New house doesnt have internet yet..can i still set up a rachio 3?

Troubleshooting
1

as title says - i will not be moving into my new home until mid june. however i would like to keep the grass green until that time. would i be able to still set up a rachio 3 by directly connecting via my phone to set up - or does the rachio 3 always needs to be connected online?

i am hoping i can set up the system by connecting via phone to the control unit and setting up run times…

thanks,

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To do the initial connection, you need two phones. Set one up as a mobile hotspot, then run the app on the other to connect Rachio to the hotspot network. Once connected, you don’t need the second phone anymore; you can run the app (or visit app.rach.io) on the hotspot phone to set up your schedules. If you create only fixed schedules, they will run indefinitely without an internet connection.

If you haven’t installed the new Rachio yet, another possibility is setting it up on your old home’s Wi-Fi and programming schedules as desired. Then, take it over to the new place and connect it up. You can make your phone a hotspot with the same SSID (network name) and password as you have in the old home, to test that the zones are operating as expected. When you move in, if you configure the new Wi-Fi with the same SSID and password as the old, all your devices (including Rachio) should continue to work without any settings changes.

1 Like
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awesome. thank you so much for this answer. totally understand what you are saying and the process.

thanks!

4

@wgdavis78 - what @Stewart said is correct. However, I would use FIXED schedules until you have permanent WiFi. Rachio needs internet connectivity for weather information (rain - forecasted or actual, wind and temperature) for any delays and temperature, wind, etc. for evapotranspiration (for the Flex type schedules). If Flex schedules are set up they will have one update for the next two weeks in this situation, so they won’t adjust for any rain or high temperature after the initial setup. After two weeks, the schedule will revert to running every three days.

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If you don’t have a second phone, can you set it up with just a router providing a wifi network, or does Rachio always need internet?

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@bmann78 - Internet is needed for the initial setup, after that with fixed schedules Rachio can continue to run - but without weather updates.