I’ve tried an extender too. And different channels with all setups I mentioned.
Rachio is the only device that has this issue on my network out of almost 80 devices. Since it usually only has this connection problem a couple months of the year it wouldn’t make sense for it to be another device, or network configuration since I’ve tried everything possible. I probably just have a faulty controller and its slowly getting worse. This year, for the first time, the logic for my Flex Daily program wasn’t working the first couple weeks of May. It set every zone to water 10 minutes instead of 1 hr+ each. After a couple weeks it started working again on its own. And as I mentioned when the Rachio goes offline it doesn’t water. There’s supposed to be a memory stored program to water just in case it goes offline but mine has never done that. Nothing has changed, aside from trying different network configurations over the years, specifically for the Rachio. My Rachio gets good wifi signal too, usually -39 to -47ish. It’s not the furthest device away either. My old rainmachine controller never had this issue with wifi. Same neighbors and same internet provider for the area (we’re stuck with one option here). Rare power outages, overvoltages, etc. I have battery backups for a lot of devices to keep an eye on stuff like that for other devices. It doesn’t seem to be power related. Weather in May and June is more mild than other summer months like July and August, and definitely more mild than winter. Another thing, when it goes offline, even though it drops from my network and doesn’t run watering cycles, the app still shows it connected to the network with strong signal. Its like it disconnects itself into a frozen state. I can’t ping it. Maybe the app just shows the data of its status before it goes offline? Rachio keeps things locked down pretty tight so I don’t think there’s a way to ssh and diagnose further.
After all this time and troubleshooting, I’m at the point its just a bad apple (or a quality control issue with faulty wifi modules, soldering, or something else since there’s a ton of reports about this). Was considering getting a smart plug to power cycle it daily, but if it goes offline between cycles I’d still have to do what I currently do to get it back online. Aside from the wifi issue that usually only occurs for a couple months of the year for me, and the issue with flex daily this year, I really like the controller. I’m planning to stick with it until it fails or they come out with a new model. Its becoming frustrating af though. I usually like having problems like this with some devices because I usually learn something new, but this isn’t getting anywhere.