I bought the 12-zone Rachio 3 from Costco but haven’t installed just yet as I’ve run into a potential issue that I’d like to get feedback on. I have a rust inhibitor injector pump connected to my current system that I’ve programmed to only turn on for 4 of my zones (my current Hunter controller allows the pump to be on/off for each zone). It appears that I can’t control the pump to operate per zone, it’s either all or nothing on the Rachio 3. Based on the cost of the rust inhibitor, this isn’t feasible option for me. After reading numerous posts and suggestions from 2016 to add this feature, I’ve seen some workarounds being developed but I’m not sure if there are any recent ones I’m missing. Here’s what I’ve learned as the options:
- Add the feature as a future upgrade. This seems to be the simplest option by adding a toggle in the advanced wiring options for each zone. Can someone from Rachio comment if this is on the upgrade plan for the immediate future?
- There was a workaround someone posted by adding relays to the zone that you don’t want to turn on/off. Unlike the example posted, I have 4 zones that I want the pump on, thus I’ll need 4 relays added to the controller, which is not a very elegant solution.
- Another option someone posted was a script that can be run to turn on/off the pump, but it needs to be hosted on something that is always on, which I don’t have.
- Another possible solution is to have the pump on a smart outlet and use IFTTT to turn on/off the pump, but I don’t believe you can choose individual zones to control this action in IFTTT. This would have been a good alternative if individual zone controls were allowed in IFTTT.
Am I missing anything as a viable options or updates on the above before I return this. I was really excited when I picked this up.