Hi folks,
I’m a long-time lurker, first time poster who wanted to share a description of how I’m using my Rachio controller these days. Hopefully this’ll provide some useful context for the Product team when it comes to my feature requests below and for anyone else reading, I’m always looking for suggestions on how to manage things more efficiently.
Some background:
I live in Massachusetts, where we’re having a moderate summers with days that lengthen and shorten quickly during spring and fall, meaning that relying on fixed approximations of sunrise/sunset turn inaccurate quickly.
I’m utilizing a Ratio 8 zone controller that manages 7 zones across approximately half an acre. My house is situated on an inclined terrain with the backyard descending towards my property, while the front yard slopes away from it. I’ve got clay-ish soil that I’m working with that’s (currently) heavily compacted, so run-off is a big concern. I’ve also connected my Ratio system with a Tempest weather station that sits on my fence.
At present, we don’t have water restrictions, but when in place, watering is only permitted once a week and not between 9am to 5pm.
Scheduling Strategy:
When I think about watering, I think in terms of time “bands”, so I’ve set up 3 Flex Daily schedules, all of which are configured such that they can water any day of the week.
Early Morning Schedule (Sunrise (optimally) to 9am):
Primarily used for watering the backyard before the dogs go out as the household wakes up around 7am. Need this to start as early as possible before sun-driven evaporation becomes a real thing starting at ~8am, but I don’t want it to start before sunrise.
Mid-Day Schedule (between 9am and 5pm):
Primarily used for watering areas not very susceptible to sun-driven evaporation: drip lines and heavily shaded areas. If watering restrictions are enacted and we’re not allowed to water during these times, I either move zones out of this band to other schedules or let them wither if there’s not enough time available elsewhere.
Evening Schedule (5pm to Sunset (optimally):
Primarily used for watering the front yard. Need this to wrap up by Sunset to reduce risk from fungal diseases, but also want it to start as late in the day as possible to minimize sun-driven evaporation.
So, with that background, I have 3 feature requests:
1. The ability to start schedules at sunrise and end them by sunset.
From what I can tell, this used to be a feature of Rachio (see It’s here! Rachio V3.0 App Update Released), but then was removed. I’d love to see it return, even if it means that there can only be one schedule that leverages this functionality and then it disappears when creating other schedules.
2. The ability to set start and stop times for a particular schedule:
Hopefully, the value of this becomes apparent in the context of the way I’m thinking about watering. I’d love to see the schedules “roll over” any watering that it can’t fit into one window into the next day, optimally using current moisture/allowed depreciation as the determinant of what should be shifted to the next day.
3. The ability to randomize zone watering order within a particular schedule:
Continuously watering the in same order (independent of Flex zone shuffling or soak/cycle) exposes the same zones to the same risks repeatedly (e.g. lots of sun-driven evaporation or increased risk of fungal diseases). Might as well share/minimize the risks via randomization!
I get that while some of us might want this (see Randomize order of zones within schedule), others may count on a fixed watering order. Perhaps this is a check-box option?
Phew! That’s a lot of writing. Hopefully the background is helpful for everyone and folks who could use the same features that I’d like to see will chime in.
Thanks for reading!
