Rachio 3 16 zone master valve timing

Troubleshooting Tech Support
1

When my system turns on the first zone, the vacuum break doesn’t operate properly and all the water is diverted out of the vacuum break. My sprinkler repair person thinks this is because the master valve isn’t opening quickly enough, so the water pressure drops when the first zone valve opens. My first question is what is the timing when the system starts (if the first zone valve is commanded to open at time 0, how much earlier or later is the master valve commanded to open?). Likewise, when the last zone valve is commanded to close, is the master valve commanded to close earlier or later and by how much? Is the timing at the start of the cycle and/or the end affected by any settings that a user can change?

Note: If I close a valve near the vacuum break before giving the RUN command and then open that valve slowly, the vacuum break works okay. With the “no hammer” option selected, the system will then run through the rest of the zones without a problem.

2

If you have an unused zone and running a fixed schedule, add a dummy (unwired) zone that runs for one minute and move it to the first position. That will open the master valve one minute ahead of the first real zone.

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3

Brilliant! I tried this by just disconnecting the zone 1 wire and, so far, it works very well. Thanks very much, Stewart

If I use a flex schedule, how can I edit the zone 1 characteristics so that it always runs, but for as little time as possible. Perhaps lots of sun, but a very small area?

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