Hey guys!
Looking for help on replacing my old Hunter with the Rachio Gen 2. I don’t want to use my existing rain sensor so I can get rid of that and the power wires. However the red white and blue wires not sure what those are for?
Red / White and Blue cables are for Hunter remote (you will not need it and can disregard these wires as well)
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Thanks Gene!
So all I’ll need is the COM and Zone wires and the rest I can scrap right?
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Looks this way, should be a pretty straight forward setup.
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@BankOmAn - it looks like there may be a Master Valve or Pump start relay in the system as I see a wire connected to the P/M terminal on the Hunter. So that wire will be needed also (in addition to the common and zones), along with configuring the Rachio app to turn that on.
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I recently replaced my Hunter Pro C with a Rachio Gen 2, but I chose to keep the rain sensor. Any particular reason you prefer to remove it?
@DLane at first I thought so too (about the master valve), but unless the loose red wire was connected to the bottom terminal, there isn’t actually anything connected to P/M terminal as far as I can see (from this perspective, wire connected to zone 1 falsely appears to line up with the bottom P/M label).
@Gene, good eye. Yes, the perspective threw me off. I started counting down the wires from the top and ran out at 1.
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The rain sensor is missing when I had my fence replaced so just figured I would scrap it all together.
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The other loose red wires were from previous zones that were removed when we put the pool in.
When looking closer I noticed a black wire not hooked up. Guess I don’t need it if it wasn’t hooked up already?
@BankOmAn - if all the zones that are needed are running now, then no the black wire isn’t needed.
I’d step through each zone on the existing Hunter Pro C, for just a minute, so that one knows they are in a known good and working state before switching over. This way any problems can be identified and fixed before too many changes are introduced.
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Thanks everyone for the help!
Everything is hooked up and running. Had a hard time confirming my drip lines were on so just assuming they’re working for the time being.
Thanks again!!
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@BankOmAn Congrats on the new controller, and welcome to the community!
I have similar questions, but haven’t seen comments regarding the common wire. I have a 16 zone system replacing my Hunter Pro C. The Pro only has one common. Do I need a common on both connection blocks or just before Zone 1
@usn68 - any of the four C(ommon) terminals on the Rachio 16 zone system can be used. Doesn’t matter which one.
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New user
Read info above and want to replace Hunter ICC With Rachio Gen3
Since I only have five zones I assume I only need a six zone rachio - Please advise
Also since it is outdoors or you summa I will also need an enclosure Please advise
Once I remove the old unit and install the Rachio Where do I plug the power cord into?
Appreciate it in the comment
Thanks
@mbari - I only count five (5) zones plus the common wires.
Order a 8 port unit. Gen 3 if in the US or Canada, Gen 2 if outside the US or Canada.
Order an outdoor enclosure. There is a plug in the outdoor enclosure where the Rachio plugs into. It will be connected to the AC lines that are on the bottom of the Hunter transformer and I think are in that conduit. If outside the US or Canada be aware that the Rachio transformer is only 120 V - so don’t plug it into the socket with 220 V .
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Hi Myron, welcome, welcome 
As @DLane has nicely pointed out, you simply need an official outdoor enclosure (link), the link contains rachio / amazon links to buy it.
Most of the hookups (electricity and zone wires) should be straight forward as they are currently roughly in the right order as they would go into your new enclosure, but it looks like you also have a pump master relay (using the lake water I see). In order to use it, you may need to drill a new hole for the third conduit you have or add a junction box to the irrigation wire pipe. Let us know what option you would prefer and we can help with the details.
It also appears that you have a rain sensor, so be careful to mark which cable goes to C & P / MV terminals and which one goes to SEN terminals. The C & P pair would connect to C and M terminals on your new rachio and SEN cable pair would connect to 24 V - & S1 terminals. Be sure to turn on the master valve and the rain sensor during the setup. (Keep in mind that rain sensor is optional, you can leave it off in case it is not working well).
If cost is not an issue, you would benefit from the 16 zone unit as far as it having 4 common terminals, instead of just 2 on the 8 zone unit. You will technically require 3 common terminals (two for the thick red irrigation wires and one for the thin red wire of the Master valve cable), but since the third cable is thin one, you would be able to twist it with one of the thick red cables and use it within one terminal.
Cheers,
Gene
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@mbari - eagle eyed @Gene went the extra mile by commenting on the wiring on the left side. Another option, instead of trying to put more than one wire in a terminal, is to join/wire nut all the common wires together along with a short pig tail, then just put the pig tail in the C(ommon) terminal.
Welcome to the community.
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