Love most of what this controller does, but I’ve been thrashing with what seems like an obvious requirement that is just escaping me. Occasionally (for example, to inspect all of your emitters to make sure they are functioning as expected), it is desirable to manually run a complete schedule (eg several zones with predefined watering times). As far as I can tell, the Quick Run feature requitres me to manually enter the appropriate watering time (if default 3 minutes is insufficient) for each zone…settings I’ve already made when I created the schedule. Am I being dense or is manual schedule run just not supported?
Most of the automation here is great. Love the remote control and record-keeping, but some acknowledgement of basic maintenance requirements and ad hoc watering needs would help. Hope someone can assist???
If you go to the schedule tab and tap on a schedule, there’s a Quick Run button at the top of the schedule settings. That particular Quick Run button should run the full schedule — it has worked for me at least for schedules with one zone. The quick run button at the home screen, for me, does require entering a time.
Thanks, @Kubisuro. Well, duh! Interface kind of implies the Quick Run button will act the same way every time you see it, but you are correct, it behaves differently in different contexts (eg screens). Developers were maybe a bit more subtle (opaque?) than required here…
Hey, Rachio friends…why not include a bit more info on the Quick Run button so context is maybe spelled out for dense people like me…“Quick Run a schedule” and “Quick Run a zone(s)”? Maybe other contexts, too? Not sure how many there are.
I second the request to rename the home page button to “Quick Run a Zone(s)” and the button on the schedule page to “Quick Run a Schedule”. I’ve only owned the Rachio for a couple of days. It took me a while to figure out that they functioned differently. I’m still learning about the Rachio, but I like what I’ve see so far. Very cool product!
The Quick Run is an awesome feature. It seems like it was designed just like the 2 min test as they use on many of the older Irritrol controllers. The 3 minute default run time makes more sense anyways as some of us encounter more drip irrigation zones and it takes longer to inspect those as is.
A good feature to add in, would be an advance to the next zone button so that those of us that do often sprinkler checks would be able to move on to the next zone without having to wait for the full 2 or 3 minute countdown.
Haven’t used it in awhile so I could be wrong but isn’t there a button at the bottom to advance to the next zone in the Quick Run mode from the front screen? Kind of like the “advance track” button in a Music app.
Sorry to dig this one back up but I just stared using the Rachio this spring and already my first scheduled run was cancelled (due to 11% chance of rain? hmmm). I tried to run it anyway, but all I get is the “quick run” you mention. Unlike zone quick runs, this one does not prompt me for a time and simply waters 5 minutes each zone. This is a grow-in schedule - I need to run the schedule for its allowed time and don’t want to re-run for 5 minutes at a time. How do I simply run the schedule as its set, not as a dumbed-down demo?
You’ll need to go tap the Yard button, then tap the zone that has the schedule you’re interested in, then tap the appropriate schedule listed under that zone under “in schedule”. Quick Run button should appear at the upper right corner on the schedule screen.
The ability to “Quick Run” an entire schedule is great, but my Gen 3 does not give the ability to schedule that for the same time the schedule would normally run (i.e. in the middle of the night). If I do a “Quick Run”, it starts the entire run immediately. Like @gopherhockey, my system skipped an entire run this morning based off of 0.01” of actual rain last night with a 10% (and now 0%) chance of rain for tonight Don’t exactly feel like getting up at 1am tomorrow morning to manually start a “Quick Run” but I guess I’ll have to since the lawn already looks stressed because of the skip this morning after a week of mid-90s heat and no rain.
I’d be surprised if, assuming it’s a flex schedule, it didn’t schedule a run tomorrow morning after today’s skip. Take a look at the moisture table to see what the heck it intends to do and maybe avoid a 1 am alarm. If it still does not plan to irrigate tomorrow because of forecasted precipitation and you know it’s not coming, time to setup a fixed schedule with start and end dates (e.g 7/23 and 7/24) and appropriate run time. With rachio there should be no reason to wake up at 1am to manually do a run. Fixed irrigation run times should add to the flex schedule accounting.
Hi @Matt2444 - schedules can be run through Quick Run, accessible on the home screen. If you tap the blue play button at the bottom of the home screen it will pull up the option to run zones or schedules. Here’s what that looks like:
And on my iPad the blue play button is positioned as shown below. I wanted to manually run a schedule earlier today and couldn’t figure out how to do it. Came here to the forum and thankfully stumbled upon this thread. Not only can I manually Quick Run any number of zones via this button, but can manually run a schedule that I’ve already setup, even if the schedule has been disabled. Good stuff. Would be helpful to add a button label though. I’ve been afraid to tap it until today! @Matt2444@Kubisuro
@franz, even as a long time customer, I find the new quick run button a little confusing as well. Since it’s sitting right next to the ad for Thrive, at first it makes me think it is going to play a video about Thrive. As a new user, I would have no idea what that button is going to do. Maybe the icon could include some kind of spray of water with it? Or even an old-fashioned label?
Yeah, I could see that. Did you get a tutorial with the update? I was testing controller provisioning and for new accounts we do have a couple screens explaining the dashboard.
It is fashionable for products to get rid of words and use cute icons. I’ve got products with six or seven absolutely incomprehensible icons next to each other and, without finding and reading a manual, there is no way to tell what those buttons are going to do. I hope the fad of removing English language text dies an appropriate death.
Some smart companies with good UI designers give the user the option of displaying 1) text only, 2) icon only, or 3) BOTH text and icon.
I am a Rachio newbie (unit hasn’t even arrived yet but I am getting prepared). Anyway, this “Quick run a schedule (with multiple zones in the schedule)” is an important use case for me. Now that I see that it can be done, I am wondering if there would be a way to initiate this action using Alexa (Amazon Echo).
Don’t exactly feel like getting up at 1am tomorrow morning to manually start a “Quick Run” but I guess I’ll have to since the lawn already looks stressed because of the skip this morning after a week of mid-90s heat and no rain.
Normally your interface is pretty straight forward.