They don't exactly work as you think. The Rachio controller runs a soil model and makes watering decisions on a daily basis. While the forecast in our area is part of the calculation, the actual observed precipitation is the primary driver of whether it irrigates, for how long, and which zones are irrigated, on each day. I installed the Rachio when the original Hunter died. Installation and setup was about 90 minutes or so; ideally you will measure the inches per hour for each zone and that will take a bit of time. One of the other benefits is that you can turn individual zones on and off with your smart phone, which makes adjusting sprinkler heads convenient. When you travel, you should leave your wireless router on because the controller will not function correctly without a Wi-Fi connection. Mine is located in the low voltage panel in my garage and has no problem picking up the Wi-Fi signal from across the house.
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Originally Posted by retiredguy123
I don't manually use the controller every day. I set the watering times and the system automatically waters at specific times. If it rains, I may turn off the controller for a few days. Even when the rain sensor functioned, it was very inaccurate and I don't think it saved much water, if any. Also, the weather forecasts are so inaccurate that I would never use a controller that depends on weather forecasting.
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