I just got my Rachio and am trying to set up a schedule. When I am done it says watering duration is 2hrs 40 minutes. What time period is this for? A week a day a month?
Watering duration is always the time for that session. You could have any number of those sessions per week.
If this is your first time doing irrigation, then you’re going to realize that watering takes a long time, and a lot of water. I spent the majority of my time in first 6 months of owning a system reducing the amount of watering until it was just enough to keep it green (not lush, just green) in the long dry spells.
Rachio is designed to maintain a “reservoir” of water in your soil profile, from the minimum amount of plant-useful water to full. When you first set up your zones and schedules (particularly those flex schedules), it has no knowledge about what’s in the ground, so it’s safer to assume it needs to be “filled”. Using your information about your soil, slope, location, growing things, it may need 2 hrs 40 minutes to declare the soil profile full or saturated. Trust the plan - eventually you, and your vegetation, will optimize your water use, which is why you bought a Rachio.
Thank you for the info. I live Phoenix and the heat is coming. I want to be prepared. I also tested my drip system to see what it is putting. I kinda was amazed how much they are getting when it is running. They appear to be getting 2 gallons an hour without emitters
I’m in Gilbert and my shrubs have 1gph emitters and my trees have multiple 2gph emitters depending on size. All my drip zones run for about 3.5-4 hours each time PER zone using Flex Daily.
What schedule type are you running? The advise I can give is to make sure your zone settings are correct (soil type, emitter PR/inches per hour, and root depth) and keep an eye on things. You may have to ease your yard into a new style of watering, long durations, less frequently, which is the better way to water.
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So according to what I have read, the inches per hour for a 1 gallon emitter should be set at 2.31 Is that a core statement? Thanks.
No, 1gph would be more like .23 in/hr.
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Thank you. Here is another question. I am using a fixed schedule and have cycle and soak set up manually. It appears that it does not work as I thought it would. When I get the notification it is on, one hour later, I have set for watering for an hour , I get the notification it is complete. So that is not long enough if it is working. What am I doing wrong. Thanks for the help.
By the way I see you are in Gilbert?
What zone are you trying to cycle soak? If it is a zone with 1gph emitters, you really shouldn’t need it as they wouldn’t produce enough to cause runoff.
I haven’t played with it much, and not 100% sure about the “manual” cycle soak, but I believe Rachio will only cycle soak if it feels the need based on a high precipitation rate, high slope, and very poorly draining soils (or a combination of the 3). For drip emitters, I’m fairly confident it WILL NOT cycle soak, as there should be virtually zero chance of runoff with low PR drip. People have run into this when they have drip emitters and grass in the same zone…it will not cycle soak the grass if there is an emitter drip zone in the schedule. You used to be able to trick Rachio (maybe still can?) by changing the slope to the max, and changing the emitter type to bubbler (a much higher PR irrigation). Since you are using fixed schedules, honestly setting your PR accurately really doesn’t matter as you are telling Rachio when to run, and for how long. Having an accurate PR setting really only comes into play for Flex schedules, or if you want to have Rachio estimate water usage…
Yep! I’m in Gilbert!
Thanks for your help. I did read that it does not work with emitters of any kind. I was hoping somebody knew a way around that. I tried the other schedules, but they weren’t watering my shrubs enough. They would do a skip on that watering cycle for two or three days in a row and then the plants look like they were gonna die so I had to step in and do it manually. So that’s when I didn’t like that flex schedule but I’ll have to try some other ones and see how they work. Again, thanks for your help as we live in Arizona. It’s a little harder to keep these things alive. How often and how long are watering your trees?
I know the concept of skipping in our heat is a hard one to swallow, but it can be done, and for healthier plants, should be done. While the dead of summer isn’t the time to train the plants, you really should push for less frequent, longer watering. Half my system is down for a backyard remodel, but my front yard has separate tree, shrubs, and grass zones. My grass zones will run every 2-3 days, my shrub zones will run every 4-5 days, and my tree zone will run every 6-7 days. This promotes a deeper, healthier root structure with better drought tolerance. Even though they don’t run daily, they do run for 3-4 hours each time…
That being said, if you’ve always watered daily, your root structure is close to the surface and it will take time to train the roots to go deeper.
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So I am thinking you are running a flex daily schedule? I may have to try that again when we get back from trip we are taking. Have you messed with advanced settings all?
By the way thanks for your help.
Yep, been running Flex Daily for almost 8 years. In order to have it run well, you do need to put some time to understand your yard and irrigarion system, and dial in the advanced settings for sure!
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Sent you a messenger friend invite