The calculation that the unit uses from weather data is waaaay off sometimes. Especially in the summer. The app will say the ground moisture is 90% and if I put a moisture sensor in the same zone it’s 60%.
Read an article about adding a moisture sensor to Rachio. I got the Toro which I have read is supported but when I go to enable it (connected to the accessory terminal) the only options are Rain and Flow. And when I enable it as a rain I get the message that all schedules will be skipped but the schedules still look in tact. Seems like it’s using the accessory as rain and not moisture. I have a Tempest so I am covered on rain skip.
Is there any way to connect ground moisture sensor to the Rachio that it will read and use the data to determine skip for ground saturation?
Understand that the moisture percentage in Rachio is a function of soil capacity and allowed depletion. 0% is what your AD is (default 50%), and 100% is field capacity based on soil type.
So you actual soil moisture probe isn’t reading returning the same information.
There is also the eyeball test. The Rachio says the ground moisture is 85% and I walk out and observe the ground being bone dry and cracking. I think there are too many variables (such as a part of the yard being in sun vs shade all day) for it to accurately estimate if watering is needed. I set it to flex and let it do it’s thing skipping when it felt the moisture was good and the grass started to turn brown from lack of water so had to disable that function. Be a great feature if it worked with a physical ground sensor
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Not knowing your setup, it is hard to say, but Flex Daily works very well for many. But, setup, and accurate settings are imperative for it to work properly.
