This is the second season I will have used a Rachio irrigation system. I only have the Rachio 3 controller. Last year I questioned the exorbitant amount of water (leading to higher water bills than when I utilized the Rainbird controller that came with our home) the Rachio calls for. This year I have the run times dialed back from the 33 minutes per zone the controller calls for to about 20 minutes per zone. Sure, this amount of water won’t keep my lawn super green, but I also don’t want to pay an arm and a leg for keeping it that way. Is there a setting for maintaining my lawn but not keeping my lawn the greenest on the block? Also, I question how well it does at calculating my lawn’s need for water. Example: On April 25, the Rachio app shows my lawn received .6 inches of percipitation, 1.85" of percipitation on April 26, .94" on April 27, and 1.46" on April 28. That’s nearly 5" of rain in 4 straight days!!! The controller did call for a skip on April 27, but this morning I wake up to the sprinklers running (and the app shows we are in for another .25" of rain today). I cancelled out the run about half way through. In addition to today’s predicted rainfall at 70% chance, there is 70% chance of .85" tomorrow, 20% chance of .05" on Friday, and 50% chance on Saturday, and a 40% chance on Sunday (these are chances the Rachio app sees, and not just my preferred weather app). So, why in the world is the controller watering today in the midst of all this rain??? What am I missing??? I’ve tried to call phone support on similar instances last year and earlier this year, but the support I’ve received over the phone has not been good, and frankly hard to understand. Any help would be greatly appreciated/
So many questions…but what it comes down to is confirming that you have the settings right in your system. Rachio can only work with what you feed it, and if you aren’t accurate with your settings, it will produce inaccurate results.
What schedule type are you running? What type of soil do you have?
Can you post screen shots of your zone settings, both standard and advanced?
Can you post screen shots of your moisture graphs/charts (assuming Flex Daily schedules?)?
I’m running a flex monthly schedule. How do I access moisture graphs/charts (or can I by running a monthly rather than daily schedule?
As @tmcgahey hinted, it requires Flex Daily scheduling to produce a day-by-day soil moisture graph. Flex monthly means you watering requirements are based on historical requirements, updated for your location by Rachio periodically/seasonally. You’ve probably seen those “seasonal shift” notifications.
If you’d like to configure your controller to do the best job for your local requirements, terrain and flora, switch to Flex Daily and take the time to find a good answer to the controller and zone questions (standard and advanced). Your goal, if possible or practical, is to do NOTHING to maintain the proper watering schedules and zone setup, keeping all your vegetation alive with JUST the right amount of water - no more. Stick with it… most all the answers you need are right here in this forum.
@JBTexas nailed most of it.
I personally have never messed with Flex Monthly, as it wasn’t an option when I first started with Rachio 8 years ago, so I’m heavily invested in Flex Daily, and use fixed for some seeding schedules.
I think the issue you are running into is that Flex Monthly doesn’t keep a running moisture level like Flex Daily does. You skip due to rain on the day of, and/or forecasted at a certain level (high probability) on the next scheduled run date. Flex is more dynamic and will adjust based on the AMOUNT of rainfall, not just yes/no, did it rain.
The Rachio is for advanced users and it’s clear you haven’t dialed in your advanced settings.
Very good info. I did not know Flex Monthly didn’t adjust based on previous and forecasted rainfall. I have switched to Flex Daily. Thanks.