Future of Rachio WebApp & Web Calendar Issues

Just pinning this message to the top, since we have multiple posts regarding the matter.

  • Yes, the web app calendar is messed up. Dates don’t show correctly and look wonky, but rest assured that your system is running perfectly fine!

  • No, this probably won’t be corrected any time soon. Rachio CEO has made it clear that they DO NOT plan on shutting down the web app, but they are also not steering a lot of resources towards it to update it at this time.

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Astonishing that sorting dates is considered a resource problem. It’s an embarrassing bug that immediately jumps out to all new users, and any developer worth his salt could fix it within a day.

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Yes this is not exactly confidence inspiring. When will Rachio abandon the next portion of what we ostensibly bought and paid for? Sounds like a company that has not learned to walk before they try to run!

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Did you not read the part that they ARE NOT doing away with the webapp?

I am perfectly capable of reading, thank you. “Abandon” refers to obviously broken pieces that they chose not to given any attention and fix, or remove. As is this function is useless at best, and distracting and confusing to many new users. It is not an asset to Rachio. I’ve been around the tech industry for a long time. This is not a good sign…

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Everyone is entitled to an opinion on the matter. I personally never use the webapp, and honestly find it more of a pain to use than the app on my phone. Which honestly is funny since the webapp is literally just the app, opened in the browser. I just don’t like how small it is on my monitors, and this isn’t limited to just Rachio. All my IoT devises have the same “app on a browser” feel and function to them that I don’t care for.

All that being said, I’d much rather them continue to build and add features to the system, and add and innovate new products.

How is not having “any plans to enhance the webapp on our roadmap” and not supporting new products, NOT doing away with the webapp? Add on top of that the fact that the newest feature of their current product (variable crop coefficients) does not work on the webapp, and I think it is clear they are doing away with it. Today it is 95% working, next month it will be 85%, next year 50%… That is winding down an application… But OK. We know their direction so enough discussion on it.

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I hope my prediction does not come true, but I expect that ads are at least being discussed at this point and those are much profitable within mobile app (where they can’t be blocked, etc) than web.

Rachio incurs expenses from their (weather) data and infrastructure providers for providing service to every user. At this time they’ve chosen not to charge users directly but they cannot continue to provide service indefinitely as this would eventually consume any profit within the company and close the business.

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Yes, and my opinion is just the opposite. Personally, I rarely, if ever, use the phone app. I find it a pain to use. I just don’t like how small it is on my iPhone. And if I like, I can scale it up even bigger on my web browser on my desktop monitor. I honestly like it that way! I’ll stick with the web browser app as long as they keep it functional, which doesn’t sound confidence-inspiring or promising.

I bought my Rachio controller because I wanted something that would EFFECTIVELY irrigate according to the “micro-climate” of my locality. Initially, that seemed OK, but I noticed it would water more often than needed, despite diligent attention to the settings (per Rachio’s recommendations).

I honestly thought the Weather Plus feature of the Rachio controller would do the job it claims to do - “provide hyper-local accuracy into the current and projected weather that’s not only in your area but right outside your door.” From my perspective, that was more sales hype than “hyper-local.”

So, now, I’ve purchased a Tempest weather station to provide honest hyper-local weather information to my Rachio controller. While I do enjoy the Tempest weather station and all its great features (including a way better app), it shouldn’t be necessary to purchase a somewhat pricey weather station to provide connectivity and accuracy to the controller so it can do the job it is advertised to do. It defeats the intent and premise of the original product.

Perhaps this is Rachio’s way of beginning to abandon the weather forecasting part of the equation for the controller. Slowly we will see not only the app functions fade away or grow stale but also the forecasting functionality becoming dependent on either add-on devices, such as the Tempest, or paid forecasting data. Either prospect is sad, given the high expectations and purchase price of the Rachio controller.

Further, Rachio’s foray into marketing other extraneous products, such as lawn fertilizers, etc., was not confidence-inspiring. It felt like they had lost their way of focusing on accurate water-saving irrigation products. From their website, it appears they have given up on these other market ventures. Good!

