I upgraded my controller this year to the latest. My yard is looking pretty dry, seasonal shift seems to be the driving factor as I have turned off saturation and wind. The temp is cool but our humidity is almost always below 20% and we are having days in the single digits. I’ve had Rachio installed for several years and this wasn’t a problem in previous years. Are the algorithms for the new controller different?
When you mention Seasonal Shift, that indicates you’re using Manual or Flex Monthly scheduling, both of which use historic data, which would never account for shorter or recent time periods. Only Flex Daily would do that.
rraisley,
I use Flex Monthly. I’m not sure I understand “historical data”? Is that weather data or device data? I might not be explaining my problem well. I think I still have the old controller and maybe should go back to it and see if it acts the same way.
As of today I’m averaging 6 days between watering with temps in the 70’s and humidity below 20%. In the summer, Rachios is running (on average) .82 times per day.
Seasonal shift is optional with a Fixed schedule, and is built into Flex Monthly. Using it, every month the factors change and the amount of water for both, and the frequency for Flex Monthly, are adjusted to provide more or less water. That water calculation is based on “historic data”, that is, the average values require over XX number of years for the area you’re in. The actual temperature or humidity have absolutely no effect with either.
OTOH, Flex Daily calculates the ET based on forecast temperature, humidity, wind, etc. for the future, and actual values for the past, to help determine how often to water. So it WILL respond to a dryer than usual spell of local weather, while the other schedules will not.
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Richard, thanks and understood.
Sounds like I need to switch my schedule to Flex Daily. Now that you have explained the FM to me I can see why I’m having a problem. We typically get some moisture this time of year but given its 82 now and humidity at 9%…time to abandon my quest to reduce watering:)
Richard,
Correction…in creating a FD schedule it said that it was a greater water saver than FM.
It will be interesting to see.
What “said”, the program? If you mean that Flex Monthly would water less, in time and/or frequency, using less water than Flex Daily would have, then that’s probably true, given your high temperatures and low humidities. I haven’t seen any “savings” claims within the program or site other than with rain skips.
The good thing, since you’ve been using Flex Monthly with Rachio for years is you’ve probably got all your zone settings dialed in, and converting to the more reactive Flex Daily should cause no problems.
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