LLWarrenP - Thanks for posting this wish! I’ve been meaning to post a similar wish for a couple of years now, as winterizing our 16 zone system is agony for the company that does it.
Our situation is a little different from yours, but unlike Mike4, blowing out is absolutely essential in Montana where the ground freezes to 5 feet deep and gravity will NOT sufficiently drain any system to prevent lines from cracking.
All of the dozens of irrigation blow out firms in the area use the same insanely large trailer mounted commercial compressors. The problem with these is not that they need to come back to pressure - as with yours - but that they generate so much pressure that if all zones go off, the pressure will destroy the weakest connection or hose in the system.
Prior to the Rachio unit, they blew me out by using alligator clip jumpers on the Irritrol controller. One was used to keep one zone permanently open to avoid the issue of the compressor applying full pressure to a closed system. Then, jumpers were used to open up at least 2 zones at the same time to that they could blow things out by going through 7 or so total cycles, vs 16 individual zones.
Last year, they physically opened a valve in the yard for the pressure release zone… and let me manually cycle through each of the other 15 zones with them.
This year, they were in a hurry, and doing anything via the Rachio was just too slow - and they manually opened most zones, several at a time, from the yard control boxes. The three guys were so fast, I only managed to use the Rachio for the last 3 zones for which they couldn’t find the yard valves.
They blow out 100’s of yards, obviously, and we have a dozen or more firms doing the same thing. They’re not happy with the Rachio because it takes way too long for me to switch zones, I can’t open two zones at once - and the wires in the controller are not exposed enough for them to jumper them with alligagator clips to force multiple zones - and I can’t permanently open a pressure release zone.
So, the Rachio as it is now (and has been) is an impediment to them doing their job, rather than an aid. I had not seen, so had not tried Winterizinator… but with zero description of what would happen, and having to submit my API key, I’m not about to give it a shot. This is something that Rachio themselves should address unless they only want to sell units in temperate climates.
Thanks again for posting - hope that someone from Rachio will jump in.