Just FYI, your Rachio definitely can/does use the rainfall from your PWS, but none of the other information (from your PWS). That information it gets from larger stations, or multiple stations, but not yours.
Your explanation does not agree with what I was previously told when I specifically asked if the forecast came from my PWS or the NWS, or other weather sources.
I was told that Rachio (at least Gen 2) only uses the info from my PWS and “years of weather history that Rachio has on its servers”.
I don’t remember who told that.
This got me looking back at some of my posts. I asked a lot of complicated questions, and one of them was this from June 2018:
If a zone starts a day with current moisture balance of zero, as long as the forecasted rainfall for that day is greater than the evapotranspiration that is expected for that day, that zone will not water. In the case of my zone 5, on June 22, that zone was to end the day with current moisture balance of 0.26. But if it did not rain on June 22, it would end the day again at zero.
So, in that event it would start June 23 at zero (like it did on June 21 and June 22), with rainfall forecast of 0.24 inch and evapotranspiration forecast of 0.13, and it would not water that day either.
Assuming it did not rain on June 23, and if it did not rain on June 24 and June 25, each day would start at zero, but since rainfall for those days is forecast to be higher than evapotranspiration it would never water on those days either.
So, assuming the forecast does not change, and the forecast is wrong and it does not rain, is it possible that this zone would never run as long as this is the situation?
The answer to my question from “theflexdude” was:
Yes, it is definitely possible. We do take probability into consideration, but we can only be as accurate as the data from the weather provider.
My response was:
Perhaps occasionally it would be better to overwater rather than risk this happening. If a zone ends each day at zero for several days, perhaps the system should eventually run even if rain is forecast on, say, the third or fourth day this has happened, even if that were to risk an occasional over-water.
Now that I look back, this problem, and similar complications, may be why I gave up on Flex. I do remember that I had a lot of rain forecast, but it would not usually rain. Perhaps this is unique to SE FL.
That sounds like Flex Monthly. Flex Monthly absolutely uses history to determine how often to water. While Flex Daily only uses previous, current and future ET for each day to determine when to water (also considering rainfall; ET is calculated based on sunlight, wind, temperature and humidity I believe).
Of course, PWS are never used for forecasting, as they have no forecasting capability. I’m considering getting a PWS just for the rain, and have confirmed with them that only the (past) rainfall is used from them. Again, forecast rainfall is not obtained from any PWS, but from the weather forecast for the area. Last week, every station around me had 0.10" of rain, but my rain gauge had 0.70" in it, so I’d like it to be a bit closer.
I have not seen where irrigation would not occur when the moisture level approached zero, even if rain was forecast. I /have/ seen (with Flex Daily) where a lessor amount was watered, in addition to the rain which was forecast for the day. I could see Flex Monthly delaying one day after another, but don’t have as much experience with it, and of course you can’t see what the calculated moisture levels are, so it’s hard to say what it is going to (or supposed to) do.
And no, your case of continual rain forecast with none being received is not unique to SE Florida, although I’ve been though those days there enough to know they happen a LOT. 
I imagine Rachio has made tweaks to the way the Flex schedules work, but back in June 2018 I would have days and days where rain was forecast and I would start each day at zero, and Rachio would not run my irrigation due to rain that was forecast but never came.
I found it hard to believe that my Rachio could figure out the forecast from the data available from just my Davis weather station, but I specifically asked if it was getting the forecast from some other source and was informed that was not the case, it was just my PWS and the “many years of weather history”.
I do hope my Rachio is determining if it should perform a wind skip from my weather station, not the NWS or some other weather source.
Since I tried both Flex Daily and Flex monthly, the problem with my system not watering very well could be with Flex Monthly, I cannot remember all the details.
Using Fixed, with exact rain from my weather station, as well as forecast rainfall from wherever it gets it from, is working well for me. It is usually accurate, but every once in a while the forecast is not right and it may not water when it should due to the forecast, but does the next day. I specifically have Saturation Skip turned off. With that turned on, it misses too many days when it should water. I just use Rain Skip and Wind Skip for non-drip schedules.
Thanks, rraisley, for your comments!
