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Moisture sensor and water flow meters

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#1

I’m having an entire irrigation system installed with approximately 5zones. I want to automate as much as possible. I’m installing fertigation and a smart controller. I’m debating on the best controller, including Wyze, Rachio and others. I want a flow meter and a moisture sensors for each zone.

What flow meter will work best? You’d think this would be an easy answer but i can’t seem to find the thread that answers this question.

What moisture sensors work best? Again, should be an easy answer but nope.

The irrigation companies in my area don’t seem to be very advanced with anything other than basic installation of plumbing.

I want the controller to use ground moisture in its algorithm when deciding to water. I want the flow meter to know if a leak occurs and the controller shuts off the flow. I am gone a lot and want to have automation as much as possible.

I’m really struggling with these issues. If you were installing from scratch what would you use and how would you automate?

#2

You can find the flow meter compatibility and installation here:
https://support.rachio.com/en_us/wired-flow-sensor-compatibility-and-installation-Syo0DIyYw

From the page, Rachio says that the Everydrop meters are the cost/performance leader in wired flow meters and are fully compatible with the controller.

As for the moisture sensor, I’m not as familiar but you may be able to do some digging in the help center here: https://support.rachio.com/?_ga=2.186658344.1846543075.1614614708-1091422550.1599582718

Hope that helps!

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#3

Thank you, I’ll dig into the links a bit and see what I come up with.

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#4

I am using the wireless tag moisture sensors in my yard.
https://wirelesstag.net/

Just a fair warning that the moisture sensor devices seem to have a high failure rate (2 failed out of 10 for me).

On the flip side they are fairly cheap and so plan on ordering a couple extras.

The readings from them in an outdoor setting has been a bit inconsistent.

The sensor is not very deep and so it is not useful beyond about 4.5 inches in the ground).

It also requires an additional hub connected to your home network and you can only communicate with the sensors through the wireless tag servers (and not directly through the hub).

I have found the tags to be useful as a measurement device to fine tune my rachio settings but they are not useful in a fully automated setting unfortunately.

#5

I’ve been looking for something like this - thanks for the link.

I did a quick read and didn’t see how you would integrate this with Rachio. Is there a direct link, or something like a. IFTTT skull?

Thanks.