I suppose most of us are not that concerned
if rain and sprinklers combine to water.

The personal weather station that works with the Rachio is the Tempest unit:

Tempest Weather System

You can then set your Rachio to suspend irrigation depending on the amount of actual rainfall at the weather station on your property.

Get it if you are a gadget junkie or just connect to a nearby unit. Amazon Prime days coming up...

There are personal weather stations all over TV. Just look at Weather Undergound.

Here is my station:

Tempest

Where do you go to get that 20 minutes of your life back!

How accurate have your rainfall measurements been?

my house is 24 years old, my Hunter with the leather pads rain sensor it's still working.
I have Xfinity Wi-Fi at my house, and it does not reach all the way into the garage, so there's that.

We had an Accurite rain gauge - wifi but not smart phone connected - til it died recently. And then our ancient sprinkler system controller died. Replaced controller with a smart one. One problem, as mentioned earlier, is it relies on rain forecast, rather than actual rain. Installed free RainDrop app on phone, and it gives rain measurement at a specific location, ie our house. We've had only .26 in the last 48 hours, as opposed to several inches nearby! Sprinkler controller wants to stop sprinkling due to the surrounding forecast. We'll keep the app.

OR. You can just shut it off When it rains.

I understand your Extreme concern.
 

You do you and realize there may be reasons for not upgraing to a SMART system.
“Every house should be using a smart sprinkler controller”.
1.Some may struggling to make ends meet. Upgrading to a SMART is the least of their priorities. “.. you can swap out the hunter controller in 5 mins.
2.Not everyone is able to utilize the features by mobile phone.
3. A suggestion for you, reread your post. Judging others is offensive. YOU DO YOU!

It’s not smart if it’s a manual process

The external rain sensors typically last about 5 years or so and most have no idea if it's working or not or even what and where the rain sensor is. This is why you see people watering after we have significant rain. It's because their rain sensor has failed.

The smart controllers do a good job but the weather forcast here in Florida is so random that I have my external rain sensor connected to my Rachio. This makes sure that if we do get 1/4 inch of rain or more and the forecast shows none that the Rachio knows and doesn't water.

Second house here has a Hunter( 6 year old) works fine, Between season Al setting and rain detector on roof! When we ( if here ) get a severe storm, I just go out and shut it off . Sometimes for several weeks, especially in late fall and winter!

Ohiobuckeye
 

I think they must have their rain gauge turned to a point that it shows no rain got into gauge to tell system they got no rain, then irrigation system will come on!

What waste? Irrigation water not consumed by vegetation returns to groundwater or to stormwater ponds for reuse for irrigation while providing an ecosystem for wildlife.

There’s an app called PWS Monitor where you can find home that have a Personal Weather Station that is hooked up to this app. Each station provides weather information that their station measures. You can also put a rain gauge in your yard.

I just turned my irrigation system yesterday after being off for two weeks because of all the almost daily rain we’ve been receiving.

The smart part of this process is not what a person can do, it’s what the system can do for you. I have my system programmed where it doesn’t go off if it’s windy < 16mph, if the prediction of rain is < 60%, if we got over .4” of rain. If we got .25” of rain, it will automatically adjust the runtimes per station.
Also, you can look at the calendar in the app and see when it’s going to come on and what each zone is going to run for.

Go ahead and buy one for everyone if you are this concerned.

Rain is hit or miss
 

Last week, saw rain in front yard, but not out the back. The smart sprinklers look at how much HAS RAINED WHERE THEIR Sensor is. Don't judge others. Ours hasn't run for quite some time.

2.5” in what neighborhood?

The Village of.....Grenada!

Same here. Living here full time, I will turn it to manual after a good rain and then water as needed or turn it back off manual if it starts getting dry.

Good tip.

For when I'm away, I set PWS Monitor to five of the closest personal weather stations and watch them to know when it rains to adjust my irrigation controller accordingly.

Of all things to fret about. Florida has one of the most productive aquafers on earth. It ain't the Sahara.

