Hello, got a notification my Rachio is offline. Did troubleshooting but no lights are lighting up, tried to reconfigure WiFi set-up but no lights lit up when I held down WiFi button on Rachio. Unplugged and re-plugged in power cord, still no power. It’s like it just died on me. Anyone else have this issue before?
@Codya - do you have access to a volt meter? If so, check the voltage on the plug from the wall adapter. Should be 24 VAC. Also, check the voltage at the wall plug by plugging in a lamp to make sure it has 120 VAC. It could either be the power adapter or the unit. Rachio has a 2 year warranty. So email/call support to get a RMA started, but let’s figure out what needs to be replaced first.
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@DLane thank you for the information. Unfortunately, I do not have a volt meter. However, the house was built less than 4 years ago and outlet works as a lamp turned on when I plugged it in, if that helps.
@Codya - that helps as it eliminates the outlet as a potential problem. I’d email or call Rachio support and have them send you a new power adapter as a first try. If that doesn’t work then I’d have them send you a new unit.
That means the power outlet is good. So you ruled that out. Now it comes to the power Plug or the Rachio that it’s plugged into. My bet is on the Power Plug, that is why you need a volt meter. You can get one for pretty cheap. Or see if a friend or neighbor has one you can quickly use. The power supply has a transformer in it. Transformers change one voltage into another voltage. In this case it takes the 120 AC Volts from the outlet, and changes it to 24 Volts AC at 1000mA. You can normally see this on the back of any of these type of power plugs. They all tell you what the output voltage is. So if you set the Volt Meter to read AC power. Put a probe to each wire, you should get around 24 Volts. Make sure you don’t touch those wires or that anything else touch those wires. You may be able to leave the wires plugged into the Rachio and touch the connectors and get a power reading that way. Or unplug the transformers, Pull out the wire ends about halfway so you can see the bare wires and yet they will be held in place. Plug the transformer back in, and then test for voltage. If you’re getting 5 volts or something low, or no voltage reading, it’s BAD and so the Rachio is not going to work as it’s not getting power.
I’ve had a number of these power transformers just flat out die on me. A Volt Meter is actually a pretty good thing to own anyway. If you have a Harbor Freight nearby, you can get a cheap one, or a little better one. I have a nice Fluke Meter, which I got half off when I was going to Trade School. $75 back then, over 20 years ago. Still have it and it still works great. I’m looking at harbor Freight right now and you can get one from about $23 up to $99. The $23 one would work just fine. All the others have a AC Amp Clamp on them. My FLUKE doesn’t have that. But I have those at work which I use all the time. Generally in checking 480 volt 3-phase motors. It’s one way to check for a Bad Motor. For general home use?!?!
If you are getting your 24 volts, then it’s the Rachio that has failed. This is why you want to narrow down what it is. You checked the outlet with a light as that’s all you have on hand and it worked. So that is ruled out. You didn’t have a popped Circuit Breaker or something. Now it’s what is after that outlet. Well it’s the power transformer, and then the Rachio. Just from experience, my guess it’s the power transformer. Those things are more prone to failure. But again, a guess is just that. A Volt Meter would answer that question in a minute.
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My unit Rachio unit just died…outlet working, and getting 24vac out of converter…but plugging into Rachio unit…no lights…dead.
I have the same issue with my Gen3 unit. No power at all after power outage. Outlet is fully working. Sent an email but got no response. Power adapter is showing 29V - not sure if my voltmeter reading is off or the power adapter is damage. Does anyone knows how to contact them by phone? No number is listed in the support site.
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@Will91 - Here you go:
If you have any other questions feel free to email us at support@rach.io or call our support hotline at 1-844-4-RACHIO
@DLane - thanks for the contact number I was able to talk to someone. Many thanks to Rodrigo K. for a clear and good customer support.
I was getting frustrated because I haven’t heard from Rachio for a while now. I just found out today (in chat/email history) after I got an email from Rodrigo K. that my issue was addressed on the same day (that I filed a ticket) by John S (Rachio Support). So the problem here is that John’s response was never sent to my email. So something is wrong with the support/email system. Please take a quick look on this one to ensure that Rachio’s response will be sent right away to the customer’s email.
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