I am over 70 and not that technically literate. I installed my Rachio Gen3 in November of 2018. I assumed it was going to be a “set it and forget it” experience. Nothing could be further from the truth. Since installation, I continue to get watering reports before, during and after rains. It has rained heavily on a daily basis this last week, yet by system continues to water my lawn, except for one zone which rarely gets watered. I did not buy this controller to constantly tweak the settings, nor do I want to drill down to all the nitty-gritties. I have resorted to turning off the scheduler and manually watering when my $20.00 probe tells me my soil needs it. Since installation, I have recorded ZERO reduction in water usage. I use a nearby PWS and Weather “Intelligence”.
Have you checked that the PWS you use is one that collects and reports rainfall? People have reported that that weather stations that they have used have stopped reporting rainfall and so they needed to change stations.
Also, I don’t think you can use both Weather Intelligence and a specific PWS. I’m pretty sure you can use one or the other.
Sorry, one more thought. What is the Rain Skip Threshold set to? And do you have Rain Skip tuned on for your schedule? I think the default for the threshold is .125" of rain. But rain skip also needs to be turned on in the schedule.
I use Weather Intelligence and my threshold is the default of .125" and in the last 10 days or 2 weeks, Rachio skipped 2 runs in a row.
Thank you for your quick response.
I have 6 zones and am running a Flex Daily schedule.
My PWS is KCOLOVEL131. I clicked on it, but I couldn’t see if it collects and reports rainfall, so I emailed WU.
When I go to Schedules/Weather Intelligence, It only shows Freeze Skip and Wind Skip; there is no option for Rain Skip.
When I open my PWS, is says “Rain Skip”. It is set to the default.
When I go to Schedules/Flex Daily, it states “Your current schedule selection can’t be changed, but you can always create a new schedule”.
Given the hassle you’re having, I’d personally go back to flex monthly and call it a day. Too much tweaking needs to be done with daily
Thank you. I will do that.
I’m going to have to agree. Took me several seasons of tweaking before I could get my rachio running right. Pretty much crop coefficient and sun exposure are the only two settings that will apply more or less water. The rest trade duration for frequency.
I have installed other brands and they are set and forget. No catch cans and endless settings though I think it is possible on them as well. Somehow they just keep things from dieing while adjusting for weather.
What other brands did you install?
Hi, I checked the station (KCOLOVEL131 - https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/KCOLOVEL131/graph/2020-07-7/2020-07-7/monthly) and it’s not reporting any precipitation.
As a first step, I would select in Controller Settings, Weather Intelligence PLUS, “Network” until you might find a stable single provider near you.
I had a set and forget Rainbird SMTe before I got my Rachio. Didn’t do nearly as good a job as my Rachio has done. For me, it was worth the effort to go through a learning process and tweak a few things. And once I took the time to do that, it’s pretty much forget about it and let it do it’s thing.
Perhaps I’m too much of a geek. I found it very interesting to really learn a bit about good irrigation practices and just what I have in my own yard.
Thank you. I will check that out.
My experience was just the opposite.