Totally agree with your comments. No longer just coincidental.
This particular failure has become more than just a coincidence. My original problem I posted to this thread last year (May '23) was a combination of wifi connection stability and power failure. I managed to correct the wifi connection stability and even the power failure was good for about 9 months. Now in the last month mine has randomly shut off roughly once per week. Solution is the same as described above by each of us…unplug and plug back in and it works just fine…until it decides to shut down again next day/week/month.
Would really appreciate hearing from Rachio on this issue in this thread and something other than ‘buy a new controller’.
I almost got a week, was hoping maybe it worked itself out, but offline again today.
Unfortunatly due to the age of my timer it seems my only recourse is to buy a new one, and fair is fair should the hardware have died a natural death and its out of warranty.
But this just seemed too specific and the timing too small to affect multiple people to be a random hardware failure, and if something was broken becuase of bad firmware, bad design, etc that should not fall on the customer even if its out of warranty.
I’m in the same boat. Mine is out of warranty too and to your point fair is fair, but I’m also certain that the dumb controller I replaced was close to 20 years old and working fine except that it was dumb and difficult to manage. How many customers must this failure impact before Rachio will own up or at least show some interest?
While I wouldn’t discount those of you having this issue (I feel for you when things fail), you have to realize that the few in here represent a TINY subset of the controllers sold by Rachio, so to say that this is a wide spread issue is a bit presumptuous. Even if there are 100 people in here with the exact same issue, that is miniscule compared to the tens of thousands of controllers out in the world. Also, this is a community page, and while Rachio team members poke in from time to time, they don’t necessarily monitor all the posts.
Maybe @franz or someone can put some statistics out there.
Having the same issues as everyone here. Decided to replace the power adapter and lo and behold that was it. It’s been on for a week without any issues.
We have the same issue as well. Very frustrated that we are out of warranty and out of a sprinkler controller.
We have the same problem. Works for a random period of time then loses power/ offline, nothing wrong with the plug, when I unplug/ plug back in it goes online and works for some random period then blinks out again and is offline until I power cycle it. I didn’t notice when it went down last month while we were out of town and it didn’t water for a month during our hottest driest period of the year. The system sends daily notices that a watering has happened when it is online, WHY doesn’t it send WARNINGS when the damn thing is offline?? I feel like I need to install a smart switch or timer to power cycle the rachio 3 every day so that it keeps working.
Curious if you replaced it with a Rachio power adapter or non-OEM adapter?
So mine continues to power off almost weekly. Still unplugging power source on unit and plugging back in works every time. Following the multimeter instructions in this troubleshooting article here, I decided to attach my multimeter and it in fact has sufficient power of 28.1 volts within the recommended range of 24-30 volts. So now I either deal with this or purchase a new unit with no assurance that I won’t face the same problem down the line. While I agree with @tmcgahey that there are likely many more units out there with out this specific issue I don’t agree that it’s not widespread. Miniscule or not I think we’re beyond coincidence here and not at all presumptuous. Like I’ve already said this controller should last longer than the 4-5 years it’s at now particularly since the dumb controller it replaced was working fine at the 20 year mark. Rachio’s are too expensive to be disposable at 4 years. When it works I love it, just wish I could rely on it. I’ll be contacting support again.
I came across this thread October 16, 2024 and it looks like there is still no resolution to this issue? Extremely frustrating that it seems to be happening to more users. Also frustrating that Rachio has nothing in the corporate support area that addresses this. Perhaps we need to go to Reddit and get something going there?
Hello there!
I’m sorry you’re having this power issue. Our support can resolve it for you. Power issues have to be resolved through the support team and they can definitely help you out. You can call them at 1 844-472-2446 during business hours. You can get ahold of the team pretty quickly through the chat feature - the “?” icon in the lower right hand of the support page (link)
Right now, the team is operating on Winter Hours:
Winter Hours (October-March)
8am - 5pm (MST), Monday - Saturday. We are closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years Day.
We have been experiencing the exact same problem. The unit goes offline and there is no power to the controller.
This has been happening for several months now and I usually just go pull the plug out and put it back but now I am vacation with dry hot days coming and I afraid to see what I am going to come home to.
Never had this problem with my old dumb controller.
I will try replacing the power adapter when I get home.
I may have solved my problem. My WiFi was weak in the garage where my controller is placed and wondered if weak WiFi could cause this behavior. I’ve placed a WiFi extender in the garage with a different SSID and connected Rachio to this new network. The network signal to Rachio is now very strong. I didn’t have the issue since the change. Looks like Rachio is shutting itself down after losing WiFi connection for a while or if WiFi signal is weak for a long period of time.
I’m having the same issue, now with a second unit. Rachio Tech Support has replaced both my power adapter and the controller but the problem persists. I’d like to know from Rachio tech support if they can confirm that a weak wifi signal indeed causes the controller to power down periodically. I have checked and double checked power at the source and have confirmed that there are no inconsistencies with supply. WiFi signal strength for other devices in the area where the controller is mounted is 4 of 5 bars. I suspect a firmware issue since the problem started about 8 months ago after 10 months of operation without issue, and as previously mentioned, this is the second unit experiencing the identical issue.
Is the issue here the Rachio controller going offline or completely powering off? My Rachio unit has started going offline every 2 days, but my lights are still on, and I can still see the controller attached to my WiFi router.
I can now confirm the same. My Rachio had to be mounted on the outside of the garage wall. While I was able to confirm it had wifi signal, it apparently wasn’t strong enough. I added a 4th mesh access point in the garage to explicitly support my Rachio. That improved the wifi signal by a few bars. Now that Rachio has a stronger signal it does not go offline and has not shut itself down since introducing the new access point. I’m glad I didn’t pay for a new controller since I’m certain I’d experience the same failure. I wish Rachio support could have/would have confirmed that the controller will in fact power off during a period of weak wifi signal. That is a TERRIBLE design or “undocumented feature”!
Mine is outside and started doing the exact same thing a few weeks ago. Wifi signal is very weak out there.
My Rachio 3 is doing the same thing!!! Was fine for a month, then started randomly disconnecting from the router. Its not even visible in my wifi app. Have to basically reinstall it. But if power goes out and the router reboots, the rachio reconnects to it automatically. I did the Route This app with rachio tech support and was told the rachio was seeing a double NAT. OK….. I understand that could be a problem, except that I have only one router and a straight Arris cable modem. tech support for my Netgear Nighthawk router stated that its impossible for my router to create a double NAT situation. My signal is toward the weak end of the scale but still in acceptable range No other houses close by that could interfere. Everything else that connects to wifi in my house is working perfectly. This SMART device is really hacking me off!!!
I was able to resolve my issue by buying a WiFi extender and putting it in the garage. The signal at the Rachio controller is very strong now and only occasionally goes offline, usually if the power is out in the neighborhood.