As a former product developer, we would do usability studies on product user interfaces. How long do users suffer through trying to accomplish an assigned task? Can they figure out what screen/what control to use? Rachio initially was pretty straight forward IMHO, but the interface is now cluttered with advertisement news bulletins, and nonsense that has little to do with me starting or adjusting a particular circuit. The nozzles, and zones were set up years ago-- they don’t need much attention. However schedules and manual running are now my typical activity.
I am not a “lawn guru” and don’t really care if my lawn wins a blue ribbon at the fair-- I just don’t want it to die. Thus the weather report triggered adjustment to schedules is pretty cool feature. But occasionally I just want to manually run a schedule, or run a specific circuit, if things are looking a little dry. If you don’t use this tool frequently, and don’t recall that the “blue arrow” is the portal to what I consider the most frequent usage, it is a lot of poking around to figure out how to start things up.
Perhaps my usage is different than many others, but this is prime activity for me.
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I agree that it’s confusing. However, there’s more than one way to do it.
As programming languages developed, it became clear that specifying the data to be operated on first, then the action to be taken, is most logical and straightforward. In nearly all modern languages, you call a method on an object, not the other way around.
Likewise, in editing or spreadsheet applications, you first select e.g. some text or a range of cells, then choose the action to be performed.
Some natural languages also work that way. For example, to ask someone in Japanese to water the lawn, you might say “芝生に水をかけてください。”
Literally: 芝生 (lawn) に (at) 水 (water) を(object marker) かけて (call for) ください (please).
In app.rach.io, Rachio wisely used this paradigm. You can select a schedule or a zone, then click the button clearly labeled QUICK RUN. A computer literate person doesn’t need a manual to find this.
IMHO, Rachio doesn’t benefit from a mobile app (the website renders just fine on Android and iOS devices), but prospective buyers expect a smart device to have one, and instead of just mirroring the website, they decided to fork development into something catering to the millennial crowd.
They somehow thought it was cute to use a ‘play’ button to initiate watering, and since the word order of most Western languages is subject-verb-object, you tap this first, then select what to water. And, in a triumph of form over substance, there is no text on the button.
However, you’re apparently not the only one to complain. The mobile apps have been updated so when you select a schedule or zone, a QUICK RUN SCHEDULE or QUICK RUN ZONE button appears.
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This is a good read on the type of processes I like to follow for user centric designs.
https://usabilitygeek.com/user-centered-design-introduction/
I was delighted when I learned that the former ford CEO followed user centric design when building the new ford bronco. Innovations such as storage area for the removable roof came out of that process and it has been hailed as remarkable well thought through and designed.
I’m a big believer in that style of design with personas, desires and needs, user stories done well ahead of coding. I also like open APIs so that data can be integrated and correlated - and interestingly enough, that creates more stickiness for the product.
Hubitat integrates with rachio with rachio which I love, now if flume would as well then I would be really happy!
New user here. I have the Rachio 3 8-zone. I totally agree with the over complexity of the controller. When I had my system installed, the irrigation guy put in a dumb old tech Hunter controller. I upgraded to the Rachio 3 b/c a co-worker has a Rachio 2 and he said he loved it. I wanted a controller where I could set it and forget it. I put up with the setup of each zone, tried to best guess as I could. Then I set the controller on Flex Monthly and continued with my life. This summer 2020 my lawn was kind of brown but I had my irrigation running. Rachio watered my lawn every 5 days, running for 3+ hours for all 5 zones at a time. I didn’t think much about it b/c I bought this controller so I don’t have to think. Then recently when I extracted soil for a soil test using a soil extractor, I realized my soil was too dry!!! So I started to play around with the settings. The more I read the more those settings made sense. Instead of 1 single schedule, I created 2 to cover different zones and have them run on different days. The schedules are still flex monthly. With the adjustments, the lawn is now watered more deeply but the frequency is still every 5 days. I think that is too long so I have been trying to adjust the various settings to see if I could get it to water every 3 days. With my setting now the schedules run every other day. I have not had any success in having it run every 3 days. Take for example, the Crop Coefficient. I have it at 80% (cool season grass). Then keeping everything else the same, I lower it to 79. Schedules are still at every other day. Then 78. No change. Then 77. Suddenly the schedules switch to every 5 days! What the heck! Playing with other settings with small increments like that also produce big jump in frequency. I have spent hours on this and got very frustrated. Wish it would be simple as telling Rachio every so often “Hey my grass seems to turn brown” and let it adjust the parameters to get more water down until it could find a setting that works. I rather go extract the soil and let it know that how dry my soil is versus adjusting all these crazy parameters.