Don’t get me wrong. I do like my Rachio controller. I simply hope they return to their roots and focus on supporting the original intent of their main product and its functional quality.

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It depends on density of PWS’s in your area. Rachio needs to pull data from somewhere, and if you don’t have a number of PWS’s to extrapolate that “hyper-local” weather from, it may not be as accurate. In most cases, people will recommend that you chose a local PWS near you instead of the WI+ network. Since weather patterns in some areas can be VERY localized, even averaging out weather across a number of PWS’s can leave things “off” just a bit.

Is a Tempest a requirement? Not at all. Will it give you the most accurate weather information for your yard? Yes it will.

Rachio doesn’t have a team of meteorologist on staff working on the weather forecasting of the WI+ system. They utilize a third party for that. Just like the meteorologists on TV, it is all a prediction, and sometimes it is wrong…but that’s why Rachio can also use observed forecasting to keep things straight.

Why? It’s all part of lawn care. The concept of the Champion products was intriguing, and had some merit, but it was no substitution for normal fertilization, IMO. I don’t remember if Rachio marketed it as such, but it was more of a soil conditioner than fertilizer. If Rachio would develop a fertilizer injection system that worked with Rachio, I’d cut to the front of the line!

I didn’t even know there was a web app :wink:
Sounds retro. How do I get to it?

Go to the home Rachio page (click Home in the top-right corner of this page) or Rachio Smart Sprinkler Controllers - Homepage | Rachio
Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and click Web Login or Rachio

One of the reasons I chose the Rachio was because it had a web interface so this is not good news for me at all. I am also pretty tired of getting the run-around about the fact that the Rachio App is not available to run under the Windows Android subsystem: Rachio support directed me to…the webapp.

I am very interested in what I understand is a very primitive Yard App which doesn’t run on anything but an iPhone. I can’t imagine tiny screen but I guess some iPhone folks thought it would be cool so that’s what they did. As far as I can tell, Rachio seems to have a bunch of coding cowboys who work on what they find interesting and the web is too “old school” for them. It seems to me that it would make more sense to make all features available on the Web first then add them to the mobile apps as resources are available

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Code that is not being developed to incorporate new features is the very definition of an abandoned application. Anyone who chose the Rachio specifically because it did have a supposedly full function web interface has been deceived.

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This does not speak well to Rachio’s viability or reputation. Rachio certainly knows a good portion of it’s business is via repeat buyers or favorable referrals by existing customers and vendors. When everything is connected via the web, one must not only have a web app, but maintain it. To represent minimal resources will be devoted to maintain, informs its resellers and existing users, Rachio is in trouble. Most of us deal with apps that are revised for revision sake. It is due to app developers milking their client for revenue. So, why not engage experienced and well respected app programmers to remedy the deficiencies. Comments from the Community site can be evaluated to improve the web capabilities of the product. This gives the users buy-in to represent a good product, and a responsive company. Not only does the user get the benefit of a better experience, the company gets the benefit of a happier consumer. This is marketing 101.

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Wonder what their plans are for the Rachio phone app and if they plan on overhauling / improving the logic in the schedules. Seems not much has been tweaked in the last 2 seasons with the Rachio app and algorithm

Agree that a fertilizer injection system would be icing on this cake indeed! If appropriately selective, this could also be a weed-killer injector. I’d be right behind you ordering this.

I agree with you. I have two other products that have a web interface and a smartphone app—the Anthem prepro and the Nest thermostat. Compared to them, the Rachio web interface looks bad and rather unprofessional. The web interfaces for those other products are both highly polished, with no wonkiness. Unfortunate that Rachio can’t be bothered to do better.

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I have a Tempest and on my iPhone app it shows up as a device. The phone app shows my weather source as my Tempest. However, the web app shows my weather source as someone else’s Tempest almost a mile away. That would not be “Hyper-Local”. In a chat, Rachio support told me to ignore the web app. With the Rachio APIs telling me two different things, I’m not confident which is correct. If the web app is presenting incorrect information and they aren’t going to fix it, Rachio would be better off dropping the web app.