It’s already doing that. Problem solved!
It was trying to do that and you thought it seemed excessive and manually backed it way down.
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I’m not a rocket scientist, but it is a basic calculation:
precipitation rate = nozzle inches of water / hours
Water applied (inches) = precipitation rate X time run (in hours)
The hours cancel out and you are left with inches of water.
And I never said Rachio sucks, I said they have a bug in their software.
I think their calculation for optimal run time is slick, but I want to be able to override it according to my budget constraints.
No, it’s not because it is ignoring my budget constraints.
Ok, and how much water do you think Rachio should be putting down?
It’s not what I think it should put down. I agree with their calculation that it should be watering more. I’m sure I’ve said it before that the system should not assume how much water was added to the soil. It knows how long it ran a zone and from the advanced settings, it knows how many inches of water per hour. Why can’t it use what it already knows?
If you manually change the durations on a flex zone, Rachio will assume you know better than it how much water will fill up the zone. There has been disagreement here before on whether this is a good idea or not, but that is the way it is currently. So if you lower the duration from 4 hrs to 1hr, Rachio thinks the lawn has filled to capacity, when it actually has only filled 25%. The best way to fix this would be to adjust your settings until you reach the desired run time that you would like. Shorten the root depth, lower the water capacity, and decrease your efficiency even more. Your sprinkles will then have a lower run time and run more often.
Edit: Actually lowering efficiency will increase run time, but based on your catch cup analysis, this may be a good idea once you have your settings where you like them.
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I totally agree with @tmcgahey 100% a month ago I started one of my zones with flexible daily schedule that zone used to run for 30 minuets. When that zone was turning little bit brown on me I had all the settings dialed in except for mine nozzle and I switch mine from 1” inch to 0.61 until I do a catch cup test and with the great counsel from @tmcgahey. @franz. And @azdavidr.
That zone it’s looking more healthy than ever before I have neighbors drive by and asking me what is it that I been doing to my grass that is looking so green and mine answer to them is you need to get a Rachio sprinkler controller in your house and then you see how your will change.
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I’m going to take the thread tension down a notch.
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It didn’t work. Your GIF makes me angry for some reason.
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I don’t think so, I watch flex schedule like a hawk and it’s tip top.
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Yes, it will rain skip if you select a weather station. In this case it works like the Rain Bird and Hunter wifi controllers. I prefer the flex schedule. In some places like north Texas they can only water one or two times a week. It really makes no sense to bother with a smart controller, with the exception of having smartphone interface.
I get great performance out of my PGJ’s and use PGP’s where they haven’t been replaced with PGJ’s instead of MPR’s. I get great coverage at 20’+ with my PGJ’s. You just need to set them up right, plenty of nozzles, and have at least 75 PSI in water pressure. These have replaced the big Rainbird Golf Course Pop Up’s. I have one all by itself in the middle of my backyard as a fill in and it’s doing the job of a PGP. Although the outer edges are all PGP’s. Mine have been installed for at least 10 years and if one goes out on its own I call up Hunter and they replace it. I had several stacked up waiting to send all at once and they sent me a case. I have well over 30,000 sqft and mostly use PGJ’s.
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I like to use the Rainbird Falcon series heads on the bigger turf areas. I manage a few sports fields with those.
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What is the frequency and duration of your lawn watering? Where do you live?