# Catch Cup Results and Rachio



## daviddsims (Apr 15, 2018)

I finally used the Orbit B Hyve catch cups on my front lawn that has Hunter PGP rotors. I entered the results from the catch cup test into the Orbit By Hyve Lite app and got results of .38 inches per hour and a uniformity of 59%. This was pretty surprising as I just assumed the rotors put out a lot more water than that. I went into rachio and entered the results into the flex daily schedule and plan on giving that a try on this zone to see how it does. @Ware are you still using Rachio and if so, using the flex daily schedule for your warm season grass? Does the 59% sound pretty low to everyone?


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## Ware (Jan 28, 2017)

I'm a bad Rachio user. Last season I just ran mine in manual as needed. :?

I haven't turned my system on yet this year.


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## bernstem (Jan 16, 2018)

@Ware I'm not sure that is a bad idea. The rachio sometimes does wierd stuff on auto. If rain is scattered thunderstorms it doesn't laways get the rain correct. I think it also has a tendency to overwater. Even so, I still like it.


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## daviddsims (Apr 15, 2018)

I don't trust it enough to leave it in auto right now. Based on those results it appears it will water too much.


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## bernstem (Jan 16, 2018)

You can always leave it on auto. The calendar will tell you when watering is scheduled and if you think it is too early you can delay for as long as you want. Either manual or auto, the controller is crazy convenient with phone access.


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## daviddsims (Apr 15, 2018)

Yeah I'm watching the soil moisture balance and just delaying on the calendar. It is amazing being able to control with your phone and at least seeing what the system thinks as far as when watering is needed.


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## Ware (Jan 28, 2017)

bernstem said:


> ...the controller is crazy convenient with phone access.


Agree. It's worth having for that feature alone.


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## Mightyquinn (Jan 31, 2017)

Yeah, I let my Rachio go on it's own last year and it kept the grass nice a green and it never got too dry but I still think it was over watering as I had a reoccurring Dollar Spot issue because of all the water. I'm going to do it manually this year in conjunction with the soil moisture meters I have hooked up to my DVP2 weather station and see how that goes.

@daviddsims for your PGP heads, you might want to look into your nozzle selection and adjust them from that way to get more even distribution. If you have never switched them out, it wouldn't surprise me if they all had the same nozzle in them regardless of their degree of rotation. You also might want to look into swapping in blue nozzles if you have the standard red ones.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

I use mine on auto, but I adjusted all the settings to my soil/sun/sprinklers. I do mess with the crop coefficient thru the year. The research gives a yearly average of 0.80 for cool season (i think it is 0.60 for warm), but that's an average. If you think it is overdoing it, lower the crop and manually trigger a cycle if you think it is getting too dry.


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## daviddsims (Apr 15, 2018)

@g-man the warm season setting is .65 in my advanced settings. So by lowering the CC, that would water less frequently?


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

Crop coefficient is trying to estimate how much water your soil is loosing (evaporation + grass usage= ET). By lowering the crop, the system will calculate less water usage, so it will water less frequently. Try 0.60

Pgr and the amount of nitrogen you use will affect your actual ET.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

Some background info.

https://ucanr.edu/sites/UrbanHort/Water_Use_of_Turfgrass_and_Landscape_Plant_Materials/Turfgrass_Crop_Coefficients_Kc


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## bernstem (Jan 16, 2018)

daviddsims said:


> @g-man the warm season setting is .65 in my advanced settings. So by lowering the CC, that would water less frequently?


That was on my research list. Some preliminary reading suggested the crop coefficients change depending on season. I hadn't gotten to the point of adjusting in my controller. I have 7 turf zones, so it is somewhat painful...


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## TSGarp007 (May 22, 2018)

It's baffling that the Rachio doesn't have an option to automatically adjust the CC when you're using the FLEX option.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

One of features I would like in the rachio is to be able to override the precipitation amount for the last day. Sometimes the weather station is not calibrated or something is just wrong. I have a rain gauge. I want to fix the amount but it is not possible.


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## bernstem (Jan 16, 2018)

Yeah, it would be ideal if you could add specific amounts of irrigation. Right now all I can do is fill or empty the zone. I can't add 0.24 inches of rain. That is the one problem with the Rachio. It pulls data from nearby weather stations. Supposedly it uses some fancy software to calculate at your controller, but I think it just uses the nearest station. For spot storms, that isn't ideal. My nearest station is less than a mile away, but I have still seen it add rain when I didn't get any.


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## Bimmerdan (May 6, 2020)

There are updates this year to the Ranchio app, they are not good. They seem to be focused more on selling there Thrive product. I have yet to find where I can manually run a schedule and have to choose each zone under schedule.

I also do not like to water daily, but that is now how it is set up to water. I opened a ticket with support and am waiting to hear back.


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## TSGarp007 (May 22, 2018)

@Bimmerdan, on my app (android) I can run a schedule manually.

-On the home screen, press the icon that looks like a 'play button' (white triangle inside blue circle).
-Choose the 'SCHEDULES' tab (it defaults to 'ZONES').
-Select your schedule.


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