Had same observation and suspicion that something changed. Modified crop coefficient downward, adjusted amount of shade by zone (very seasonal in my yard), used FILL after big rain event. Next to my struggles to pull the right precipitation data into rachio, with the 110% threshold I am not getting the “benefit” of a saturated soil, and have to compensate with a FILL a day or two after the rain to keep moisture levels from dropping too quickly. My ET though looks reasonably consistent with my weather observation. It feels that I am getting there, but it is not where I left the system in fall.
Not that any of you would have this situation, but the Hubs and I have different, um, philosophies on watering, he would change a setting or manually water a zone or set a rain skip and I wouldn’t know.
Just recently he said, " Rachio is going crazy." I explained it was the cycle and soak and that’s exactly what should happen. A few days later, after a similar conversation, he asks, “Are you sure?”
So I went back and looked at the data on all my waterings from last year, and I am the crazy one, I think – the waterings are spacing about the same time apart. The only change I’ve noticed that is a problem (and I didn’t have much of this happen last year), is that when I get lots of rain two or more days in a row, the flex daily system wants to water before even the very surface of the soil is dry.
I couldn’t imagine having two cooks in the kitchen on this one, I need full control
Franz, I logged into my Rachio using the website, changed the root depth of my grass zones, and the watering frequency didn’t change. However, I changed the root depth of my planter bed zones, the watering frequency changed massively.
For example, Zone 1 is grass. Before I made any changes, the root depth was set at 8 inches and it said the last time it watered was on June 6 and that it will water again on June 9. I changed the root depth to 25 inches. It still says the last time it watered was June 6 and that it will water again on June 9. I left it set at 25 inches.
Zone 7 is for planter beds. Before I made any changes, the root depth was set at 10 inches, the last time it watered was on June 6, and it would water again on June 10. I changed the root depth to 25 inches and it immediately changed the date it will water again to June 20. I changed the root depth back to 10 inches.
Something isn’t right here. Last year, changing the root depth of my lawn massively changed the water frequency.
After changing and saving, I would make sure you refresh the webapp and looking at the moisture graph again. It could be caching that data.
If I remember right @Linn, they dropped the max moisture levels on the charts from 120% down to 110% sometime last year. That could explain why it starts watering sooner.
+1. One of the things I love about this controller is that my landscaper can’t mess with it if he tried. On my old Hunter I used to try to dial things in, then the landscaper comes and cranks things up, confuses valves/zones, etc. I don’t miss those days at all.
So it turns out that I am crazy. Thanks for taking the time on this!
Add ‘me too.’ I’m in the Dallas area (75074).
I set a 13 month high this past month, May. see http://www.welserver.com/perl/plot/WEL0343/Sprinkler2.png . June of last year was 26 hours total for all zones running. May, last month, was 27 hours total.
I changed my zones containing flowers from ‘annuals’ to ‘warm-season grass.’
I refreshed the webapp multiple times (I didn’t mention that in my post, however). I also logged in with my phone app last night and this morning and it shows the same thing as the webapp - Zone 1 has 25 in root depth but the planned water date didn’t change - it’s still June 9.
It could be just depleted. What do future waterings look like? They should be much more infrequent.
Once my dead spots green up, I’ll start dialing back my CC to see if that gets me a day off once in awhile
You are right, @azdavidr. They did drop it to 110%, and I remember being quite happy with the change because at 120% things were getting too dry before it watered. I’m wondering if there is a sweet spot somewhere in between.
@franz, thank you so much for taking the time to get involved in this conversation. I’ve noticed that most of the posts in this thread are from customers who are very happy with your product. I think we are just trying to tweek it better. Or we are just another year older and our memories are fading!!!
I’ve taken screenshots of the moisture levels before and after adjusting the root depth on zone 1 (the grass zone that doesn’t seem to be adjusting correctly) and zone 7 (the planter bed zone that does seem to adjust correctly) to show what I’m talking about.
These images show the moisture level in zone 1 with the root depth set at 8 inches.
So far so good. Now I changed the root depth to 25 inches in zone 1 and the moisture levels are as follows.
Okay, this is weird. Note how the graph above from June 2-8 changed. When I changed the root depth, it assumed that all the moisture is at the bottom of the root zone, which is incorrect.
Let’s look at zone 7. Here is the moisture level in zone 7 with the root depth set at 10 inches.
So far so good. Now I changed the root depth to 25 in zone 7 and the moisture levels changed as shown in the following images.
Now this looks correct. When I changed the root depth, the graph from June 2-8 shows the moisture at the top of the root zone, which is the correct behavior.
Add me to the concerned, my sprinklers seem to be going all the time, even when I’ve had rain… I’m scared to see my water bill, but I will say, my lawn currently is the greenest in the neighborhood!
My bill for April was like 40 bucks higher than last year, but then again, my yard last year with how I use to water looked like this…
I’ve been thinking that Rachio is watering more this year than last, but obvisouly it’s in my head too. Mine waters almost daily (minus Saturday and Sunday, my mowing days). REALLY don’t remember getting the daily notifications last year of the grass watering. Seems counter-intuitive to the deeper root theory if it is watering daily. But I can’t complain, the Rachio controlled area of my lawn is the only area that looks good right now!
@franz, what would you say an appropriate AWC would be? I thought the .12 was default…
It does seem that my weekends off causes Rachio to struggle to “re-fill” the tank…
What’s going on here? Did you manually run it or something because I wouldn’t think the system would want to water that again
Nope…that happens all the time. Other than the weekends when I don’t let it water, it rarely comes close to AD. Here is the week before…same thing. Again, I don’t know if locking it out of weekend waterings is causing it since the duration will never change and it has to play catch up.
Here are the setting on this zone…unchanged since switching to warm season grass.