Short answer: yes. Long answer:
I have a half acre yard with 19 zones and did much research before I overhalled my landscape about 5 years ago. I had installed rotor heads (Hunter MP rotors) and an intelligent controller with it’s own weather station and all seemed good. Fast forward 4.5 years and I had some brown areas and some plants were suffering and I really wanted a flow meter so I could know where the water was going. Two months ago I bought a Gen3 with flow meter. I configured it but didn’t connect it to any valves. I let it run for over a month in “test” mode. Comparing run times and frequencies and I found a drastic difference between what I was running and what Rachio was showing. The max run time for my grass with my old controller was 50 minutes 3-4 times a week. Rachio was 90-120 minutes every 4-5 days. I was shocked by the Rachio long run times but overall the weekly total was about the same or a little less. I was apprehensive about switching over but I made the switch about 3 weeks ago. Boy…what an improvement and I’m sure I’ll see more after it’s been running a few more months. Yes, all the industry literature is correct; less frequent longer run times promote deeper roots which results in less water usage.
You’ll notice that I have 19 zones but the Rachio can only handle 16 so I doubled-up 3 of them. Sure wish they made a 20 zone controller.
Take the leap and buy a gen3. If you want to do it right…spend an afternoon and measure the square footage and perception rate (spend another $30 and buy catch cups) of each zone.
After you configure each zone as described in their documentation go back to each zone and key in the square footage and precipitation rate (catch cups) in the advanced area. Create daily flex schedule and group all like plants in the same schedule. I have most of my schedules starting at midnight each one 5 minutes later than the previous one to control the order. I have all of my schedules set to run every day except for Saturday when my lawn gets mowed.
After a few weeks let us know how it worked out.
Catch cups: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CBZB8U8/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1