End Before Sunrise running well past sunrise

[Toddfather]

I set up and programmed Rachio for a client that has 16 zones. The soil is heavy clay, so I converted a lot of zones to slow irrigation methods such as drip and MP rotators. The whole yard is on a gradual slope, so slower irrigation methods generally work better for penetrating downward in the soil.

Rachio however, seems to struggle with the schedule. With all 16 zones, the total watering duration is “28h 41m”, and I have it set to end before sunrise.

I have noticed however that it will often not finish until 11am or later, well after sunrise.

A prime example: today it began a run for 10 hours and 7 minutes, and although it is set to end before sunrise, it didn’t start the run until 11:40pm, so it won’t be done until 9:47am; that is 3 hours and 43 minutes past the 6:04am sunrise.

How can I set it so it either starts earlier in the evening to get everything done, or actually ends before sunrise, and shifts any unfinished zones to the following day?

[tmcgahey]

First off, I’d HIGHLY recommend separating out the drip zones from the lawn/sprinkler zones. I suspect that the run time of OVER 24 hours might be what is causing the issue. There is a “flaw” in the end before sunrise, where it will ALWAYS starts the run as if it were running all 16 zones, even if it only runs one. I suspect that since it potentially could be running at least one zone every day, it is throwing the scheduling for a loop.

Set the lawn to end by sunrise, and drip to start at say, 9am.