Thanks garyjnj1. A couple things:
You CAN look at the previous week from the app. Click on the small arrow to the left of the GRAPH. It disappears when youâre looking at the chart on Android. I see youâre using the web app, which should be easier. You can still view the previous week on the web app.
As to zone 8, Iâm still convinced something is wrong there. Itâs going down SO slowly, percent-wise, compared to the others. Iâm sure even the previous week will not show irrigation, but how about giving me a screen shot of just Zone 5 and Zone 8 for last week to compare. Zone 5 /should/ show irrigation or rain, depending on what happened. I wonât guess about Zone 8.
Also, please post a screen shot of the Advanced properties for Zones 5 and 8, again for comparison. For each zone, click on Edit and then Advanced at the bottom. Youâll have to scroll to get all the numbers, and yes, we need all the numbers.
Anyhow, just do those two things. Hopefully weâll learn something.
Oh, and Iâve been working outside most of the day, will be going to bed early and will be at my sonâs house all day tomorrow. So I may not be able to answer until tomorrow evening, okay?
Stay with it. Weâll get there.
Thanks for the tip on how to view more history. Yes, there are no arrows on the Android version to indicate that you can go back beyond the 7 days. I donât typically use the web. Below are the requested data pages:
Where in the world did the 15in/hour come from? Iâve never seen a sprinkler put out anything close to that.
No idea, all I did was update the app. I always use the default settings for vegetation and soil type.
Yeah, we have a couple problems here. 15 "/hour would never be entered by Rachio. Rachioâs values vary with sprinkler head type, and vary between 0.5 and 2.0 "/hour. My values are lower, between 0.39 and 1.06. Edit Zone 5âs settings by changing the to a different nozzle type than you have, then select Rotor Head again, assuming thatâs what you have. The default value for Rotor Head is 1.0 "/hour.
On Zone 8, for Cool Season Grass as you have selected, the 25.59" root depth is way off as well. The default (what Rachio sets it for when you select it) for Cool Season Grass is 5.91" (or say 6").
The âway offâ values had to have been set manually, perhaps by accident, and you should always start with the default. Other values seem okay.
The huge root depth for Zone 8 would cause 2 things: 1) To greatly over-water, and 2) to wait a long time between watering (weeks!). I mentioned before it looked likes something had been changed in Zone 8 since it last watered or rained, and I think this was it.
When you change these values, your watering time WILL (or should) change. Leave them where they end up, for now. Changing minutes with Flex Daily completely eliminates any calculations done by Rachio.
I would also suggest looking through your other zones, checking those values. Going over the Advanced Values:
Area is set by you after measurement, or by the program if you draw the zone. Anything else is a WAG (Wild A## Guess). Not too critical, as it only affects calculated savings.
Available Water depends on the soil. For Clay Loam, it is set at the correct 0.2
Root Depth will normally be 6" or a bit more for grass, and is determined by Zone Type (Crop). It gets more complex with trees, shrubs, etc., and a mixture of shrub types in a zone, where you either guess or set it to the lower value.
Allowed Depletion is how much of the water within the root depth of soil you want to be used before watering occurs. 50% is normal and good.
Efficiency is a measure of how even your sprinkler heads provide water over the zone. 70% is probably average.
Crop Coefficient is a measure of how much water your crop/lawn/shrubs in the zone as a percentage of the FRET value (an open pan of water). Cool season grass defaults to 78%, and youâre close with both at 75% and 80%, but thereâs no need for them to be different unless you 1) Find out online that your particular grass requires more or less water and uses a different Kc, or 2) You find the zone, over weeks, gets too much or too little water. Increasing Kc applies more water per week by watering more often, reducing it does the opposite.
I think if you correct both of those, and check the other zones, youâll be off to a good start. After doing that, if your SURE that a zone is Saturated, donât hesitate to go to the Moisture Graph an click the FILL button. Likewise, if itâs very dry, click the EMPTY button. This will give Rachio a good idea where the moisture level is, and it can continue from there.
Thanks for the update. Well at least we see part of what is wrong. There is no way I would plug values like that into the software nor would I ever suspect that updating would cause me this headache. There is no need for me to do that. I am the only one with access to the app and device.
I do know that I donât recall reading anywhere that selecting Flex Daily would override Rachio values. Years ago when I bought the controller, Daily Flex was advertised and purported as the best program to go with. I guess this is what we get with perpectual development. No solid historical evidence to stand on. No written manual, no accountability.
I can tell you that another strange thing I see from last season to this season is that I had trees selected for zone 8(the photo showed trees). Now it shows as grass with that crazy root depth.
Now I have to go in and redo everything that gave me success over the years. I canât trust any of the values on the zones. Bad Deal Rachio!
I looked at the update that mentioned was posted in the play store. Again, all it says is bug fixes and performance enhancements. Nothing about what was fixed or what was enhanced. So again, if it screws something up on my end itâs on me.
Also, my app still goes from 0% to the (guess) actual % when delving into the moisture page and when coming back to the zone shows zero. All I can do is hope that the higher number that is seen is what Rachio will use. The web version doesnât seem to have this problem and shows the higher value. Was this fixed in the later version?
I doubt you did enter them manually. I can just say they arenât the standard values.
I use only Flex Daily, and definitely feel it is the best program. Not without opportunity to improve, though.
