[Altavia]

Originally Posted by Jim1mack

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.

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.

[MorTech]

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.

[Teemotay]

Originally Posted by kcrazorbackfan

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.

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….

[Vinscalese]

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

[Altavia]

Originally Posted by MorTech

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.

Good advise.

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

Recently discovered the grass loves Lesco palm fertilizer 😎

[Altavia]

Originally Posted by Vinscalese

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

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

[PhilG]

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

[jrref]

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.

[TheWatcher]

Originally Posted by Altavia

How accurate have your rainfall measurements been?

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.

[Altavia]

Originally Posted by TheWatcher

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.

[wisbad1]

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby

A pipe busted on our system so we now use a hose sprinkler and the hose itself. All manual, nothing underground anymore.

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

[TVTVTV]

Originally Posted by rsmurano

What a waste of water. Every house should be using a smart sprinkler controller and not the dumb Hunter controllers they put in each house.
For $60, you can swap out the hunter controller in 5 mins, install the new smart controller, and then take 15-30 mins programming your new smart controller.
While you are programming your new smart controller, you can point it to the many homes that have personal weather stations near you to get the most reliable data for the controller to use when calculating when it should run the sprinklers and for how long.
Many other benefits too, like turning on a station from your phone from anywhere in the world or inside your house. No more running to the garage to start and stop a station.

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.

[Pairadocs]

Originally Posted by rsmurano

What a waste of water. Every house should be using a smart sprinkler controller and not the dumb Hunter controllers they put in each house.
For $60, you can swap out the hunter controller in 5 mins, install the new smart controller, and then take 15-30 mins programming your new smart controller.
While you are programming your new smart controller, you can point it to the many homes that have personal weather stations near you to get the most reliable data for the controller to use when calculating when it should run the sprinklers and for how long.
Many other benefits too, like turning on a station from your phone from anywhere in the world or inside your house. No more running to the garage to start and stop a station.

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.

[Pairadocs]

Originally Posted by wisbad1

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

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 !

[brianherlihy]

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