Disconnect the worthless solar sync wire and set the controller to water 50 minutes every 4 days...And then go do other things.

Why people spend so much time and money on their lawn seems a waste...Especially if you have almost-impossible-to-kill empire zoysia.

I’m kind of a lawn nerd. I bought a cheap rain gauge and if I get 1” of rain a week then I don’t irrigate. That’s about what healthy St Augustine grass needs to thrive.

I keep a journal of my mowing and rainfall on a lawn app so I know when to turn the irrigation on. Mine has been off since early June.

I’ve attached some pictures of the gauge, my lawn and a journal shot. Like I said, I’m a lawn nerd….

Rain sensor
 

I just completed a lifestyle visit and the home I stayed in had a rain sensor.

Good advise.

But if it rains, I like to reset the 4 day clock.

Recently discovered the grass loves Lesco palm fertilizer 😎

The rain sensors is dry out too fast in the Florida sun, so they’re practically useless

The water "waste" is trivial. Get a hobby or take up pickleball.

After reading all these responses I can't believe all the manual work people are doing to irregate their lawns.

The easiest way to "set it and forget it" is to get a Rachio smart controller and replace your hard wired rain sensor with a new one. You can get the Orbit one from Lowes or Amazon.

The reason for Rachio is they have a feature where you can sync your controller to a weather station near your house and use that to determine how much rain you actually got. You would be surprised just how many local weather stations set up by homeowners there are here in the Villages.

I'm sure other smart controllers have a similar function but once you set this all up you don't have to be aware of how much rain you are getting, just let the Rachio take care of everything. You will have to check the Rachio from time to time to make sure it's doing everything correctly but they recently changed there rain anticipating algorithm and it works very well.

Better than can be measured with a tube type manual system which cannot be used when I am not there.

The haptic system measures the drops as they strike its surface (somewhat like your phone touchscreen) so no mechanical parts like a traditional system. When you connect to the network, the amounts are adjusted with an algorithm that uses nearby and area wide station data that is used to calibrate your unit.

A lot of our rainfall is very irregularly patterned but that is the nature of the thunderstorm cells that predominate the rainy season in central Florida. So good enough for me and certainly matches any other methods I know.

Thanks for the info!

I just installed one but it isn't measuring rain so they are sending a replacent.

Also unable so far too get bHyve to see it, or other local stations I can see with PWS Monitor.

That water is cheaper than the garbage we use to water our lawns

TV has programs to educate us and preach about conserving water, yet (without spending $$ for additional systems) I gave to waste so much water waiting for hot water for every shower, no matter what time of year. I'm just glad I'm not in AZ where water is a scarce commodity.

It's very common for The Villages to have all, or many of their sprinklers ON after, and many times DURING very heavy rains. This has prompted disbelief for years, but the explanation given is that it's an automated program that can significantly prevent flooding of one or more retention ponds. Not uncommon to drive down a main thoroughfare in a heavy downpour and see all watering systems along both sides in full operation.

I'm all for that ! When we built our home it was MANDATORY (we'd "been there done that" with auto systems and found them unreliable and expensive, but told it was mandatory). I STILL dread the SMELL of the water from our system and always try my best to avoid getting it on my... difficult at times because it's easier to adjust a head exactly as you want it unless it's running, but the water is REALLY NASTY especially if you get some in the FACE ! :22yikes::22yikes:

i will water all i want after the trolls just wont stop

My water usage up last couple months from 4500 to 5000 gallons to 6000 to 6500 gallons. In my area been in drought for about 7 weeks till last week.

LOL, that's for sure, still looking for the 2.5. Sounds like a thinly veiled ad to me, especially knocking the premier brand by NAME yet. Wonder if the poster knows there are MANY other ways to stop an auto system without purchasing a thing....LOL !

Don’t tell anyone but when I go on my 6am walk when home's irrigation systems are running I take a pliers with me and adjust the heads that are spraying into the street and gutter. Just hate to see those rivers of irrigation water running down the gutters.

If I gave you my address would you walk by here?

And....we have a confession!