I’m new to this community. I recently installed the Rachio 3 controller. I’ve few questions on Rachio smart controller.
What is the schedule I should be using - fixed, flex monthly, or flex daily? Fixed is the closest for me as I was on the Rainbird manual one.
I also noticed the time for each zone is much higher on the Fixed option. I used to do twice a week around 10 min per zone, but here default is 30 plus min per zone. With water restriction in summer, I would like to know what setting is good. They want us to water twice a week.
I would like to know if 30 min per zone is over watering or not. Also, I would like to know if Flex is a good option.
Welcome rahulroy! We can’t tell much without knowing more about your situation, but 10 minutes twice a week for grass sounds pretty low to me, and 30 minutes twice a week sounds better. OTOH, you know your lawn, and if it survived before with 10 minutes, there’s no reason it can’t now, I guess.
Flex Daily requires watering at least 5 days a week, so I’d not recommend that. Flex Monthly likes to vary the days as well as the times as the weather changes, so Fixed might be best for you. Turn ON Seasonal Shift and it will water more in hot months, less in cool.
Thanks for your quick reply rraisley! Yes, I enabled seasonal shift setting.
It’s actually 20 min each zone on Rachio by default for the Fixed option. But, I’m in North Texas, and we’ve clay soil here. Clay soil has a very slow water absorption rate. In other words, it must be watered slowly. I’m going to change it to 15 min.
Should I start on a specific time - like 5:00 AM I had on my Rainbird, or set it to finish before Sunrise? I read some issues with that settings, but mostly with the Flex option.I hope it works fine with the Fixed option.
I have clay too. If you’re concerned with it running off, turn on Smart Cycle, or if that doesn’t do it, you can specify a Manual Cycle & Soak. Either will water part way, wait a while, then finish.
Depending on how many zones you have and their times, it can take quite a while to water an entire property. Even to 10 hours or so. When using Finish Before, Rachio will /always start watering at a time early enough to water all the zones, even if all don’t need running. I prefer starting early, like 5 AM, so it will finish late near noon if all are water, but finish early if not all zones are watering.
