Run multiple zones simultaneously

Getting Started
1

General questions.
Low water pressure here, so I would like extend one zone throughout the entire property as a backbone water source & individually control selected zones off that backbone. Thus max concurrent active zones would be 2.

  1. Can Rachio activate 2 zones at the same time? ie will the 24vac transformer handle this load & does the Rachio programming support this?
  2. What is the maximum distance from the Rachio controller to the valve? Assume 16awg solid direct burial wire.

Thanks

2

If you set up your backbone zone as a master valve, would that work for you?

3

I believe that would suffice. Thanks for pointing it out!

4

Great, please ask more questions that you may have

5

Do you need this ā€œbackboneā€ for all zones, or just some?

6

Just some.

I have the 8 zone controller. One is dedicated to the front yard, another to 8 water hungry fruit trees in the back, and a 3rd zone in the back to service the entire back yard shrubs which number about 23. The only zone that works well is the front yard

Iā€™m planning on buying a 16 zone controller & subdivide the 3rd zone into 8 smaller zones. So planing to use the ā€˜masterā€™ as the long backbone where water will flow only when one of the new 8 zones is also active. The 8 hard wired remote valves will be dispersed along the backbone path. Assumption is the master is active when any zone is active. If thatā€™s not the case, then itā€™s back to square 1.

I hope that helps clarify the picture. The ground soil where I live is incredibly rocky so putting in new pvc to the main valve is not an option. The original installers used jack hammers for two days just to lay a path for all the pvc piping. Prior to that I used the thin black pipe, but I got tired of repairing leaks every year.

thanks, jm

7

This is correct, which is why I was asking. You canā€™t set the master valve to only work on some zones, and not others.

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