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Flex monthly scheduling question, days to water

Schedules & Zones Flex Monthly
#1

I’ve emailed support 3 times now with absolutely no response.

I have setup a schedule which my town permits me to water my lawn in the summer. I am allowed to water on Wednesday and Saturday (based on house number). I have both these days entered in my schedule, but when I look at the calendar schedule of upcoming waterings, the app only shows Wednesday. Saturday does NOT show up.

As a test, I added Friday to the same schedule and now I see Wednesday and Saturday (but not Friday). I can’t make this up and I have captured a screen recording of how the app is behaving to prove I am not crazy.

My Model 3 is serial # BLANKED HERE
Running: Iro3-Firmware-HK-5-632

Please watch the attached video of the screen recording on my iPhone which clearly shows this problem. https://1drv.ms/v/s!At0EDgIOjZ0fgeMOW8k4p15WQ_AFpA?e=mWDNdV

I have no idea if Saturday will actually water (if I am away) if I leave it the way it is supposed to work, or if I should set for Friday also, and hope that Friday does NOT water.

Would love for someone from Rachio support to respond to my support ticket 778991

#2

You chose a flex monthly schedule which changes frequency every month. The days you chose were days “allowed” for it to run, and it chose Wed/Sat (not Friday) (as seen on the calendar). If you would like it to water Wed/Fri/Sat I would create a new fixed schedule that does not change watering frequency every month.

Screenshot from 2020-06-08 09-55-18
Screenshot from 2020-06-08 09-55-18736×777 27.4 KB

Screenshot from 2020-06-08 09-55-38

:cheers:

#3

IMHO, with your watering restrictions, you will be happier with a fixed schedule.

1 Like
#4

Thank you. But still doesn’t answer my question about the bug. It’s still a bug which I expect someone in support to answer.

#5

Thank you Franz,

So I guess I totally misunderstand the use of Flex. I thought it pertained to flex (WATER OR NOT) based on forecast/past rain amounts vs. flex based on how much to water on the specified days based on forecast/past rain amounts.

What I am HOPING to achieve it to water every Wed and Saturday. And that watering should NOT occur if it has rained in the past to exceed my stated limit or if rain is forecast to exceed my threshold. Or to adjust the watering minutes on those TWO Days based on the forecast/past.

What is the best way to water on Wed and Saturday only if the threshold hasn’t been met, and to adjust that irrigation time down to match what has already fallen?

Is that intelligence not in the system? or do I simply go back to programming it like my Hunter Pro-C and now have no rain sensor.

Thanks again
Howard

#6

I would use a fixed schedule with weather intelligence (which is on by default).

This helps explain the features of weather intelligence.

:cheers:

#7

Thanks Franz,

I will change it to fixed. But it still appears to be a bug in the scheduling for someone to look at. I’m pulling down the video shortly in case you wanted it to show a support engineer.

Cheers
Howard

#8

I came here with this same problem having just installed a Rachio 3. I am allowed 2 watering days. In the worst of summer I need to water some on each day. My initial Flex Monthly schedule defaulted to a total run time of a bit over 2 hours and the calendar showed it only on Wednesdays. I deleted that and created a Fixed Schedule per your instructions and the default watering time increased to nearly 5 hours on each watering day (10 total for the week). This makes no sense to me at all. Why is this different?

Of course I can adjust the run time of each Fixed Schedule manually and have Weather Intelligence do the seasonal adjust. But from what I can tell the Rachio will ignore the fact there are two watering days and won’t be smart about how much or even whether to run on each day.

Am I misunderstanding the capabilities? Is it not smart enough to know it might have watered a couple of days earlier and to take that into consideration? If not it seems I have to go back to manually changing the Saturday schedule (Saturday being my ‘as needed’ day).

Thanks.

#9

Fixed schedules do have the concept of saturation skip. Based on how your zones are setup that may or may not kick in. Without doing a deep dive I can’t explain the time differences from flex monthly to fixed.

Restricted to two days of watering is difficult for the system due to some of its dynamic nature. Flex daily is my preferred choice but just wont work with those restrictions. Fixed with weather intelligence will get you pretty far.

:cheers:

#10

Thanks for the super fast response. The answer is a bit disappointing. I wish we could make use of the Flex schedule. Interestingly I have a meeting with our city’s water conservation supervisor next week so she can approve my installation for a rebate. I’m going to bug her about allowing more flexibility with a smart controller but I imagine they don’t allow it because it would make enforcement very difficult. The current method is dead simple: if you’re watering on certain days of the week you’re in violation.

#11

Push your city water people as much as possible!!! Here in Charlotte, NC, I have to get my Smart Watering system checked by an approved professional once a year and submit an application to the water folks (I also have to have my backflow inspected once a year, so the smart water check is just part of the process). For doing that I get my irrigation rate pegged at the lowest level (without it you go to more expensive tiers the more water you use.). And the only time I have to implement water restrictions is when we go to Stage 4 drought conditions. They are able to enforce it by checking to see that you have the Smart Watering application approved for the year, should somebody think you are violating a watering restriction.