Don’t hook them up…
Or, could a couple zones possibly be combined? That is what I did originally to get my old 18 zone hunter down to my 16 zone Rachio. Since then, I have swapped sprinkler nozzles and have been able to combine additional zones, with the plan to add a garden zone or two…
Hi @gene, I updated my original slide to incorporate your complete solution. I’m assuming it doesn’t matter which 24V- I connect to?
The only downside with the setup you’ve described (whereas 24- power is coming from the same controller driving pin 14) is that controller #1 may not see the current draw from the master valve if it tries to activate at the same time as #2. Depends on the controller firmware, it may flag this as a solenoid failure. Driving pins 1 and 5 of the relay from the same controller avoids this issue to some degree.
Other than that, your drawing should work. Good job 
Sigh. Pretty disappointing. This is one of those things that’s easy to implement up front if you get your domain model right, but harder to retrofit into an existing software / data model. Hindsight is 20/20 though…
I’ve been checking in every once in a while on this, but I guess you’re saying we should stop hoping for Rachio to serve our use case? That’s a bold statement.
I am waiting literally for years for covering 24 zones. I understand Rachio’s product strategy, they want DIY market, and not the commercial space. However, in some southern states, like here in TX, having 20+ zones is fairly normal. It is hilly here, where the number of heads is determined by topology and available pressure, many folks are on well water as well, and we have large lots, at least in older and rural neighborhoods. Even in my last suburban house on a 1/6th acre micro lot, we ended up with 11 zones. I know have 24 on 2/3rd acres. At the same time, our water is the most expensive in the nation with $16 per 1000/gal. So, Rachio is dearly needed.
Sadly, they’ve made their position on 24 zones very clear. I switched to Hunter Hydrawise which is working well for me!
Wow this post was made in 2018. You would have thought that by 2022 there would have been some positive transition to supporting a requested feature by their customers.
I am in a very strange dilemma. I am building a new home with a planned irrigation system. I was all set to have the Rachio 3 used as I love the technology of the system. However my landscape designer tells me that 16 zones will not be sufficient. I have over four acres (not all of that will be landscape though lol). They are pushing me to give Rainbird my money which … I know they have many years of experience in the business but they don’t have the “tech” that I want.
Rachio please reconsider your stance on supporting more than 16 zones. I understand the business side of things as well but there have been multiple solutions/work arounds that have been proposed which seem feasible yet the company just comes across as not caring about providing a repeatedly requested feature. I really don’t want to use an inferior product in every other way due to one obdurate decision from Rachio.