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With the work that you’ve done, you might want to give Flex Daily a try. Flex Monthly wokrs on historical data, while Flex Daily works on current data. Just make sure to find a reliable PWS nearby to track your precipitation.
Most likely you’ve been experiencing a year with less precipitation than normal.
Mine is set and forget for the most part. I only have to “not forget” if we get too much rain and my soil gets super-saturated, and that’s not often.
Yup, I switched from Flex Monthly to Flex Daily and the frequency seemed to be better. Flex Monthly is more suitable for someone who lives in a region where historically the weather is the same year over year, like the Sahara desert or Antarctica. With my region in the Midwest USA the weather is pretty erratic so Flex Daily would be more suitable.
yes, not only way to complicated, but try to find someone with the knowledge and willingness to help you program!
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Totally agree!
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I’m curious if people ever use the Adjust “Water a Lot More/Water a Little More/Water a Little Less/Water a Lot Less” feature. That seems to be what a lot of people are looking to do, but I never see it mentioned.
where is this feature?
@philospher77 The enhanced watering and other features that I mentioned are only available through a subscription to Rachio Thrive Lawn Champion. Once the subscription has been activated in the app, you can access these features from the Yard tab.
I want to clarify that your Rachio 3 smart Irrigation controller that you purchased from Costco has access to Rachio Thrive premium features such as Yard Journal, Cultivate tab, Yard Troubleshooting, and our latest smart watering feature Enhanced Watering which adapts your watering schedule based on your input. You can read more about those features here
Hope this helps answer your questions
So this is only available to Thrive customers? Seems like it applies more to those who are watering, than fertilizing, and is basically something that people have been asking for for years. Including me.
Just curious: Does it keep track of the changes you make, allowing you to see how much you’ve modified the settings and/or get back to the original times?
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@rraisley - that is what @dane - say in another thread those features are only available through the thrive subscription hopefully or maybe we’ll get those features 
I’m just as curious as you are as to how it works
Quote from the link that anthony posted:
Enhanced Watering with Thrive Feature
Our new adaptive watering feature learns from your watering input and makes subtle adjustments to your watering over the seasons without the need for more complicated adjustments to your watering schedule. Make selections in the app to water a little less or a little more, depending on your yard’s needs.*
yet, on the front page:
I own the Rachio Smart Sprinker Controller (version 3).
I also own the Rachio app.
According the front page it states that i will get the automation for watering “aka the brain” in the controller, and that the app will dedicate itself to making the most of every drop of water with customized schedules.
Thrive is marketed as nutrient treatments providing natural microalgae.
Thrive has now taken over at least a part of customizing the the water schedules, despite the front page stating that this is part of the rachio app.
Costco is mentioned nowhere.
Are you guys sure you are truthful in advertising and honest with your customers?
This doesn’t feel right to me, at least be honest with it on your front page that some watering features is part of thrive and that rachio alone won’t let you customize the schedules, thrive is required for some customization.
Personally i wish you kept rachio focused on watering and thrive focused on nutrients. Blending value proposition this way comes across a bit dishonest.
my few cents.
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But all that is in the basic app. The only thing the Thrive added that I can tell is the buttons for the adaptive watering, which admittedly I haven’t played much with since my system is pretty well dialed in. There may be some hidden adjustments made when they know you are putting down the Thrive product, but the intelligence is there with the standard Rachio app and controller. I think you are overthinking this a bit.
I can’t see anything on the home page that describes the functionality and capabilities of the system i purchased that states that any customization of the water schedules happens in a different offering than in the Rachio App.
I made a purchase decision based on being able to customize water scheduling without having to purchase a subscription. Its actually touted as one of the benefits in the FAQ. I for sure would have liked to have this capability for my system without having to purchase thrive. i just mucked around with my settings to do the equivalent function of “little bit more” just this week.
Its strange to me that ease of use improvements in water schedules are sold as part of an fertilization service.
Imagine if you buy a Tesla but the only way you would get the self parallel parking feature is that its activated only if the car is charged by a Tesla solar panel on your roof that you must purchase separately despite Tesla promising that all driving features are included with the purchase of the car.
The “a little bit more” and “a little bit less” should probably have been included in the base offering.
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