New Mini-8 Total Watering Time Excessive?

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GHammer

March 21, 2018 20:42

I just received a Mini-8, set it up, updated the firmware, configured my zones, and left it run for a few days.

It is currently winter here so no watering is being done due to restrictions.

I am concerned that the watering is going to be far too much.

With my old timer, I watered each zone every other day for 20 minutes each. I thought that was excessive at times. The yard generally was in good health, looked green, got compliments.

With a 'Every 3 days' schedule, and the various 'automatic' option enabled on the Mini-8, the total watering time currently shows 7hrs 52min 48sec

My zones are described accurately. Shall I just wait for watering season to arrive and see what actually happens? Make some adjustment before hand?

 

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  RainMachine Nicholas March 22, 2018 11:06

  Hi Gary,

     8 hours looks too much, you say total watering time so this means it's total time for 8 zones or less ? I see that is a program that runs "every 3 days" but I'd like to know more about your zone setup and sprinklers head used. The biggest increase in watering time is due to sprinkler head being configured with a lower precipitation rate than the real precipitation rate. Can you tell me the model of your sprinklers heads ?

   

   

   

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  GHammer March 22, 2018 15:15

  Nicholas,

  I have 4 zones. Orbit Saturn III rotary, default nozzle and flow.

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  RainMachine Nicholas March 22, 2018 19:43

  Hi Gary,

  I looked at your sprinkler head specs and it can do more than our default rotary one: https://www.orbitonline.com/site_files/manuals/55469-24%20rA(1)1.pdf

  To change our defaults go to zone properties and on the Sprinkler Head type select Custom and enter:

  Precipitation Rate: 0.5in/h 

  Application Efficiency: 0.8

  Let me know what timers you get. 

  To be more precise we would need:

  1. Exact sprinkler type (red, blue, green), 

  2. Area of each zone in square ft,

  3. number of sprinkers for each zone and their radius patterns (eg: 4 heads @ 180degrees, 1 @ 360 degrees etc)

   

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  GHammer March 22, 2018 20:10

  Hi Nicholas,

  Those figures provide much better times. Once the snow is off the lawn, I shall get the exact measurements, head count and type, I also plan to do an Orbit cup measurement since I have the 12 cups anyway.

  For now, the custom sprinkler has zone 1 down to 22min 5sec, about 1/6 the previous value.

  Thanks for the quick and accurate help! Once I have all the data I'll update the device and this post. That will likely be in a month.

   

  Gary

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