We installed our Flow Meter and I’ve been able to successfully calibrate every zone except the last one which is for the drip system for the garden. Each time I try to calibrate it I get an error message saying it has a high flow of over 25 gpm but there are no leaks. (Note: I had this happen in another zone but I recalibrated and it then worked fine.)
Help?
@kmac188 - try increasing the pressurize time under More/Controller Settings/Flow Settings.
Do you know about what the flow rate should be for that zone? Is it more than 25 GPM?
@DLane - thanks for the quick response! I do not know what the flow rate should be for that zone. Not sure how I would figure that out? We had 9 zones and had to consolidate the two garden zones into one to match the number of zones on the Rachio. Essentially this zone waters garden beds around the perimeter of about 1/3 acre.
I tried doubling the pressurize time from 2 mins to 4 mins and I still get the same error. Oddly, when I watch the calibration it fluctuates wildly from 0 to just above 1 gpm
Got any other thoughts?
p.s. When I say “waters” I mean drips and soaker hoses.
@kmac188 - If the number and emission rate of the emitters is known then I think it is a math formula.
number of emitters * rate in GPH / 60 minutes per hour = GPM
So 100 * .5 GPH / 60 MPH = .833 GPM
I think there are minimum and maximum flow rates that the flow meter can detect.
One could also go to the water meter, if it is accessible and not on a well, take a reading, run the zone for a minute (or more) and take a new reading to see what the flow is.
Thanks again @DLane. I suspect I’m just going to have to live without the flowmeter on this zone
I’m still struggling with this, too. Here is a work around:
On Gen 3 you can manually set the expected flow:
Zone; Edit; Flow Settings; Scroll to the very bottom under Calibrate;
Manually set Baseline.
Follow their recommendation of 0.5gmp. Once the system runs the zone, you might get an alert of high flow detected. If so, manually reset a little above the detected flow.
This will get you high flow detection alerts (like when a squirrel chews thru the drip line), but it will not get you low flow detection (like when the emitters get clogged over time).
My flows are 1.5 up to 5gpm which should be well above the .5gpm the flow meter is supposed to detect. Because I get high flow detected alerts when I initially set it at .5, the flow meter seems to be detecting, but the Calibration function is the apparent source of the problem…