New user, initial setup, wants almost 4 hours to water

Our yard is 60 x 120 and has 8 zones. We live in Texas, soil is clay and its a new house (we closed in June). Just replaced the builder sprinkler controller with Rachio 3 from Costco. Install and setup was a breeze, everything looked great until I saw what it suggested for my schedule - ouch! An hour to water a small flowerbed and two bubblers on little trees? 4 hours total? What the heck did I do wrong?

If your front flowerbed uses a soaker, it seems to want to really let that run forever.

@hockeynut The first time people use Rachio they are often surprised at the recommended watering time. You need to look at how often each zone is watered. Your trees and flowers will not need to be watered as often as your lawn. I see you are using a Fixed Schedule. If you want to stay with a Fixed schedule then I would suggest that you create multiple schedules, 1 for your lawn zones, 1 for your flower beds and 1 for your trees. Or 1 schedule for your lawn and 1 for your flowerbeds and trees. The amount of time Rachio recommends should be the same but you can decrease the frequency for the trees and flower beds.

If, at some time, you want to try using the Flex Daily schedule then Rachio will handle the frequency based on the parameters of each zone.

If you post your zone settings, including the advance settings, people here can give you better advice.

Thanks @Alturia! Guess I need to read up more on what the different kinds of schedules mean. I figured turning on at time X, off at X+Y for each zone was what I needed.

I haven’t touched any of the Advanced settings…still coming up to speed on the baby stuff :slight_smile:

Zone 1: front flowerbed (drip line) and 2 small tree bubblers
Zone type: trees
Spray Head: drip line
Soil type: silty clay
Exposure: lots of sun
Slope: flat

Zone 2: front yard
Zone type: warm season grass (its Bermuda)
Spray Head: fixed spray head
Soil type: silty clay
Exposure: lots of sun
Slope: moderate

Zone 3: side yard (right, gate)
Zone type: warm season grass (its Bermuda)
Spray Head: fixed spray head
Soil type: silty clay
Exposure: lots of shade
Slope: flat

Zone 4: back yard (close to house)
Zone type: warm season grass (its Bermuda)
Spray Head: rotor head
Soil type: silty clay
Exposure: lots of sun
Slope: flat

Zone 4: back yard (back, by fence)
Zone type: warm season grass (its Bermuda)
Spray Head: rotor head
Soil type: silty clay
Exposure: lots of sun
Slope: moderate

Zone 6: side yard (left, AC)
Zone type: warm season grass (its Bermuda)
Spray Head: fixed spray head
Soil type: silty clay
Exposure: some shade
Slope: moderate

Zone 7: drip zone (front curb)
Zone type: warm season grass (its Bermuda)
Spray Head: drip line
Soil type: silty clay
Exposure: lots of sun
Slope: flat

Zone 8: drip zone (front curb, side - very small)
Zone type: warm season grass (its Bermuda)
Spray Head: drip line
Soil type: silty clay
Exposure: lots of sun
Slope: flat

@hockeynut I don’t have any experience with drip irrigation so will let others here comment on that. But given the zone information you provided all of your “crops” have relatively deep roots. Bermuda grass is at 9" I believe compared to about 6" for cool weather grasses. Your trees will default to probably 25" for root depth. And your flowers depend on type of flower - perennials I think default to 10". That means Rachio will want to water for a long time to get the water to the bottom of the roots, but not as frequently.

If it was me, I would set up at least 2 schedules - 1 for zone 1 with the flowers and trees and 1 for everything else. Not sure if the drip irrigation in zone 7 & 8 should be on it’s own schedule. This way you can water the lawn more frequently than the flowers and trees.

If you think you are using too much water you can modify the advance settings or if you can just go in to the duration section of each schedule and decrease or increase the time as you would with a dumb controller.

Should have mentioned - all are new. Trees went in 2 weeks ago. Grass 2 months ago. This is Austin TX so its HOT HOT HOT and DRY DRY DRY.

Peeked around the advanced settings…looks like I have some homework to do!

My first water bill with the settings from the builder (not a Rachio) was almost $600!

Aha - if every thing is new then the default root depths won’t work well. The root depth for all the types of crops will be much shallower and you will need to water more frequently until the plants are established. Ideally you want to set the root depth a bit deeper to encourage root growth. You can go into the advance settings of each zone and change the root depth or just change the time in the schedule.

I’m in Rhode Island so not nearly the same climate but water here is expensive especially if you use so much you go into the 2nd pricing tier. Always a trade off between how much you water and your water bill.