Sorry if this has already been asked/answered. I did a quick search and did not find anything.
I’ve been a happy Rachio v.2 owner for several years now. I have a v.3 coming in the mail tomorrow because I just lost the v.2 due to a lightning storm. In any case, I was thinking of installing a master valve and a wired flow meter as my irrigation is hooked up to a private well that feeds both my irrigation and home to prevent damage or running my well dry should a pipe burst, etc.
Long story short, I know that master valves can cause a lot of wear and tear on the irrigation plumbing and I’m concerned with the water supply/pressure being shut off/turned on repeatedly. The irrigation was installed with standard pressure pipe, not schedule 40… (came with the house).
My question is whether the Rachio can be set to only turn off the master valve if a leak is detected instead of on/off with every cycle. This would reduce the wear and tear and also give me the peace of mind should a pipe burst, etc., that the valve would auto-close.
@chiaramontef - I’m not aware of the option to only close the master valve when there is a leak. Is there a well recovery period set? If not, then I think the master valve will stay open during the entire run, unless there is a soaking period where nothing is watering. Another option to consider turning on is the reduce water hammer option as that will remove the jolt of the prior valve closing before the next valve opens.
I’d install a master valve tomorrow if I could keep it open always except for when a leak is detected. It would save a lot of the wear a master valve brings to the system and would provide redundancy to the other valves in case of a leak. Seems like a no brainer.
Rachio is primarily designed to use master valve in front of zone valves. Because they are in series, having just one valve shut off, or several, will not make a difference from the standpoint of water flowing or being stopped.
What is your setup? Pumps are usually run with pressure tanks & pressure switches, in which case water hammer is not an issue, or via a pump start relay, in which case an additional master valve is not needed.
