If I set Zone to water daily, will the schedule skip unnecessary days?

Already done. Many years ago. Not your fault. :wink:

Lacking anything else, I guess. It is VERY unusual to have 14 zones and have them all be about the same area. Maybe in a big rectangular area, but that’s about it. It would really be better if you could /measure/ the area. It might be hard using the area tool, but still, might be possible. I’d be happy to help if it just involves mapping out with it. And also measure the l/min by checking the flow over a period of time.

I think those are very good /average/ values. But longer lines and distances reduce flow. But if areas for a zone vary and if actual flow in cm/min vary, then times would, and should, vary as well.

Do you have or can you make a map that shows outlines of the zones, preferably by number?

I can certainly say for definite that each zone has between 9 and 12 nozzles, but I would agree that the areas could differ quite a bit.

I know of a couple who are travelling down to Spain on 4th Jan, so I will possibly ask them to bring the unit with them for me, and hand it over to the Administrator & Gardener.

They will be staying there for a few months, so I have a real opportunity to get them involved, putting Shared Access into place and have them even mapping out the areas for me to measure with the tool. I can start with the 20mins and work away from that with one or two zones.

The advantage I have is that the couple in question have an apartment on the ground floor, and so have a grass garden right in front of their terrace. So I would hope that they will get involved, dig a sod in the garden and be checking the moisture and root depth etc. They could also hopefully verify the soil type as clay.

Have you any suggestions for settings for a drip line. Two zones have long snaking pipes with lots of drip nozzles.

Again, while the number of nozzles may stay the same, the flows may not. Flow is affected by pressure, nozzle setting, length and size and elbows in pipe, etc. Measuring flow for each zone is quick and simple. That combined with area lets you calculate Rachio’s Nozzle cm/hr.

That sounds like a good plan.

Yes and no. There are some spreadsheets out there to help with this. But if the drip line soaks THE ENTIRE AREA of the zone, I have had success of using the same method for measuring AREA and NOZZLE FLOW and plugging it in. Hopefully the zone has only drip lines, not spray heads too. I have found that drip lines can take a long time to run, and as they don’t interfere with activities, usually run mine during the day or other time it does not interfere with your main lawn schedule. I also run it on a separate schedule for drip lines, due to timing, etc.

Drip lines thankfully have taps at plants and bushes, so they end up with damp 1ft spots every few feet. I could be wrong but I think I remember something about 50 litres which would have been the 20 mins total.

Thankfully my friends have agreed to help out with testing and measuring. The important part is obviously that they are watching the zones to ensure that the grass does not dry out.