"It's raining!" in history, what triggers this?

Archive
1

… My hard-wired rain sensor, or the local weather service/station?

2

@ramblinwreck Hard-wired sensor. When it toggles back it will say, “It’s stopped raining”.

3

My apologies for bumping a post that is a couple of weeks old but this seems like a good spot for my question.

New user here who just installed the system to replace a dead RainBird. What an easy process! However, I have a rain sensor that was installed when we bought the house. I have never been certain of it’s functionality or even if it still works. I’ve got it wired and have enabled it on the app. I don’t see any status messages in the history. Is there any way to check it or validate it’s truly working short of waiting for a rainy day?

4

@Dyates I know that a lot of rain sensors have a way to ‘test’ them, sometime by clicking a button on the sensor. Those click events will show up in your device history. If you can’t find a way to test the sensor, send us over the make/model and we can determine if there is an easy way to test if the sensor is working for you.

Thanks!

5

My lawn (z1) runs at 5:06 AM. Early Saturday (April 25) rain was predicted, and it did rain sometime between midnight at 9 AM. However Rachio did not skip the 5:06 run.
However today (April 26) it is dry as a bone and this 5:06 AM run was skipped.

The e-mail alert “The weather service in your area has observed 0.28 inches of precipitation. Based on predicted weather in your area, we estimate that your yard will receive approximately 0.0 inches of precipitation. The estimated total for your device is 0.28 inches of precipitation over a 48 hour period.”

Why did it not skip the Saturday (April 25) watering?
I sort of understand why it skipped today (April 26) because it is looking at a 48 hour period.

6

franz: it’s a Hunter Mini-Clik. Looking at their website, I don’t see in the docs a test feature written up. So if you know, then that would be great. Worst case, big box store has one for $18 so could easily just get a new one. Thanks!

7

Wait, found it: http://www.hunterindustries.com/sites/default/files/IC_MiniClik_dom.pdf

Going outside to give it a try.

8

@seena_lawn, good morning. Thanks for reaching out.

Can you send an email to support@rachio.com? Our support team would be happy to review your account and make sure the correct settings are in place, as well as double check which weather station is being used.

Thanks, Emil

9

Hi @Dyates, here’s a support article with tips on testing your rain sensor:
http://support.rachio.com/article/230-rain-sensor-wiring-test

If your rain sensor isn’t working correctly, I’d recommend cleaning it:
http://support.rachio.com/article/229-rain-sensor-cleaning

Hope this helps.

Best, Emil

10

Ignore my question, I now understand what happened.

On Saturday (before 5:06) the rain was reported at 0.24, so it was not skipped as the trigger is 0.25. But on Sunday at 5:06, the amount for Saturday was now 0.28 so it triggered the 48 hour flag.

11

Hi @seena_lawn, no worries. I’d recommend lowering your weather intelligence/virtual rain sensor threshold from 1/4" (0.25) to 1/8" (0.125). To do this, please see #8 in http://support.rachio.com/article/116-watering-time-features

This would have skipped both days for you :smile:

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Best, Emil

12

Hi emil,

I couldn’t get the sensor to trigger it. I bought Orbit Rain/Freeze 57069. Triggered in history right away!

Thanks!

13

Hi @Dyates, glad to hear the Orbit Rain/Freeze sensor worked. Maybe the Hunter Mini-Clik had a cut wire… :confused:

Let us know if there’s anything else we can help with.

Thanks, Emil

14

I have a Hunter Wireless Rain Sensor which is about ten years old that is attached to my IRO. This past weekend, it rained enough to trigger the sensor and I received the “It is raining!” message on Sunday at 15:42. The rain stopped Monday morning before noon. Now it is Tuesday afternoon and I have not received the “It has stopped raining” message. Not sure if I need to setup some sort of rain delay on the IRO or if I have a malfunctioning rain sensor? Thanks.

15

Hi @landru, great question. From the sounds of it, your rain sensor is still drying out and hasn’t turned off yet. I’m not sure if you’ve checked the history feed yet, but we could see if we maybe just missed seeing the “It has stopped raining” message.

Assuming your rain sensor is still active, we might need to clean it, adjust it’s settings (a movable window that controls how quickly the internal discs dry out means, most sensors have a twisty collar at the base that either covers up or reveals the air vent, adjusting the speed of drying time and return to normal watering), and/or test it.

Just curious, what do you have the sensitivity set to? If it’s at 1/8", can we try 1/4" or 1/2" and see the same feedback is experienced?

I’d be happy to review your account in more detail if you’d like to double check. If so, please send us an email to support@rachio.com and copy the URL from this discussion for reference.

Hope this helps!

Thanks, Emil

16

Hi Emil and yes that did help, thanks. The twisty collar was completely shut which slowed down the dry-out time. Once I twisted it open to about halfway, the discs dried out in about an hour and I received the “It has stopped raining!” message. All is good.

The sensitivity is set to 1/4".

17

Hi @landru, good morning!

Perfect, I’m glad to hear it was an easy fix!

Let us know if there’s anything else we can help you with.

Best, Emil