We are looking for some feedback on Alexa, and we were hoping you could help!
How are you using Rachio with Alexa? What do you wish our integration would let you do? What fun and crazy things could we do by combining Rachio, Alexa and your favorite smart home products?
We want to know what cool ways you use the integration now, and where we could go in the future. What better users to ask than our community super users, right?
Thank you for complimenting all of us here as âsuper users.â With the case of Iro2 and Alexa, for me youâre being too kind. I have two âAlexasâ in my smart home - one in the kitchen and one in the master bath. None âtalkâ to my Iro2 yet.
My family uses the Alexa units a lot. So far the most used uses are:
âAlexa, put on shopping list âŚâ and then itâs all consolidated and ready for display on a smart phone at the grocery store.
âAlexa, set timer for ⌠minutesâ while cooking in the kitchen.
âAlexa, play ⌠musicâ (we have our Alexa units connected to Bluetooth speakers - sounds nice)
âAlexa, whatâs the temperature outsideâ
If I look at my routerâs list of IP addresses, my smart home has networked lighting, HVAC (including thermostats & fault detection), sprinkler control (obviously), gas hot waters, fire/CO/NG sensor monitoring, security monitoring, temperature monitoring, and various data logging. (Separate, not integrated systems include the solar panels and the swimming pool equipment control system.)
One of the things Iâve learned is that I donât need repetition built into an Alexa. I donât need it to duplicate thermostat functions, sprinkler control functions, etc. There are lots of safety safeguards and complexities built in to things like tstats and sprinkler controllers such that it doesnât make sense to duplicate them in something like Alexa.
You might say it would be nice to use Alexa for things like lighting control, setting thermostats, etc., and I agree, but, often the technology at the moment is such that another âblack boxâ must be purchased/installed/programmed/maintained - adding another level of complexity that I have learned over time causes tediousness.
An example is my homeâs real time monitoring & automation system (HAI/Leviton OmniPro2 processor), that does the lights/fire/security/temps/audio-announcing/fault-detecting/etc. Itâs network connected. So is Alexa. But the two canât âtalkâ to each other without purchase and programming of a network-connected black box (Homeseer) or a small PC running 7x24.
My hope is for an integration of the Iro2 (network connected) to Alexa (network connected) such that your âserver in the cloudâ does all of the integration work. Itâs doubtful Iâll ever purchase a 3rd device to integrate the two.
If I could âtalkâ to my Iro2 via Alexa:
âAlexa, pause Rachio for ⌠minutesâ
âAlexa, turn on Rachio zone 10 (swimming pool for me) for 20 minutesâ
âAlexa, turn off Rachio for ⌠daysâ
âAlexa, disable Rachio zone âŚâ
âAlexa, enable Rachio zone âŚâ
âAlexa, cycle through every zone ⌠minutes eachâ
âAlexa, set freeze protection to ⌠degreesâ
etc.
IMO, I would leave all of the complicated Flex Daily parameters, schedule details, configuration settings, etc. alone, in the computer/smart-pad/smart-phone interfaces.
It would be nice to do the kinds of things above while remote from the residence.
Hope this helps. Pretty much just thoughts that came to my mind for a few moments while typing.
Best regards,
Bill
Alexa, drench that dog thatâs sh****g in my yard and itâs owner! 
I stuck an Echo Dot in my Garage so that I can turn on/off various zones if I am checking for sprinkler heads that are damaged or if I want to throw some extra water on a zone that might need extra. I find the IFTTT type interface kind of awkward at times. It is not integrated as well as my âSamsung SmartThingsâ where I can simply say âAlexa Turn on the lampâ. I would like to be able to use Rachio in a similar way. i.e. Alexa run zone 1 for 5 minutes". Minor, but it is quite wordy with the existing interface and is sometimes takes a few tries. Thanks for asking!
Add two more examples to the suggestion list:
âAlexa, how long (minutes, hours) has zone ⌠been running?â
âAlexa, what is the highest temperature for the next 3 days?â
Best regards,
Bill
Iâm not sure what the other posts are referring to since Rachio does integrate with Alexa today. I have an Alexa echo and 5 echo dots. I have enabled the Rachio skill and I can say âAlexa tell Rachio to run zone 1 for 15 minutesâ. One feature would be to use the friendly name you have given a zone. I havenât checked the Rachio skill lately as I have always asked it do things by zone so this may have been added. But instead of âzone 1â you could say âgrassâ. But that leads to another problem that I have found with the numerous devices I now control, is remembering all their names. So the Rachio skill should have the feature where I could ask Alexa give me a list of my zones and their names. Some macro Rachio commands like âAlexa tell Rachio to skip watering for 2 daysâ or âAlexa tell Rachio to run all zones for 10 minutes in sequenceâ for when you want to see if all your zones are working. I assume some of the posters were referring to the extra two words you need to use âtell Rachioâ. I have WEMO light switches and I donât have to say âAlexa tell WEMO to turn on masterâ I can say âAlexa turn on masterâ. I can understand the programming issues if you drop the âtell Rachioâ part as you could have named one of your watering zones âmasterâ and now if you tell Alexa to turn on âmasterâ it doesnât know if that is a light or a valve. I have quite a collection of smart devices (Rachio, firestick, 19 wemo switches, 5 echo dots, ooma VoIP, HUE lights, logitech TV remote w/hub, smart TVs, 2 Ecobee3 thermostats, cameras & MagicHome LED lights. I was a believer in the glue to hold this all together is WiFi so I have a 8 POD Plume WiFi mesh network which covers the house and an Arystone WiFi on the roof for when I am outside.
