First to say I am a new user of just a couple of weeks, so maybe there is something I am missing, yet I have experimented with several programs without being able to get it to do what I want.
It’s a nice system, but frankly speaking it is not as flexible as a competitive product I had in the house I just sold and moved here.
It seems that the system is only good a REDUCING water but not increasing water on days when it is extra hot. My plants dried out and almost died because it thought there was so much rain that the ground was already soaked. It wasn’t. So “saturation skip” and “rain skip” doesn’t work for me. Further, even though I programmed it to run every day, it seems to want to bypass some days without telling me why.
Another thing I miss is that when I would click on a zone with my old competitive controller, I could easily click “run now” and it would run at my programmed number of minutes. The Rachio defaults to 3 minutes instead of my programmed minutes which is an extra step to take. And getting it to run a whole cycle on all zones is even more clicks.
Overall, it is a nice system and I like the wind skip feature and the interface is nice.
Sounds like you have flex daily schedule set up. It is a fully dynamic schedule that doesn’t “skip” in the traditional sense, it just adjusts on the fly.
If you want it to run every day, then just set up fixed schedules. Otherwise, try dialing in your zones and let the magic of Flex Daily Scheduling do its thing.
As for the quick run, you can hit the quick run button in the app, tap schedules, and it will run a full schedule for you…
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Well now, that sounds encouraging. I will try that information and report back in a couple weeks when I get home. I have sent probably 5 hours experimenting with it so far without having it do what I expect. Your information sounds like it might work. I wish there were a detailed tips and tricks doc somewhere to explain what some of those terms mean in the software. Maybe that exists and I just haven’t found it. The user guide I found online isn’t very helpful. Still, I think this system is better overall than any past system I have used. Oh, and much thanks.
There are a number of articles on the Rachio page, as well as a ton of information around the community here. Bellow are just a few articles from Rachio, or search around the community. Even better, post your zone details (screenshots are very helpful) and the community can help out!
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FABULOUS. MUCH thanks. Oh and those topics are exactly the questions I was wondering about.
Realized I don’t need to be at home to look at my settings 
Actually, I did have a flex schedule set, but I made some stupid settings that caused the schedule not to run every day. After more experimentation and help from here, I think I am getting the hang of it. Really like your suggestion on how to quick run a full program. I somehow didn’t figure that out by playing around in the app.
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Well, when you really want to geek out, post your zone settings (standard and advanced) and the community can help you dial things in. You will have better success with the Flex Daily schedules if you get the zone settings dialed in.
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Good idea. Appreciated. At this point, I think I have figured things out with more experimentation, yet especially visiting the pages here. One thing that would have saved me from trying to figure things out is if there would have been a link in the app or in the web interface that would take me to related topics on here. Example, I looked at the zone settings and wondering about soil type and zone type. It would have been nice to have a link with a caption of something like “More Info on Web” and take me directly to the information pages that you and others have so nicely pointed me to on here. It is a BIG help after readying those topics. 
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I’m on a LOT of forums of various types and this certainly tops the list of most impressive.
I got to tell my sister about this product. Hers is from the Fred Flintstone era which probably explains why the front yard looks like the Amazon jungle and she is frustrated. 
Well, and those articles are fantastic, but with literally hundreds of combinations of sprinkler types and nozzle types, it is still a pretty general overview. Much like the default settings for given nozzle type in Rachio, they have to try and cover as many of the options out there as possible. The catch cup test is indeed the most comprehensive way to confirm nozzle PR (inches per hour), but there are other ways to try and dial things in better.
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