"Finish by" option based on watering time duration
Implemented
I have set my program to start about 4 hours before sunrise ... but it would be great if you could set a "finish by" time that's based on sunrise. Something such as "finish at sunrise" and the program would calculate when to start the program based on scheduled duration for the day and the sunrise time.
Adding Flexible +1 hour -1 hour increments to before and after sunrise would be great.
Thanks. Loving my new RainMachine.
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Are there any plans to implement this? When watering is still going on by the time we wake up for showers, water pressure is a big issue if programs are still running. Especially more of a concern during hitter days when the programs are watering more than 100%. Setting a finish by time, or having it finish x minutes prior to sunrise would be extremely helpful. This topic received a lot of votes — can it be considered please?
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Hi, Rick, all
We are now gathering more feedback for this suggestion.In the end, it is a Program start time recalculation based on the amount of time you set before/after sunrise for the program to finish.
As an workaround - set an Hourly Restriction.
Scenario: A program with 6 zones is set to start at 5:30 AM and will run till 7:30 AM. You wake up at 7:00 AM. Add an Hourly Restriction for your working days that starts at 06:30 AM and last 1 hour. Your scheduled program will start at 5:30 AM and the zone that will water until the hourly restriction will engage at 06:30 AM will finish its time, but the next one(s) will be postponed until the hourly restriction will end at 07:30 AM.
Thank you,
RainMachine Support -
But using an hourly restriction won’t pause an existing running zone and then resume it after the restriction is over, correct? I have one particular zone that has a normally scheduled runtime of 1h:59m because it receives no shade, and today for example, it’s running the program at 128% due to little rain. The hourly restriction doesn’t appear to pause that running zone and then resume it after the restriction is over, does it?
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I'm not sure I follow the work around @RainMachine Support
The issue is completing a full cycle before sunrise. The Rain Machine seems to know in advance how long a cycle is scheduled. If the "finish by is set" then the start time would be calculated based on needed run times.
In your workaround example, it seems like cycle would consistently be cut short. If the cycle is set to force a finish at "sunrise" (which obviously changes all the time) then we're back to making sure the start time allows enough time for the longest possible run time.
Good watering practice is to water the lawn before sunrise. In our city, during water restrictions, this is the law. In order to get a full cycle I have to assume the worse case duration and set the start time which can be as early as 1 AM... which is about like watering at night, which is can create lawn issues. Often I don't need a full cycle but I never know... having this feature would be amazing!!
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As others mentioned - “finish by” is more valuable than “start at” or “start x hrs before” — ideally, watering should be done as close as possible to sunrise for two reasons - first, prior to sunrise allows the water to be taken it by the soil before the sun can evaporate it and second — to avoid fungal growth which will occur due to setting the schedule too early (at least in my area)
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Agree, Mitul. The current start up feature works well for many. The “finish by” is very exciting as it brings good watering practice (great points Rick) and compliance with local ordinances during water restrictions. Since sun rise is variable I’m hoping the “finish by” feature addition includes this as possible option with the same adjustments of “before/after.”
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I really like this new feature but I have some other - likely trivial - suggestion:
Can you please add a "finish by" without the sunrise/sunset dependecy? Just a plain "Finish by 8:00". Should be about the same, except the RM would not compute the sunrise/sunset event to find out until when to finish but would use a fixed time.
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