Leak detection Behavior of Rachio 3 Flow Meter

Getting Started Wireless Flow Meter
1

I have two Rachio 2’s. I plan on replacing them with two Rachio 3’s plus one flow meter. The flow meter will be weird in this situation I believe. I have one Backflow device, the flow meter will be installed there.

Let’s call the two Rachio 3’s R1 and R2 and the Flow meter is “FM”. R1 will be paired with FM. Also note, R2 will only water once a month - all night long. Assume in this there is no time in which both R1 and R2 are watering. I will run flex daily schedules on R1 and a fixed schedule on R2.

How will R1 behave leak detection wise when R2 is watering ? I see two possible answers.

Answer 1: R1 only detects leaks when it has a station running. As a result of no overlaps in
R1/R2 watering times - there is no issue other than R2 water flow will not be measured.

Answer 2: R1 always detects leaks. So whenever R2 is running, R1 will see it as a leak. Secondary
questions in this case. Q: will R1 measure the amount of the leak with the flow meter ?
Q: Can R1 leak detection be configured to “off” or to “Off” at certain times ?

Another question: Do I get any utility of of replacing my 2nd Rachio 2 with R2 (my 2nd Rachio 3) in
this situation ?

Another question: Will the flow meter detect small leaks when no station is watering ? Like 1 gallon/hour ?

2

I now see from online documentation that Answer 2 is the case re anomaly flows as it includes “when no schedules are running”. This is part of the answer to the online question “What notifications will the Rachio Wireless Flow Meter send?”. I’d still love to know my secondary questions under that Answer above. That is, is it just a notification and that’s it - or is the amount of the leak recorded into the flow data ? Also can you configure anomalous flow detection in anyway via software ? and what is the lowest flow the flow meter can detect ?

3

Also, from tech support - for those curious, the Rachio 3 flow meter is sensitive to between 0.5 and 0.25 GPM. Meaning to me that it will detect a leak above that when no stations are watering. That’s pretty good I believe, but even a leak at 0.25 GPM would be $100 month here in Los Angeles - so it’s no replacement for a Master Valve. (I wish I could own a wireless master valve).