I’m somewhat new to Rachio so I’m constantly fiddling with my daily flex schedules to get them just right. Ever since the new UI update I have been struggling with understanding how the changed I made in a zones advanced area will effect the next watering date…
I was just attempting to fiddle with the zones advanced settings and I don’t see any change in my next run time… I bumped up the root depth from 5in -15 in and didn’t see a change in the next run date at all… I also changed the allowed depletion from 40%-70% with no change in the next run date as well! The only thing I can see happening when I make these changes is that the soil moisture % goes down… Maybe I’m crazy, but shouldn’t it go up in this case?
In the previous design I would see changes in the run dates immediately upon saving changes…
Can someone help me figure out how to fix this? I’m very disappointed with the new UI design as it’s made it really difficult to project how my changes in a zones advanced settings will effect my daily flex schedules…
@davidj In V2 we recomputed the moisture graph from schedule start date every time, in V3 we only recompute moisture data starting 2 days ago, the data prior to that remains persisted based on previous zone characteristics and we use that data as a starting point for future estimates. When you increase root zone depth, current soil moisture level should go down, because the amount of moisture that it has received to date hasn’t changed, however the amount that it can possibly receive has. So the relative amount to the total is less. Increasing allowed depletion also increases capacity, but not past irrigation amount. However, adjusting either of the above does not increase depletion rate. Your crop evapotranspiration will not change unless weather changes or crop coefficient or exposure is changed in your zone settings. Only the next irrigation event will reflect the higher irrigation amounts and consequently decrease in frequency, because more moisture will be given to soil each irrigation event. You can also use empty or fill buttons in moisture graph screen to see the behavior starting form 0% or 100% respectively. Note, you cannot revert back to the previous moisture level on that zone, once you do. Thank you for contacting us and please let me know if you have anymore questions.
I appreciate the response, and I guess I understand why the soil moisture % changes, but I’m not really understanding why I’m not able to see the change in next watering date when I make changes to the advanced zone settings so I don’t think we can mark this as solved just yet.
If emptying the zone is the only way to accomplish this, that’s a real bummer as I will loose all the data that’s important as I push out dates or pull them back in…
It’s really disappointing to see functionality, and something that worked fine in the previous design become so complicated and cumbersome in the new design… As I set up my system visibility into how my changes effect my schedules is the most important thing to me.
I’m most interested in when my system ran last, when it will run next, and how that projected date changes when I make changes to the advanced settings as I tinker with them to get them just right.
If you could please pass these comments on to your UX designer or UX researcher that would be great! I’m really hoping that the functionality will come back one day or a solution ( and not a hack) can be made to get this functionality back.
@davidj You can actually see the effects of your changes similarly in current version as you did in previous version. If you look at the graph after the first scheduled irrigation event, it will follow the same pattern. The only difference is that we do not modify the past of the graph. Therefore you will not see any changes to the past dates in the graph and the effects of the last irrigation event. It will still show the amount that it actually watered. All future irrigation events should be reflecting your zone configurations just as they did before. I recommended empty/fill only just in case if you wanted an irrigation to happen immediately or to see when it will as if it had a full bucket. Let me know if this helps with your schedule optimizations. Thanks for your feedback!
@theflexdude, while the past data does not change (which is great!), one thing that does change on the display is the weather station you are using. If you select a new weather station, ALL the weather stations, including past ones change. If you are experiencing problems with a PWS, this isn’t helpful. I realize that it might have something to do with the new WI+, but for those people not moving to a Gen 3, it would be a lot better for past data to be actual, INCLUDING the weather station that was used.
@linn The weather station name in the graph will change in the past, that is correct. The weather station field is always your current weather station for all dates. However, the precipitation and evapotranspiration data will remain as it was recorded at the time by the station used during that time. We do not change any readings that are older than 2 days. I see how this is confusing, we will definitely consider changing that field to display the weather station used at that time. Thank you for your feedback!
Thanks for your reply and the advice to use the graph. I hear you about changing the past data when a change is made and I will use the graph for the moment.
What would be nice is to see changes in dates as of the moment I make them going forward. E.G if I’m scheduled to water next today 3/28 but I want it to have more days in between last run and next run, so when I change an element of the advanced settings to move it out, I want to see my next run date in the zones and on the schedule cal move from 3/28 to whatever date the change I made projects…
