Why does Rachio ignore my watering schedule?

Schedules & Zones
1

I have two zones (Backyard Left and Backyard Right) and one fixed schedule. I want to water each of these zones in 5min intervals with 25min break in between (otherwise there is runaway, I want to make sure they soak properly):

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As you can see, it should start at 3:00 each night and I expect it to stop at 6:00. Because the total watering time is 30min, 15min for each zone. And each “Cycle and Soak” takes 30min with 5min watering.

So for each zone, we have 15min/5min=3x cycles, each of them 30min, i.e., 90min for each zone or 180min (=3h) for both. Both zones could also run in parallel, i.e. while the other zone is in soak. Then the whole watering should end at 4:30 (after 90mins).

I observed when the valves turn on and off and here is what happens:

Back Yard Right:

Turned on: 3:00
Turned off: 3:05
Turned on: 3:30
Turned off: 3:35
Turned on: 4:00
Turned off: 4:05

Back Yard Left:

Turned on: 3:00
Turned off: 3:10
Turned on: 3:30
Turned off: 3:40
Turned on: 4:00
Turned off: 4:10

So, Backyard Right works exactly as expected! But Backyard Left turns on for 3x10min=30min instead of 3x5min=15min, as configured.

What is happening here?

2

This following is what I would probably do to try to help diagnose it if I had a schedule like that: change the start time to a time that I can actually watch it for part of the time. It currently obviously is starting at the correct time with the backyard right zone. However, I would guess the backyard left zone does not really start at the same time, but when the right is done and really only going for 5 minutes. I could be wrong though.

Oh wait, if you are running each zone for 15 minutes, would not you expect the following? This is giving each zone a total of 15 minutes which is what you want for a total watering time of 30 minutes.
03:00 right on
03:05 right off, left on
03:10 left off
03:30 right on
03:35 right off, left on
03:40 left off
04:00 right on
04:05 right off, left on
04:10 left off

If this is correct and what it is actually doing, the left start time seems odd (see first paragraph).

1 Like
3

That’s what I did. I watched the valves turning on/off and noted down the exact times.

4

Good to know. If you manually turn on right zone, does left come on . . . or visa versa?