I’m honestly disappointed. When I bought my Rachio system, one of the biggest selling points was that it would automatically adjust based on the weather, you know, smart irrigation. That’s literally the point.
Now suddenly, I’m hit with a $29.99 upsell just to have it check the weather and water accordingly during a heat wave? That functionality isn’t “premium” it’s basic. It’s the core reason I chose Rachio over a cheaper controller.
Instead of improving the experience, Rachio is locking essential features behind a paywall after the fact. This feels like a bait-and-switch. If you’re going to start nickel-and-diming your loyal users, at least be transparent about it from the beginning.
At first I felt the same way but after researching it they are NOT removing any automation that was promised"on the box" when we bought the controllers. Flex daily has lost nothing.
The new feature is simply a more frequent analysis of your local weather. This does require more complex computing and someone had t write all the new code on their end, so I think $29 essentially for the lifetime of the controller and any replacements of that same controller is a pretty good deal.
You still have all the same weather intelligence that Rachio always had, nothing has changed with this new subscription. I still haven’t had a chance to test the new subscription as we just started a major backyard overhaul.
If you take the time to set up your zones correctly, Flex Daily still works AMAZINGLY well without this additional service. Without a chance to really dive into the functionality, I think this “feature” helps those that maybe don’t have their zone settings dialed in quite right, or maybe have a very poorly designed/functioning irrigation system that might need a small boost during the hottest time periods…
I just learned about this “feature” 10 minutes ago and I’m a bit ticked off. Some of the people who replied to your post claim that you haven’t lost anything and your device still does everything it claimed to do on the box…implying you shouldn’t be complaining. “Someone wrote the code”. That is hilarious. Imagine if every piece of software was treated that way? I can’t stand apologists.
I don’t have the source code in front of me, but I would bet this “feature” was extremely easy to implement. A cool feature of the Rachio 3 is how the software will keep track of rainfall amounts and adjust its schedule based on a user-adjustable threshold. So, check the current temperature and forecasted temperatures and adjust the schedule if temperatures are exceeding X degrees for X days. (I can’t remember what the definition for a heatwave is. I know it depends on the regional climate. In my area, I believe 95F for 3 or more days is considered a heatwave…but don’t quote me on that.) Oh, the stress placed on that software developer.
I still highly recommend the Rachio system for its simplicity and reliability. I think I’ve had mine for 6 years now.
Totally agree. This nickel and diming such a simple feature is insane to me. I will not be purchasing another one of their products if they don’t change how their product upsells function. I’m happy to purchase an additional feature if it’s not something the core product should just do out of the box.
There are only 2 new features from what I can see.
The new functionality allows you to setup a rule for Heat Wave and one for Cool Wave. Rules are applied to individual schedules that you select to add a rule to. i like that it adds another option to set it and forget it.
I haven’t looked to see if there is a global setting yet.
I signed up! I’m in Colorado. Might need the Heat Wave rule this summer.
