wire. No issues after a season.