Converting Rain Bird to Rachio3 Help

Schedules & Zones Set Up & Edit Zones
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In the process of building new home, the landscaper installed a basic Rain Bird controller because the Rachio3 was enroute and they had just done a bunch of plantings. Anyway… I had a Rachio3 at my old house that my son had installed for me. Loved the wifi system control, and the fact that based on weather it would skip watering when it was raining. It rained torrents all day yesterday, even causing flooding, and this morning the Rain Bird was watering! In the new house we have a well feeding the sprinklers which will be nice next summer.

OK, so I took a picture of the Rain Bird wiring and I have no clue what the zones are or how long the watering times are or whether they are daily or twice daily or whatever. I’ve been trying to find a image of a Rachio3 wiring diagram that explains each of the connections so I don’t screw this up. Can anyone point me to a link that shows and identifies each wire post so I know what zone it is?

My old Rachio system used wifi to connect to local weather online and did a great job of matching watering to weather. Should I rely on this again or is a rain module necessary?

Thanks in advance for the help.-Mike

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@JerseyMike Please post the picture of the current Rain Bird wiring and the model, we can probably figure it out. You may have a pump start relay on the well pump or it can be using a pressure tank to start the pump. Depending on how fast the well recharges you may need to set a delay.

Check the map for the soil type you have and then go from there in the Rachio app to get settings created.

Most people let Rachio use the internet to catch the local weather. Sounds like the Rain Bird didn’t have a rain sensor installed, which is interesting.

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Are you able to identify the model number of the Rainbird controller? I had a similar situation and was able to compare my Rainbird wiring with information from the Rainbird manual I downloaded from their website. I just labeled all the wires before removing them from the Rainbird controller and I was off and running!