I live on a one acre property with 10 zones, all of which are sloped to some degree with sandy loam soil. I am using a flex daily schedule and can’t seem to get smart cycle to work for me. Even though I have the slope settings correct, smart cycle will only cycle and soak two zones which get the most water. All of my soil is sandy loam and experiences run-off if watered for more than 10 minutes. I have had to set the cycle soak to manual in order to get a soak on all zones, but this is not an ideal solution since zones get watered different amount of times and some need longer or shorter soaks. I would like to use smart cycle. Please advise.
@YellowThumb - can you post the settings being used for one of the zones that isn’t cycling and soaking?
@YellowThumb - I might change the slope to Steep. Are you sure the Nozzle Inches Per Hour are correct? Has a catch cup test been performed.
See this article for times based on various settings ->
I changed it to steep. Made no difference. Nozzle In. Per Hour is estimated. This zone gets about 15 min water which needs to be cycled due to the slope. The only way I have figured out how to do it is manually.
@YellowThumb - I’d verify the soil type (e.g. Mason Jar test or web survey) and then the precipitation rate (e.g. catch cup test). The chart in the above link will give the amount of time Rachio will run before cycling based on soil type and precipitation rate. Changing the soil type and precipitation rate will impact other items - like how much and how often Rachio waters.
Otherwise, if the soil type and precipitation rate are correct then one may need to use the manual method to handle the situation.
I managed to fix it by slightly increasing the Nozzle IPH +.05 and slightly decreasing the efficiency -10%. Doing so forced a soak on the zones which weren’t soaking before and kept run times the same.
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@YellowThumb - great. A catch cup audit would also help determine the efficiency. Glad you found the formula to make it work.
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