I have a new Rachio 3 8-zone controller with the exact same problem - it drops offline multiple times a day. I have an ASUS router with an ASUS mesh extender that is in the room directly above the controller, probably 20 feet away. Signal strength is good according to my phone, but the controller is inside the plastic housing for exterior installations. Normally, plastic does not attenutate 2.4 GHz signals so unless they make the housing with some sort of conductive material, that should not matter. I do have it connected to a dual-band network (i.e., 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz with the same SSID). Should I try connecting it to my dedicated guest network that only runs on 2.4 GHz?
I would, at least to test out.
I reset the Wi-Fi on the controller and followed the steps to connect to a new Wi-Fi network, but my guest network does not appear in the list of available networks, which is very odd. I confirmed that my guest network is on the 2.4GHz band and my phone can see it just fine with a reasonably strong signal strength. I reset the controller again and it still does not see the network. However, it does see over a dozen other networks, some of which have very, very weak signal strengths.
I changed the security from WPA3 to WPA2 and now the Rachio sees the network. I connected it so weâll see how it goes.
It is disappointing that the Wi-Fi reception for these controller is so poor. I mean, câmon! They are designed to be installed outside or in a garage, typically not near a Wi-Fi access point. Better antennas or an option to install external antennas would have been a smart design move.
1 Like
@BillR Thanks for the feedback, typically we donât see a lot of feedback on WiFi range. 2.4GHZ should be better as far as going through walls, etc. We donât transmit really any data at all, so 5GHZ is not necessary.
I donât believe that your controller even has 5GHz, does it? My understanding is that it is 2.4GHz only. And thatâs fine since the data rate requirements are low. But Rachio must do something about the constant disconnects when the Wi-Fi signal strength is good. It sounds like it has problems when people are using Wi-Fi mesh networks, especially if they are configured for dual-band load balancing over 2.4 GHz and 5GHz networks using the same SSID, as is the case with my home network. The router wonât try to move a device from the 2.4GHz band to the 5GHz band if it doesnât support it, but for whatever reason, the Rachio controller keeps dropping the connection. And worse - it wonât reconnect, which should be a no-brainer!
Our generation 3 model does support 5GHZ, but I typically recommend customers use 2.4GHZ if possible since it is better suited for our use cases.
It does sound like the networking firmware on the controller could be having issues with your router or network configuration.
If you continue to have issues I can have our CS team help out, they have other tools to help troubleshoot and diagnose these issues.
OK, thanks - I have it on the 2.4 GHz guest network at the moment - letâs see how that goes for a few days.
1 Like
@franz - Well, that didnât last long. Less than on day after associating it with my guest network, which is strictly 2.4GHz, itâs disconnected again. How do we troubleshoot this?
I would reach out to https://support.rachio.com/, they will be able to help you troubleshoot WiFi issues.