Total distance is about 80 ft of house plus 1 feet underground… Of course i will try to put together a parabolic reflective surface behind it so that I can catch more signal and even try a pringles antenna.
(This is a good product but it would have been nice if they gave
an external antenna port that i stick out of the ground or
an external signal repeater like ring doorbell or
just use a mesh protocol like zwave plus that can be used with smartthings or other zwave plus hubs to extend its range)
@laukikd - I’m probably more concerned about the foot underground than going through the house. The signal is 900 MHz so it will have farther range than WiFi. I’d consider raising the pipe up, like the other pipe in Johnny’s installation and have the flow meter close to the surface.
@laukikd - How far below grade would the flow meter be? One option would be to put some 90 degree elbows in the run to get the flow meter near the top of the valve box as earth causes big signal attenuation. I think Rachio said 100 feet for underground installs and Johnny’s install above is at 112 feet. And of course there’s the Pringles can directional antennae device.
I can’t speak for Rachio, but I bet if you bought a flow meter and placed in the valve box and the signal didn’t reach the controller they’d refund your purchase price. Right @emil?
Wow. That’s some distance. It would be a lot easier to move the control closer to flow sensor than anything else at this point. Or use a flow sensor that is wired instead of WiFi. There’s a few out there from Rain Bird and Toro to chose from.
