End before Sunrise with Odd/Even Watering Restrictions

[robnielsen]

How does End before sunrise work with flexible daily when you need more time than exists before sunrise? My total run time is 475 minutes (7 hours 55 minutes). Since I have odd/even watering restriction, this means I can’t water before midnight on my days to water, and the sun rises well before 7:55 am.

Also what would happen if I picked a fixed end time such as 7 am, would it possibly start at midnight and end at 7 or start at 11:05 pm the prior day?

[Bill.Maupin]

You just made it a point to state, “I can’t water before midnight”, why is this even being asked? Simply start you schedule at midnight

[robnielsen]

You just made it a point to state, “I can’t water before midnight”, why is this even being asked? Simply start you schedule at midnight

If you read what I said, I’m using flexible daily, which means it could run up to total run time, correct? I really don’t want to start any earlier than needed.

[tmcgahey]

Flex daily run durations don’t fluctuate, only frequency. Once you have your information set up in the zones, and time is calculated, that won’t change. It may push the day that it waters back if needed.

The schedule run time could change though if it decided that a zone within the schedule didn’t need to run.

[robnielsen]

The schedule run time could change though if it decided that a zone within the schedule didn’t need to run.

Exactly, my zones all have different slopes and exposures which means that the run pattern is fairly spread out. I’m also in MN with cool season grass.

[tmcgahey]

Is finishing before sunrise just a personal preference or requirement? I understand not running in the middle of the afternoon, but early morning shouldn’t be an issue…

Like stated earlier, if midnight is hard and firm, you are best to just start the schedule then and forgo the finish before sunrise.

[robnielsen]

Since it’s the recommended option, I’d like to know how rachio behaves in this situation.

[robnielsen]

@franz or somebody at rachio, can you please explain?

[theflexdude]

@robnielsen In “end by” schedules, the main criteria that we follow is that the schedule must finish by a configured time. If the total schedule duration of the schedule forces it to start the day before, then it will start the day before, regardless of restriction of the start time date. In this case we check for restriction on end time date. This is something to consider on long running schedules. In even or odd day restrictions it is impossible to satisfy end and start restriction for a schedule that runs across multiple days.

[robnielsen]

@theflexdude, thank you for the explanation.

[Lars]

I have found that each zone needs watering differently and that all zones don’t water together. On a particular day some will get skipped hence it won’t even water the maximum time and you won’t have that issue.