Watering times

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Jonathan Perkins

August 21, 2019 20:47

It sure what’s going on. I am using the suggested watering times for all zones, but the results in the history are showing info that doesn’t match. E.g. scheduled watering time 21:00, actual 59:45.

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  RainMachine Support August 22, 2019 10:27

  Hi, Jonathan
  RainMachine water for the future. So, if the weather it's hot on your area you can see those watering times.
  Suggested watering times for your zones are based on a typical summer day on your area. Those are not fixed times until you choose the program to use FIXED zones watering times, this will ignore any weather data and it will water as much as you set it to.

  Check weather forecast for your location and if it is hot, then the watering times will increase.
  Hope this helps, Jonathan
  
  Thank you!

  Julian
  RainMachine Support

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  Jonathan Perkins August 24, 2019 01:21

  Hi Julian,

  OK--I'm confused. Below is the info in my history. The "scheduled" amounts--I have no idea where they came from. The way I set my schedule up is I measured the actual, effective precipitation rate of each zone (except the drip zones), and plugged those in. Then I used the suggested water times in the app.

  Perhaps I need to start over. I bought this controller because I really want to set this up right, to water the correct amount, to use actual precip rates instead of the default for a sprinkler-head type, and to take weather into account. Is there a step-by-step instruction set for this?

  

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  Jay September 03, 2019 17:08

  I have the same issue. Please see the screen capture below:

  

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  Jonathan Perkins September 05, 2019 02:31

  That's scary.

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  Jay September 05, 2019 02:47

  It is scary. Luckily I was at home so I can stop the sprinklers. Otherwise I will receive a huge water bill. I really think Rainmachine needs to add a safety maximum watering time for each zone to prevent excessive watering. 

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  RainMachine Support September 05, 2019 07:29

  Hi, Jonathan
  Sorry for the late reply.
  Those "Scheduled" watering times are coming from the "Suggested watering times" you choose for your zones. Those are times that the RainMachine suggest you should use based on your zone properties, your location, and they are suggested for a typical summer day based on EPA WaterSense requirements. Our devices are EPA WaterSense certified.
  Those suggested watering times are auto-adjusted based on the weather data available at the program start time. 
  So, if you have set this for all your program zones and if the program uses weather data, you will get watering times changes for all your zones at the program start time.
  If you know how much your zones should water, then you should input the CUSTOM watering time for each one of them and, if you prefer for them to water as much as you set, then, check the "Fixed" watering times for your programs under the "WEATHER ADJUSTED ZONE DURATION" option. If you still prefer to have the watering times changed by the weather, then you should let the "Weather-Adaptive Watering" checked.
  This will only engage and change the watering times only if your zones have the option "Use weather data" ON!
  Imagine you create a program using a zone that you don't want to have watering times changed by the weather (a greenhouse zone), but you also have zones that you do. Then, for that zone, you go and disable the "Use weather data" option and it will water as much as you set it to.

  @Jay - our colleagues replied to you on your ticket - we will need the diagnostics of your RainMachine uploaded to our server to investigate your issue.

  Thank you both for your understanding.
  Julian
  RainMachine Support

   

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