Struggles with Flex- My Story

I’m in a similar situation - it was supposed to water for the past 3 days but it hasn’t…

the long enough time to me speaks to a incorrectly configured zone or you need to bump up the water time for the zone in the scheduler.

the frequency issue would be a flexie issue. i would try moving your MAD downward to a lower value to help increase the frequency.

im still very very fuzzy one what efficiency impacts, im currently set at 100% because 100 is better than 99?

at the end of the day, flexie nor iro is a silver bullet, everything they do are estimates, damn accurate, but still estimates. until we get soil sensors, it is up to the user to make the small tweaks needed to operate as correctly as possible.

Efficiency (Distribution Uniformity ) is a nozzle attribute. This audit tool will acutally generate it for you based on catch cup values (http://irrigationaudit.hydrorain.com/get-started/#/audit). Efficiency only affects irrigation run time. As efficiency goes up, run time goes down, and vice versa.

I’d argue that a lot of the data is not an estimate, especially if the system has been audited, but yes, there are a lot of assumptions/defaults chosen to allow the system work for a majority.

Are moisture sensors a panacea? This will bring along expense and more complexity. We’ll definitely integrate once a viable solution presents itself.

:cheers:

Is there any chance that we can have this link and the nozzle chart etc… on the support home page to make it easier to find.

@emil Thoughts?

:cheers:

Ok, so it’s tremendously hot here today @ the Jersey Shore… I just fine-tuned the sliders for Allowed Depletion and Efficiency based on the information I have gathered from this Flex Schedule Tips page: http://support.rachio.com/article/385-flex-schedule-tips and now the calendar schedule looks more appealing as to what I believe my lawn requires. Thanks everyone for your constant help!

Progress leads to Success!

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Let us know how everything goes, feedback is great so we can incorporate into later releases to make the overall system/user experience better.

:cheers:

So that didn’t work for me! Woke up to find that the Calendar Schedule that I had configured using the Allowed Depletion and Efficiency sliders was completely different this morning so only 1 zone (perennials) watered for a total of 8 mins this morning and none of the other zones that seemed to be set water actually did. So, I manually ran a pre-configured Fixed Schedule that I normally kept disabled but now have had to enable cause this week is supposed to be brutally hot and humid with no sufficient rain expected for the next few days!

NOTE: Currently my web app shows no rain in the forecast for Local Weather:

However, the Moisture Levels graph shows Forecasted precipitation for tomorrow July 30th:

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Since upgrading to the Rachio 2.0 Beta app, Flex has only watered my lawn 3 times for very short amounts of time in comparison to the Fixed Schedule I have used. I have used IFTTT to record the info onto a Google Sheet, hope this helps. Today’s Flex ran for 8 mins:

Trying to help as much as I can…

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@johnesc

Can you reach out to [support@rachio.com] to do a quick review of your scheduling? They can probably help dial this in.

Thanks.

@johnesc, I haven’t seen any emails from you into support yet. I noticed you’re using a PWS. Could we try using a different weather station to see if it impacts the schedules at all? I believe the forecasted rain is keeping your Flex Schedules from running.

Let me know your thoughts.

Thanks, Emil

@JNotar, sure thing. I’ll add some support articles on this topic. Will be adding more articles and visuals on Allowed Depletion/Flex Schedules as well :smiley:

Hurray. :heart_eyes: Its getting to the point now where we are repeating ourselves, all in search for the same resources. :laughing: Lol
You guys Rock

You’re absolutely right @emil, I haven’t contacted support regarding any of my issues. I haven’t felt the need to bother you guys just yet… LOL Honestly, that PWS seems to be the only one that’s on point with what happens. Should I try shutting off the Personal Weather Station option instead? I just switched to a different one that’s about 2.5 miles away from me to see if effects anything…

Thats what i did and I also used the PWS of a fire station that I had close to me to check on the reliability of the data that I was collecting and it was within 1 degree difference so I am using it.

Here’s a tip if it wasn’t mentioned before. You can use google maps to measure your yard. Just zoom into your yard and use the measurement tool.

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@johnesc, never a bother :smile:

Any updates on your moisture level graphs with the weather station change?

Best, Emil

So far, so good @emil! I disabled the PWS and the forecast seems to be much more accurate. It just poured so no watering currently scheduled til Saturday but that may change, hopefully not much further than Sunday… Thanks for your assistance. I’ll keep everyone posted! You guys rock!

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Back from Ireland and it was a great trip. I’ll be reaching out to support to gather information and look at what changes need to be made. To be honest, the lawn took a beating while I was away (7 straight 90+ days) and that is NO fault of the Iro. Nothing some reseeding which I was planning to do in the fall would impact anyway.

Thanks for the feedback and I’ll post in a day or so when things settle down at home and at work.

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Disabling the PWS seems to have really worked for me in Toms River @canons900 based on recommendation from @emil I also adjusted the Efficiency and the MAD levers and the Flex schedule seems to be on point. This morning I drove down my street and watched as all my neighbor’s sprinklers were running while it was raining, not mine!

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