I have a daily flex schedule with an end before time set for the time.
It appears that Racho starts each days water cycle at the start time based off what the start time would need to be to end at the specified time if ALL zones in the included in the daily flex scheduled were watered that day.
This seems to defeat the purpose of flex daily.
As an example if the total watering time for a flex daily schedule is 5 hours and the schedule is set to end by 8, the water cycle starts at 3AM no matter how many zones need to run. On any given day this is usually only around 1.5 to 2 hours of watering.
I was hoping to use this feature to be able to water at the ideal time of day all the time while also having all watering completed before some water pressure is lost to use of water in the house.
Using start time is not ideal, because if I set it to 6:15AM and if a day happens to come along where all zones need to run, then I am watering at close to the hottest part of the day in the summer and losing efficiency.
Nothing new. Been this way since the dawn of time. Most people have had gripes about the this affecting the “end by sunrise” option.
Personally, I don’t really see the big deal. If it so happens that all my zones need to run on a single day, then I’m starting at 3.5 hours before sunrise anyway, so what is the difference if it is 3 zones or 1 zone starting 3.5 hours before sunrise?
I’m one of those that prefer if Rachio dynamically adjusted watering start times when using the “end by” schedules (since that’s what the user has signaled as being the most important aspect to them) with the Flex daily system.
In my case, I have my regular flex schedule set to finish by 7am, which is when our dogs go out. Unfortunately, that means that it’s starting at 4:15am, regardless of however many of my 7 zones are running.
That’s not a problem when sunrise is just after 5am (early summer in Massachusetts), but more problematic when sunrise is ~7:30 (just before daylight savings time kicks in).and there’s 3+ hours before sunrise for water to sit and likely 6-7 hours until shady areas start drying out, so more exposure to lawn disease factors than I’d like.
I’m also a fan of having the a “start at sunrise” scheduling option, but that’s another rant
