Hi, Rachio 3 + Tempest weather station here.
Last year my old rain sensor failed and I decided to take the opportunity to upgrade to the Tempest Weather station. I’ve noticed I never see “rain skip” in the Rachio app due rain detection/accumulation from the weather station.
Today, I did a test, I scheduled an irrigation run to come on while it was raining heavily (and after 0.25" of rainwater had already accumulated) and to my horror the Rachio ran the irrigation! Is this expected or have I setup something incorrectly? I assumed buying the Tempest would replace the need for a separate rain sensor, but this appears to not be the case? Please tell me I’ve got this wrong, because not having to fool with a separate rain sensor was one of the main reasons I spent $$$ on the Tempest.
I’ve included screenshots showing irrigation during active rain being detected by the Tempest, as reported by the Rachio app. Rain skip set to 1/8".
I’m in an area where the cost of water is high, and we also have unpredictable / quickly changing weather. I do not want the system to start irrigation if it is raining heavily. Can I configure Tempest to do this or am I going to need a separate rain sensor?
Thanks
Chris
Controller Settings / Weather Source set correctly?
OK, I think I’ve figured out what happened but would love confirmation from anyone who can provide it.
Today, the heavy rain occurred just a few minutes before the scheduled irrigation was initiated. This page describes rain skip as follows:
How does Rain Skip work?
Weather Intelligence checks the forecast 12 hours before, and again 1 hour before your schedule is set to run; tracking the amount of observed and forecasted rain in a sliding 48-hour window. This means it’s looking at any observed rain in the last 24 hours, plus any forecasted rain in the next 24 hours. If the combined rainfall exceeds your device’s skip threshold, the scheduled run will skip.
For example: You have your Rain Skip threshold set to 0.5". It rained 0.25" in the last 24 hours, and is expected to water more than 0.25" in the next 24 hours. This schedule will be skipped.
So I assume the issue was that the rain occurred within the “1 hour before” window, and therefore was not considered for triggering the Rain Skip. This means Rain Skip might not be triggered for unexpected rainfalls when there isn’t additional rainfall in the forecast. [I’m pretty sure I had rain in the forecast, so I’m also surprised that didn’t trigger a skip]
It sure would be nice to have a “check rainfall 1 minute before irrigation starts” option, which would avoid this issue entirely.
I’ll have to decide if this is ‘good enough’ or if I should add a rain sensor to cover this edge case. Financially, probably doesn’t make sense, but environmentally it might (we are in a drought stricken area and I hate wasting water).
