Do I need to know and input the sq ft of each zone to Rachio if I want to use a daily flex schedule? I assume the area information must be needed for Rachio to calculate the water need but am not so sure.
Based on other posts in the community forum and my own experience using a Rachio controller, it is not strictly necessary to know and input the square footage of each zone to use a Flex Daily schedule on your Rachio controller. The Flex Daily schedule primarily relies on factors such as soil type, vegetation type, nozzle type, root depth, and local weather conditions to calculate the watering needs. However, knowing the square footage can be helpful for more accurate water usage tracking and reporting. As such, the irrigation schedule will likely not be affected by the square footage entered into the zone settings. However, If you want to manually fine-tune your watering schedule to have more precise control over actual water usage (gallons), you can input the square footage of each zone, which can provide more accurate estimates of water consumption and help in monitoring water usage.
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Square footage is not used at all in determining how much water the system is going to put down.
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In a metered installation, of course it is. Even if you’re unmetered and you’re going to calculate precipitation rate (nozzle inches in Rachio-speak) from adding up the capacity of the heads in a zone, or you’re going to measure empirically with catch-cups, the accuracy of the data (from all sources) and Rachio’s accuracy in applying irrigation is improved by knowing any of them with precision.
It’s so easy, for most Rachio users, to actually measure how many square feet are in a zone - though it might take an hour of your time… once - that not having that measurement or a good estimate makes little sense. Happy watering!