The Trees you mention for Zone 8 last year actually would explain the deep roots shown for that zone. If you have ONLY trees, then that might be best for the zone. But if you have grass mixed with the trees, itâs best to use grass as the crop, because it will die in hot weather long before the trees will.
And I agree: Whatever caused the changes, you have no choice now than to go through and check all the zones to be sure something hasnât been changed that you donât want.
The difference between the two might be one of two things: 1) Values on all pages donât always seem to update at the same time. You can make changes in a schedule or zone that /should/ show up immediately, but donât. Refreshing usually fixes that. I refresh a lot.
2) I think the moisture value displayed in large print may be earlier in the day (it doesnât seem to change thoughout the day), but on the chart & graph, the moisture level is at the END of the day (showing all moisture used for the entire day). I wouldnât worry too much about that, as long as it waters the next day as it says, and the two percents arenât too far off.
BTW, zones 1, 2 and 3 are shown to be watering tomorrow. Does that sound right to you, based on the rain you had earlier in the week? Hopefully, it will. I always worry about making changes like I suggested to you above, which can/will change the schedule and amount of water, right before itâs supposed to rain. Itâs confusing (to me, and maybe to Rachio) whether the change occurs instantaneously, as it would if something actually changed, or whether it recalculates the history too, as it would if you had the wrong value.
Ok. I just updated to the latest version. If you have an insiders connect with Rachio, perhaps you can convince them to put version history & notes about what was changed or fixed in the android whatâs new section or perhaps in the app itself. Good news is that the bug where the % moisture didnât match when delving in and backing out appears to be fixed. The values now match. That refresh issue you mentioned might still be there but I probably wonât see it tilâ irrigating.
In terms of zones 1-3, it was scheduled to run in the morning but it rained sporadically yesterday and all day today. So my old faithful rain sensor is activated. As such, it wonât irrigate in the morning.
I went in to look at the schedule options and noticed that you can no longer change your schedule type for an existing program. They force you to create a new program. Also, they now have a note that you must use the advanced programming in order to use Flex Daily. I think i will stay with the Flex Daily if I can get things in order. Iâll have to dig up my rainbird sprinkler head docs to begin verifying heads and everything. After that, do you recommend filling all zones to 100%?
I will also treat zone 8 as grass. I believe the reason I set it to trees was because I noticed that when set to grass, the trees seemed to rob the grass of the water. But I think your right, Iâll change it to grass.
It has been that way for as long as I can remember (5 years), so I donât believe that to be anything new.
Like weâve mentioned. The âhomeâ screen for a zone will always update differently than the moisture graphs. Those graphs populate when you hit the button. Sometimes the home screen requires an app shut down, or like @rraisley said, make a change to a zone setting will repopulate. When you updated the app, it forced an update when you opened, so that is probably why they are in sync. But, maybe the update does have a polling frequency change for the home pageâŚ
I think we can DEFINATLY dial in your system a little better. Flex Daily on the Rachio is by far the best truely smart scheduling system Iâve worked with across multiple manufacturers. Overall, Rachio defaults are pretty damn good, but with hundreds of different sprinkler and nozzle configurations, A LOT of improvements can be made to the PR settings to dial those in. 15" PR is for sure one we can improve on! 
Without knowing the results of the change, itâs hard to know what to do. Youâre right, trees rob water from the grass.
The only way to fix it is to either add additional irrigation right at the tree base, for the tree to use, along with normal irrigation everywhere else, or just apply extra for the grass. Itâs easies to just apply extra, and the easiest way to do that with Flex Daily is to increase the Crop Coefficient.
Ok. So what are the recommended entries for the advanced settings to correct zone 8? For now, I adjusted that root depth down to 6".
The 2 changes I recommended above were to change Zone 8 root depth to 6", and Zone 5 Nozzle Flow/hr to 1". I think thatâs a good start, anyhow.
I concur. I cannot, for the life of me, get Rachio to water more frequently on flex daily. This has been going on for several weeks at least. None of the advanced settings I change result in more frequent watering.
For your zone above, Iâd expect Rachio to water about every 9 days with the current weather, and Iâd agree thatâs not often enough.
Iâd like to see your advanced settings before saying too much. I have a feeling your root depth is on the high side. 1" of water for 50% allowed depletion seems high to me. To answer your question, lowering the Root Depth, Allowed Depletion and Soil Available Water will all result in watering more frequently, but letâs look at what you have before just changing one or more of them, okay?
That was quick! Iâm tinkering, so Iâm not sure if this is the same zone that I posted earlier, butâs typical.
For background, Iâm in SoCal and growing tropicals that require relatively moist soil. Thanks!
@matt8573 For trees (assuming) with a 25" root depth, I donât think that 9 days is excessive at all, especially with your current Evapotranspiration (ET). My ETâs are sitting around .3 right now in AZ (flirting with 100 degree temps already), and Iâm 7 days between watering. What are you watering these trees with though (bubblers, emitters, spray nozzles)?
If all you want to do is increase frequency, bring your root depth of this zone up to maybe 18". Or, you can increase your crop coefficient. For me, root depth is a little more âvisual.â Shallow roots need water more frequently, deeper roots donât dry out as fastâŚ
I totally agree! The problem is if I change the root depth to 6 inches, nothing changes in the frequency. Iâm using emitters. Thanks!