Different Schedules/Year?
Can the Rainmachine have different schedules for different parts of the year?
For example, I would like to set up a program that would water the lawn two times per week for a certain amount of time during the warmer months of year, and then have a different program water once per week for a different amount the other months of the year.
This is a better approach that watering two times per week all year and reducing the amount in the cooler months using a seasonal adjustment. It is better to water the lawn deeply and infrequently, so once per week is best in the cool months.
If the Rainmachine cannot do this, this would be a great improvement and would allow users to set up programs for the whole year with minimal need for change settings during the year.
It could be as simple as adding checkboxes for "months active" in each user defined program.
Thanks.
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Official comment
Hi Michael,
I agree, this is a good suggestion. I'll run the idea by the rest of our team and see if we can implement this in future updates. We appreciate the feedback :)
Regards,
Lukas
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I found a solution for this by setting up two programs ("Water Lawn Once Weekly" /and "Water Lawn Twice Weekly") and just enable one and disable the other when toggle between. Not too much trouble to do this but would be even nicer if months of the year could be assigned to each program.
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Another advantage to adding this feature is it allows custom monthly watering restrictions for each program. So instead of using the global watering restrictions (for example, turning off Dec, Jan and Feb) and having it apply to each program without the ability to customize, the user could set each program to be inactive for any desired period of months during the year on an individual basis.
Or perhaps the global watering restrictions could be retained and would supercede any individual settings.
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Was going to make this suggestion, but will add my voice. Here in Hilton Head, SC - We have a definite summer season when the grass needs watering every day, spring/fall where it might be every other day, and winter where you might only need to water a couple times a week.
Would like to be able to auto program the switch between those schedules based on a date, so I don't have to do it manually - or if I forget. Seems like this might be a good idea for installers putting these systems in for customers who don't like to make changes, and they might only make it out a couple times a year on a service call.
I realize this isn't really a set it and forget it system, but if you do forget it for a while, it would be nice if it made the seasonal switch for you. Hoping that since it's been 5 months since this was suggested, it's already in the works....
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I would think that this could be added fairly easily.
Since, when you create a program, you have the options to select what day to run and the time of day to start the program, another option for each program could be what months to run the program.
Then, as Michael S. suggested, two identical programs with different days and months to run. Of course you would have to pay attention and make sure the months don't overlap, as that could cause problems. OR leave it up to the user to make sure there isn't any overlap... of course, what would happen IF there was an overlap? Just run the two programs on their own schedule?
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I'd love to see a seasonal program capability with monthly boundaries. Check out page 7 here: https://www.chandleraz.gov/sites/default/files/documents/imported/WC_LandscapingWateringbyNumbers.pdf
Grass needs a lot more watering in the summer and nearly none in the winter, here in AZ. It'd be great if we could block certain months with different watering frequencies within zones! It's better to water using the same volume each time, to cater to the root zone but less frequently, depending on temperature. The weather adjustment algorithm is great for plants, shrubs, vegetables, etc but it doesn't address the special need lawns have for watering deep and more or less often.
TABLE B: MONTHLY FREQUENCY (DAYS BETWEEN WATERING) FOR WARM AND COOL SEASON GRASSES
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Warm 30 21 14 7 4 3 3 4 4 6 14 30
Cool 14 10 7 4 3 — grass dies out — 3 10 14 -
Yes it is! I see the option to make start/end date durations repeat each year (or not, if I uncheck the box). That's sweet! Now I have four, winter/spring/summer/fall schedules setup that each water the lawn for a fixed time of 35 min (depth of .75" based on my sprinkler output). But winter does it every 14 days, spring 7 days, summer 3 days and fall 6 days. SWEET!
Suggestion after going through this - Can we get 1-30 days in the watering frequency, rather than 1-14 as it is now? Pretty minor but I'd rather have a longer no-water duration in the winter. Should be more like 20-30 days in between watering (dormant Bermuda).
Thanks for your reply and assistance. This timer is SO MUCH BETTER than our old analog unit.
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I can think of two ways that could make this easier to implement for the developers.
1) Watering restrictions per program. Currently the watering restrictions are global. So maybe keep the default as global but allow individual programs to override the global restrictions. This way you just create a new program for the different season(s) and can program different watering restrictions. The current watering restrictions includes months; so this would accomplish what is being asked.
2) The start and end date can just be months and no years listed. Currently on my Pro 16 I can set an end date but then after that season passes I would have to update the program. How many people are going to remember that. They will when the grass, flowers, etc. start to die since the program never kicked off. So being able to set a program from say May to October and no year listed would accomplish what is being asked.
Out of the two options, I think the first would be better. I'm sure there are use cases where an end date should really be the end date. So under an existing program, restrictions could be allowed, not allowed or customized.
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I noticed that the firmware from way back in 2018 (02/01/2018 v4.0.925) listed this as a change, which great. So, I
would really love to know how many of these seasonal schedules the RM can store, and if specific zones can be
assigned to different programs. Also, is this the same for all models (Mini, Pro, and HD)?
"Program Start Date and End Date: You can choose the start date and end date for your programs and this will repeat yearly by default."
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