My HOA only lets me water 4PM-10AM on these nights, but Rachio only lets me pick specific days

i just got a new Rachio controller and am eager to use it! Problem is, my homeowners association only allows me to water the lawn between Tuesday 4 PM and Wednesday 10 AM, and between Friday 4 PM and Saturday 10 AM. The Rachio iPhone app only lets me pick specific days. If I set the Rachio to water on Wednesday and Saturday, then I’m missing half the night, and if it decides to water at the end of those days then the HOA can complain to me.

I’d love to be able to tell the Rachio controller what hours it’s allowed to water, and then let it decide when (or whether) to water during those times.

Choose a fixed schedule for Tuesday and Friday with a start time at 4pm. It should be done by 10am the next day.

1 Like

Won’t that make it start its cycle at exactly 4 PM, and not run after midnight? I want to let it pick the best time to water within the allowed range.

I’ve had our 16 zone gen 2 for several months, and with some helpful (and appreciated!) advice from a few folks here, wound up setting up a Flexible Daily schedule. My lawn is mowed on Thursdays, so I did NOT want it wet then – so I manually selected the other 6 days for “Will Water”. I set “Start After” to 5am, and turned Smart Cycle on. I had already configured the zones (soil, plants, slope, etc.) when I first set up the device, and the only other changes I’ve made since then have been to experiment with the choice of different weather stations in my area.

Net: the system works exactly as I had hope: the flexible schedule only waters when my lawn needs it, only on one of the six allowed days, and whenever it does happen, watering starts at 5am. That has worked beautifully for me.

As I re-read your note – I was probably too quick to fire off the comment above. Looks like you want the system to determine what time of day is optimal for watering within the allowed time window. I’m guessing that there will be little difference in irrigation benefit due to choice of time-of-day; if there IS a difference, e.g., temperature is more conducive somehow to water absorption at midnight vs. 10pm… I’m guessing this will pretty much be a constant for the vast majority of situations. If I were trying to do this, I’d do some local research, set the flexible schedule as above, and then just pick a single “optimal” time of day for the program to always start. I realize now that’s what you were probably hoping to avoid – sorry if my answer was overly simplistic. But if there IS a significant difference in watering success depending on specific hour during your approved 18 hour window, I’d love to learn more about that from anyone who can shed some light on the topic!

Jon

I’m not sure if you have an 8 or 16 zone controller.

Where I am in North Texas, cities have a 10am to 6pm no-water window. I have customers with 16 zone controllers. I start all my times at 12am and the schedule has never run past 10am. I think you will be fine.

Does the HOA pay your water bill? :sunglasses:

1 Like

I have an 8-zone controller (and am using only five zones).

My concern is that if I set my system to water on Tuesday, and I set it to start at 4 PM, then it will either start exactly at 4 PM (which isn’t a great time, as it’s still a hot afternoon/evening here in Florida) or else it’ll start at night and then stop exactly at midnight before it’s complete. What does it do in this situation?

And no, I pay my water bill, which is a large chunk of my monthly water bill, which is why I got a Rachio in the first place :slight_smile:

@jonstrong - I just want to tell the Rachio what times it’s allowed to water, and let it figure the rest out on its own. I don’t want to have to decide whether the best time is to tell it to start - that’s the whole point of the Rachio in the first place.

Sorry to hear you’re having issues. My system has run flawlessly since day one. I found it easier to program with my laptop rather than my smart phone however since I got my new Note 8 it’s just as easy. I had issues with my husband’s iPhone 6+ as well, it wasn’t the product, it was the phone. Try setting up the program on a computer, we are on watering days/hours as well and we will get fined if we run on other days. Good luck!!!