I just installed my gen3 flow meter and when calibrating it one of the zone was using 18.4 gallons per minute which was almost twice the flow as I expected. Reviewing that zone I found a sprinkler head that was broken way below the surface. Thanks Rachio for saving me water!
UPDATE - second problem identified by the flow meter
During the calibration one zone popped up an alert saying that the flow was too low. The flow was .4 gallons per minute for a 55 foot long hedge being watered by a drip line. After checking out the valve and the pressure regulator I found there was a defective pressure regulator. After I replace the pressure regulator flow was 1 gallon per minute.
UPDATE - second problem identified by the flow meter
During the calibration one zone popped up an alert saying that the flow was too low. The flow was .4 gallons per minute for a 55 foot long hedge being watered by a drip line. After checking out the valve and the pressure regulator I found there was a defective pressure regulator. After I replace the pressure regulator flow was 1 gallon per minute.
I left out some details and my measurements weren’t accurate. There are two drip lines, one on each side of the hedge, about 140 feet of drip total. The drip line has .4 gph emitters every foot which comes out to about .93 gpm. To answer your question…yes I was having a problem with the hedge and the grass that had a broken sprinkler.
Good thing about the new gen3 and flow meter…it has me double checking everything. I’ve adjusted a couple spray heads to reduce over spray on the walkway. I also have a grape arbor with 6 plants on it with 4 gph emitters and the total flow was less than .5 gpm and the controller refused to manage the flow on that zone. Today I just added another emitter on each grape plant to get my flow over .5 so the controller will manage the flow.
I just had my first “high flow” warning yesterday and sure enough, two separate parts connecting a drip line had developed cracks and were spraying water. I recalibrated and the flow rate came out lower than the original setting, so I suspect that one or both of those has been a latent problem for a while. In any case, my system runs in the morning and I’m rarely awake to see it, so I’m glad that my Rachio is paying attention!
