Hi all,
Installed Rachio 16 v2 yesterday. The process was straightforward and relatively easy!
Replaced an Irritrol that have been using for a number of years.
My questions are regarding schedule programming.
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Irritrol was limited to 4 programs (A,B,C,D). It seems the Rachio can schedule an unlimited number of programs, is this correct? This seems like it would enable better granularity of matching my 9 zones (out of 16) to the right water requirements.
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I am used to having to figure out a schedule of zones and programs (schedules) that would not overlap in time so as to reduce watering pressure. Each new schedule now defaults to 5am. Do I leave it at 5, and expect it to figure out when to water, or do I do the same calculations and change the start times for each schedule?
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Is there any comprehensive view of the complete schedule that would make #2 easier to avoid conflicts?
For the initial setup I pretty much mirrored what the Irritrol was programmed for (fixed days) with the exception of 2 zones for lawn, and 1 for roses (flexible daily). Other zones include:
3 for general landscape trees and desert shrubs
2 zones for pots
1 for an Olive hedge
Everything is on emitter with the exception of the lawn which uses the VAN heads mentioned elsewhere.
Need to do the rain cup test for the lawn, and figure out the mapping from gph to in/hour for the emitters next.
Great product! My initial impression could not be better.
Suggestion for Rachio - I imagine many new customers are coming from traditional controllers like Irritrol. Would be helpful to have an FAQ on how the programming approach differs from those other systems. I, for one, am very glad to be freed from that old model!
thanks,
Dan