Rachio Outdoor

Like many, my existing irrigation timer is outside. So when I purchased the new Version 3, I also purchased an outdoor enclosure. Honestly, its design is a bit of a kludge and illustrates that the Rachio timer is really designed for an indoor installation.

I am concerned about a couple things. I live in the Arizona Desert where it can get up to 120F in the summers. Will this cause damage to the timer or power supply? I also wonder why you do not provide a separate “outdoor” 24v power supply built into the unit like every other timer. Or better yet, create an outdoor version in a prepackaged assembly. Again, a lot of people use them outside.

Finally, the openings in the bottom are opposite my old unit. To make it work, I had to move the location closer to the electrical panel and replace the wire running to the valves because it was not long enough to accommodate the move.

It was way more work that I thought it might be and I have not even got the water flow meter yet.

I have the first gen controller and am in AZ, haven’t had any issues with mine. It is in an area that is shaded most of the day and receives filtered sunlight the rest of the day. I have talked to other owners in AZ that have it in an area with a lot of sun exposure and they didn’t have any issues with it.

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My Gen2 has been mounted in the enclosure for 2+ years in direct FL sunshine and hasn’t missed a beat yet.

2 Gen 1’s in outdoor enclosures here in Gilbert. One gets a pretty healthy dose of afternoon sun to boot.

I will say though, my outdoor enclosures have a built in, hard wired power plug, so my power brick is inside the box as well…