Is a Rain Sensor the answer?

Accessories & Sensors
1

I’ve noticed my Rachio keeps watering even when it’s been wet, very wet! This morning for example it commenced watering, even though we’d had 9 hours of rain the previous evening. Looking on WU, it appears 3 or 4 of the nearest weather stations to me are showing no rain, it’s only when I went further afield, I found a station that had recorded the rain.

I’ve temporarily selected that station, but I was wondering would a rain sensor assist, or does that only skip the program if it’s raining at the time it’s due to start rather than reviewing the rain over the last 24 hours?

2

I like having ours. The weather at our house can be different from the closest station a couple miles away especially during summer thunderstorms.

It looks like this when it kicks in (not normally at the same time).

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3

Thanks @scorp508, when it activates does it only stop the schedule whilst raining, and then restart them as usual? E.g. if I have scheduled run at 8am and it’s raining from 1am - 6am will it still water at 8am?

4

The sensor is kind of like a small collection cup. I need to go check but I think ours is set to 1/4" of rain. Once it collects 1/4" or more no schedule will run until the water in it evaporates and lowers the float below the trip point. If it collected 1/2" then it would skip schedules longer than if it collected 3/8" if the heat/sunlight/humidity were the same.

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5

A rain sensor will do what you want but beware that it disables ALL zones so if you have a greenhouse, that will not get watered either.

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