So in Houston it’s expected to water for about 7 minutes every other day…
If I used the flex monthly on this…I would have an entirely dead yard.
Is there a way to send you guys my rachio 3a and pay the difference and get the 3 as this is basically unacceptable…
The whole idea of having a flex system that handles it for you is somewhat the point of a rachio…if the flex monthly schedule kills your entire yard, what’s the point?
The only solutions I’ve seen on here have been on the flex daily, but for the 3a…I might as well swap back to my hunter system.
(I’m assuming you mean Rachio 3e, not 3a)
While I’m a great proponent of Flex Daily, which the 3e does not have, it sounds to me like your Flex Monthly is not set up right, if it only waters 7 minutes every other day. The FRET forecast for the Houston area at this time is about 1.2" of water per week, so depending on the grass type, I would expect Rachio would need to apply about 1" irrigation per week. 7 minutes every other day is an average of 7 x 7 / 2 = 25 minutes per week, which would require a Nozzle Inches per Hour of 1.2 / 25 x 60 = about 2.9" per hours, which is WAAAY high. Could you let us know your Advanced settings, from a typical zone?
Yes the 3e. My bad. I actually attempted to.order the 3 but for some reason I accidentally got the 3e…
And the flex monthly is set for warm season grass(Bermuda) however I did try cold season as well because I have a mix of Bermuda with tall fescue and bluegrass(which requires more water in this area), which I have cut at 1inch to reduce fungus due to thatching(shorter requires more water), and it attempts to water it once every week in summer or two weeks in winter(which is fine for winter to be honest…for summer… that’s very dead grass in the heat here.)
I manually set it to every other day. Without that it will be very very dead come summer.
I just wish we had more…varied control added to the set and forget aspect of rachio…because as I said earlier…if it wasn’t for the smart features I’d just swap back to my hunter.
Edit: https://suncoroutdoors.com/watering-guidelines-for-katy-cypress-fulshear-houston-and-surrounding-areas/
Every 3 days above 95f(and since I have shorter grass which requires more water I need a bit more than that.)
Flex Monthly /should/ come up with reasonable watering times and frequency, based on historic weather conditions in Houston. Perhaps try making a NEW Flex Monthly schedule, and set it up ahead of time for how often you want it to water (say every other day) and see what time it calculates is required. Making manual changes after a schedule is set up puts the responsibility on you, rather than the Rachio unit, to water properly. Anyhow, see if that comes out any different for you. But you’re right, every week in summer is silly in Houston (or most places, for that matter).
You might still check out, and post, your current Advanced settings, as that may well give us a clue. The numbers I’m seeing for times just don’t make much sense.
