So I installed my Rachio 3 last month. The default setting that it set up for me was a schedule of about every second or sometimes ever 3rd day. I liked the way the days looked but what I didn’t think looked right was the water times being what I thought were going to be too short. I have four zones but that majority of my yard is watered via 2 of those zones. The default it wanted to do was around 15 minutes. Now I MAY have been overwatering before Rachio, I would run those an hour but I figured lets try 30 minutes in those zones. Basically I doubled all the default times it suggested.
Now, we’ve moved in to the next month and here in Florida (should have mentioned that sooner) we got a LOT of rain in April. Can I just tell you how much I love the feature that it suspends running if it is going to rain or has just rained?! Number 1 feature in my book! But I got an email here at the beginning of May that my Flex monthly schedule has been changed. The times have goon back to being cut in half, and now it wants to water every 1.7 days. But that shows up on the calendar as every day.
SO what is the communities thoughts on that? I’m thinking I should push it back to closer to what it was set yesterday, zone time wise as well as watering days not being every day.
THANKS!
What do you have your soil type and ‘available water’ settings at? It kind of seems like the Rachio thinks the water it puts into the soil is evaporating/used up. If you are sure it should last longer you could increase the ‘available water’ setting. This tells it that the soil can hold more water, it should then water longer per cycle but water less frequently. Have you done a soil jar test or a catch cup test? Or at least it works that way with the Flex Daily. I’m not sure about the monthly schedules.
My soil type was set to Sand based on the location data when I set up the zones. While I don’t recall seeing the Available Water when I set up, appears that might be something that is not right. It is set to .05 in/in
Poking around with the app and having a little more understanding. For my area of Florida, appears that the Flex Monthly schedule wants to water the yard every day for the months of May, June, July and August if every day is selected as a possible water day. I just happened to start in April which is in the months of September to April that it does the every 2 or 3 days random mix. If I turn days off then it does all days but that or those days. If I adjust water times up or down it still does all the days. Seems its preference is to do short waterings everyday.
If you truly have sand soil (I’d double check that with the Web Soil Survey Website), that would explain the daily waterings. Sand soil wouldn’t hold moisture at all, and would require regular waterings.
Thanks Troy! I had been to the soil survey but went back and doubled checked the data for my area.
Typical profile
A - 0 to 5 inches: fine sand
C - 5 to 82 inches: fine sand
Also looks according to WSS site that my Available water is .06
Its Saint Augustine grass that doesn’t root deep, only like 5 to 6 inches I believe.
On one hand, wanted to not over water to try and get roots to go lower as I’ve heard recommended but while I have some parts that look okay, some areas the blades are closed up. While it might be some heads need some tweaking, I just think I need to bump those running times up a bit more.
