I’m a new Rachio user, refugee from Rain Bird. My Rain Bird was programmed by the installer to water 2 mins for each of the 4 Zones I have. I live in Northern VA where it’s 80-90 and sunny in the summer without water restrictions.
The Rachio Flex daily schedule estimates 267 minutes of water total for the first run. These are vastly different numbers. Reading through the posts, the first watering will be conservatively high and it will adjust over time.
What have some users in the Mid Atlantic US seen as normal watering in the summertime using Flex Daily?
I am not in the area, but I thought I would reply. When you first start, I believe Rachio starts thinking the moisture content of the soil is 0%, so it needs to get caught up. You can always water it until you think it is good and then tell Rachio that the soil moisture is 100%. Two minutes sounds low for encouraging deep roots. Have you gone to the advanced zone settings to set your sprinkler head type, soil type, etc.?
Thanks for the reply. I have set the soil type, sprinkler head type, zone drawings , etc… I have multiple sprinkler head types in the same zones, so with the radio button choices I chose “generic”. I would expect to have checkboxes so I could choose the mixture of sprinkler head types I have in each zone.
I haven’t found where to tell Rachio what % the soil moisture is already watered, so that might be a good options.
We’d have to know what your zone settings are to really know for sure, but I don’t see how 2 minutes of run time could be doing much of anything unless you have some REALLY high PR nozzles on your sprinklers!
Post some screen shots of your settings (both basic and advanced) as well as a rundown of your zones (sprinkler type, manufacturer or model is hugely helpful).
When viewing a particular zone, near the top, you should see “Soil Moisture”, tapping on that should give you a graph and options to “Empty” or “Fill” the level.
I agree with @tmcgahey and was about to mention that, especially the “Nozzle Inches Per Hour”. As he was saying, screenshots would be the most helpful. If they are pretty much the same, one zone would probably be sufficient (area or map do not make much difference). Also, what type of schedule(s) did you set up (fixed, flex monthly, or flex daily)?
I’m using a Flex Daily Schedule and this is only my 1st full day (install yesterday)
Here’s a screenshot of Zone1 :
Here’s a screenshot of the schedule:
Looks like your zone is at 84% soil moisture. Did you find the graph from there? If you can provide more screenshots of the zone, that would be good. Hit edit to get basic zone settings and then “Advanced” for, well, advanced zone settings.
With four zones’ total being 219m, that is 54 minutes each. With my Hunter MP Rotators, they put out about 0.5 inches per hour (which is low compared to most), the calculated time is usually around 43m. Especially at first, it is hard to really trust the math comparing it to what most use on a fixed schedule, but once the settings are dialed it, it is healthier for the grass.
