Yesterday when the Flex Schedule ran all day (15 hours) Iro reported 8172.17 gallons of water used.
I checked the water meter and it showed 7816 gallons of water used. That means Iro is about 105% of actual water used based on my current settings. I’m okay with that for now.
I calculated my precip rates as follows:
Does this seem accurate?
@franz Thanks, I’ll use these numbers and then see what the calculated usage is the next time it runs compared to my meter readings
With more and more water entities providing Landscape water requirements and encouraging watering to a landscape budget. Any tool that allows a user to track that budget, more accurately, should maybe become more important and moved forward in the backlog. GPM and Runtimes are easily attainable. Just need a tool to run the report ,excel always works, until one is created…
Thank you for bringing this thread to the top!!! I posted the exact same issue yesterday and didn’t get much of a response. This provides a good work-around until they get a GPH option added into the app 
+1 for this feature. Living in california we need to keep track of this pretty closely. and unfortunately we don’t have smart water meters yet.
I just got my Rachio and toggled it on for 5 minutes to test it out. Afterwards I saw that I had used ~37 gallons in that time.
I was confused because even though I had specified my head type, I didn’t specify how many heads I have. Looks like it’s guestimating based on zone size?
Wouldn’t calculating water usage be more accurate if it was determined by the number of heads, rather than using the square footage, since spacing and layout can vary?
That seems like a real simple addition to zone settings, letting the user input how many heads they have. Or as others have already suggested, input the exact GPM/H usage per zone, from meter readings.
The direct answer is No. The rate that you put into the IRO is in inches per square ft per hr. And that is how the sprinkler head is classified too. So the number of heads is irrelevant. Whether you are using nozzle ratings, or catch cups, you are looking at a rate per square foot. If you use the water meter, then you are looking at true gallons per zone, and must calculate the rate per square foot by dividing the rate by the zone area. Hope this helps!
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Thanks for clarifying. I didn’t know the nozzle “in/hr” unit had an implied square footage to it. Knowing that now, it makes sense. I’m new to all this sprinkler stuff 
Just want to add another request for a GPH / Zone setting. I have spent about two hours trying to figure out the settings that currently exist and I can’t make heads or tail of it. I feel like I’m really not getting much out of the Rachio compared to my old Hunter controller because everything is basically a fixed schedule.
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+1 more for direct input of GPM per zone. I just installed my system today. I already knew my GPM/zone, and I’m astonished that there appears to be no provision for entering that information directly during setup. Since I’m about the 100th person to ask for this, is there any update on when it will be available?
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Here here!!
I have drip emitters and estimating the square feet for inches/hour calculatipns is very problematic. Measuring the GPH per zone with a meter or estimating GPH by adding up the flow for the number of drip emitters is what is needed.
Is there a good method to estimate in/hr for drip emitters? My drip emitters are rated in GPH.
Thanks.
@Pkroth, remember, the precip rate (PR) is not the same as the flow rate. This is a common misunderstanding.
Good question. Let’s break it down:
PR = (96.25(A*B))/(C)
96.25 = constant that converts gallons per minute (GPM) to inches per hour. It is derived from 60 minutes per hour divided by 7.48 gallons per cubic foot. times 12 inches per foot.
A = #heads -or- #emitters
B = flow rate (GPM) per head -or- emitter
C = zone square footage
If you know the GPH of your drip emitter, then you can calculate the precip rate by entering the following:
A = #emitters = 1
B = flow rate (GPM) per emitter (ex: 2 GPH / 60 = .033 GPM)
C = zone square footage = 1
PR = (96.25(1*(.033)))/(1) = 3.176 in/hr
Hope this helps 
Best, Emil
This sounds really complicated…Can’t we just directly input these numbers
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Emil,
I don’t know if you work for the company or not, but you are clearly not listening to what a large number of customers have been saying for several months. The controller is perfectly capable of performing these calculations, or sending them to a server which can do so–it is simple arithmetic. To expect your customers to perform these calculations manually or even with the aid of a spreadsheet is ludicrous. Every single drip irrigation emitter that I’ve ever seen measures flow rate in GPM or GPH. No one uses precip. rate. I’ve never heard a clear explanation of why this has not already been implemented, or why precip. rate has such a tenacious hold on Rachio engineering. For states like California, which is in its fourth year of prolonged drought, there has been a huge migration to drip irrigation. The controller also needs to allow direct input of flow rate from reading a water meter. For drip irrigation, there is little change in flow due to changes in pressure, which was an excuse I’d read earlier. Drip is typically pressure regulated down to no more than 25 PSI, and variations in pressure have virtually no effect on flow. I know exactly how much each of my circuits use by reading the meter. Multiplying the number of emitters times the emitter flow rate gives a pretty good approximation as well.
Until this flaw is fixed, I won’t be recommending the Rachio to our water department, or any of my clients. I really don’t know what the problem is, and I’m growing very tired and frustrated with the standard response of ‘well, here’s how you calculate that!’. Is this an intelligent controller or not? If it is, it should be doing any calculations of this type. I’m wondering if the product decisions makers actually read this forum. If so, are you getting the message?
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@control4reak, yes, the PR rate can be directly entered into the app via the custom nozzle setup page.
@MumblingFumbler, good to hear from you again. I do work for Rachio (head of support) with prior experience in irrigation & landscape management. Please know we are listening and understand your frustration. We are a small team, managing multiple development priorities with limited resources. This feature (and others) are on our backlog to be built as soon as we can with the underlying goal to make everything as simple as possible for the end user.
This is true in most professional installations, however a consumer should be mindful that not all emitters will always have the same flow rate. Just as not all sprinkler heads will have the same flow rate. This can vary on application and site conditions.
We’re sorry to hear you won’t be recommending the Iro until this feature is added. The Iro is a very intelligent controller. I’d be happy to send or post our WaterSense or SWAT test results for reference. Out of curiosity, is there another controller that has this feature designed to your expectation?
Yes, we read every thread and post.
Best, Emil
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Where are you at with implementing a GPM?
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@kerbelangr, in regards to implementing a GPM on the custom nozzle feature, this is currently in our backlog. Unfortunately I cannot disclose possible timeframes on a release date as we don’t want to set false expectations as to when this will be developed until we are ready to release it.
In the mean time, I’d recommend using the equation in this support article to calculate your precip rate(s).
Let me know if you need any help crunching the numbers.
Best, Emil
I don’t think anyone wants a GPM setting for nozzles/heads but rather for zones. That way we can know exactly how much water we use in our irrigation system.
This would be very useful for conservation, especially those of us who are charged drought surcharges based off total gallons of water used per month…