Hello -
My first time posting here. I have a Gen1 controller that I’ve used without much complaint for the last couple of years, but this spring, it is running almost daily despite me not changing anything in the setup. We just had two straight days of rain here (St. Louis, MO) and woke up to the sprinklers running again this morning. I’ve left the advanced settings for all the zones at their default levels (mainly because I don’t understand them and not sure how to determine what to enter there) but we have dense clay soil here and my yard is turning in to a swamp. Any help? Do I need to upgrade to a Gen3 controller?
Check what PWS you have Rachio pointing to. Make sure it is still reporting accurate data.
What schedule are you currently running?
Using a flex daily schedule. The weather station looks like it was operating but I just turned off use of personal weather stations and selected one at a radio station close to me. Not sure if that will have an effect or not
Can you post a screenshot of your moisture graphs and additional information in the charts? Curious if the station reported the rain you saw this morning.
Just to clarify, it rained the last few days but was not raining this morning
Either way, the graph and chart will show the precipitation, if the PWS is recording that data.
Sorry, I have no idea what graph or chart you’re referring to or where to find them
Under each zone there is a “soil moisture” percentage when you click on the zone (but this is only visible on zones with flex daily schedules). Click on the “soil moisture” and you will see the soil moisture graph
Thanks. Here’s some shots of the graphs - it wouldn’t let me put them in landscape mode.
To my eye these charts are inconsistent with the pattern you usually see when Rachio runs sprinklers. When this happen, the normal thing to see is the line going from the bottom to the top in a single step. The pattern you have here is more consistent with precipitation.
Take one zone (say, front yard) hit the “More Detail” button and post the table it shows. Then we’ll be able to know for certain.
Here you go. For some reason, my app will not support landscape mode so sorry about the multiple screen shots.
So you can see from these charts that it was either drizzling or a very short rain on the 16th and the 17th. It was barely enough precipitation to even change the downward slope of the moisture curve. Then on the 18th there was a heavier rain. And this did send the curve upward, but not high enough to take the soil moisture to near 100%. That’s why the sprinklers ran on the 19th. There is no rain forecast until the 22nd and during this time Rachio calculates that soil moisture will drop to the max of the allowed depletion level (50%), so it will water the zone again on the 22nd.
Now the question is whether the past aligns with reality and the future with your expectations. In other words:
- Do the precipitation numbers reflect the reality? If not, there is a problem with weather reporting.
- Do you agree with Rachio’s calculation that soil moisture will fall to 50% and another sprinkler run for this zone is necessary. If you disagree, then you need to look at the zone configuration: check soil type, sprinkler type, sun exposure, and plant type.
And don’t forget to repeat this exercise for all zones.
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I wish there were people who would do this. I’ve set my soil type correctly (clay) and sprinkler heads (almost all rotors) and sun exposure. I don’t know how to calculate if the soil moisture is actually below 50% or not, but I know that the current watering pattern has my lawn almost constantly wet.
Can you post a snapshot of advanced settings for the zone that is constantly wet?
Also, a more recent moisture graph and table for the same zone.