Thatâs a great IFTTT idea leveraging Smart Camera or RING doorbell technology as the âsensorâ!..
I love it.
Using just the basics - asking Alexa to ask Rachio to water a particular zone. Most often used to get extra water in flower bed we see while sitting at the dinner table. Makes it even easier than opening the app.
Guess Iâm not smart enough (yet) to connect my Alexa to my Iro2.
Iâd like to simply say: âAlexa, turn on Rachio zone 10 for 20 minutes.â
It looks like from above comments I can do this today. I sure would appreciate it if someone would comment here what the few steps I need to do are to accomplish this.
Thank you and best regards,
Bill
I have three alexa units including the newest Echo Spot with the screen. I have not found a reason to integrate Rachio into the alexa skills, I find using my phone is just fine, I donât see a benefit using the alexa unit for that.
I have alexa integrated w/ Rachio. My favorite thus far is the ability to water less than a minute for a specific zone. I usually use it for spraying the kids in back yard as a joke. Fun for guest when they bring their kids over as well. I wish I could give it a command like âMake It Rainâ and have the ability to turn on a few zones in backyard at once. Of course this would be just be for fun with the kids. My favorite integration is actually with my harmony hub; it controls all of my TV settings and HDMI ports, .etc but it can control almost anything as well. I love it and highly recommend it for any Alexa user.
So what do I need to do to be able to get action when I say:
âAlexa, turn on Rachio zone 10 for 10 minutes.â
(I feel kind of dumb now seeing that everyone else is doing it. Iâm pretty sharp with some things but this subjectâs failing me. All Iâve ever done with my Alexa unit is plug it in to the power - my network Access Point found it just find and connected it to my LAN with no fuss.)
Thank you and best regards,
Bill
https://support.rachio.com/hc/en-us/articles/115010378847-How-do-I-use-Alexa-with-my-Rachio-
After you buy an Alexa device you can use this article.
Enjoy!
We have 8 Echoâs. Six of the new Echo2 units and two of the Echo Showâs. We use them for everything and have a connected home from the 5-big ass fan, front and side garage doors, all of the lights, Two nests, 8 Nest protects, the garage door and the Rachio.
As far as Rachio, I use it to get the cat inside. Alexa, ask Rachio to turn on zone 2 for 1 min. Ok. Cat flys through the food at warp speed and then I close her in.
I have to agree with it would be awesome to have RACHIO skill recognize the ânameâ of the zone vice zone #. Alexa, tell rachio to water Front Grass. would be ideal â I have 8 zones and half the time I canât remember what zone number is which â which degrades the usability of the alexa skill since I have to go into the Rachio app on my phone to figure it outâŚ
Handle more than one RACHIO.
Other than to play with the Rachio integration I havenât used the Alexa functionality too much. If Iâm going to consider watering differently than my schedule I usually check the app first to see why the lawn might be dry. At that point Iâm in the app so I just start it there.
Iâd like Alexa to be able to tell me âif Rachio watered todayâ and âthe next time Rachio is scheduled to waterâ. If you want to get fancy it would be nice to know that it didnât water today because itâs supposed to rain, etc.
I have connected my Rachio Second Gen sprinkler system to Amazon Alexa. The functionality to ask Alexa to tell Rachio to water individual zones is nice however I would like to be able to ask Alexa to tell Rachio to run one of my preset watering programs for a certain amount of time.
I TOTALLY agree with being able to start a zone by its Friendly name - âAlexa, tell Rachio to water the Front Bed for 10 minsâ Also - being able to tell Rachio to run Schedules. I use schedules since I cannot group zones into logical areas like Front Yard. So I setup schedules with different names aka Front Yard, Back Yard, Dry Zones â Being able to say "Alexa, water âSchedule Nameâ
Overall Alexa controls are pretty good with one exception: there is no way to pause watering. On the app you have a pause button. But if I say to Alexa to pause watering I get a rain delay which effectively cancels the running program.
Basically I want to say âAlexa, tell Rachio to pause watering for five minutes,â which would allow my dog to go out. 
Then after that time it picks up where it left off.