# Have You Ever Irrigated While Irrigating?



## jeffjunstrom (Aug 12, 2019)

My watering schedule has the system set to kick on tomorrow morning, but it is supposed to be lightly raining. The projections are not enough to override the system, which got me wondering if anyone else has ever run their system while mother nature was providing free irrigation, in an attempt to get the full amount you had hoped for? Do you pull back on the system times? Do you wait until the rain is done and adjust? If you have done them both at the same time, what do your neighbors say?


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## spaceman_spiff (Feb 5, 2021)

I let my Rachio 3 controller work it's magic. If the forecast is for over X inches, it'll skip watering. Same goes for freezing temps or wind over X mph.


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## Utk03analyst (Jun 8, 2019)

spaceman_spiff said:


> I let my Rachio 3 controller work it's magic. If the forecast is for over X inches, it'll skip watering. Same goes for freezing temps or wind over X mph.


Same I have the Gen1 Rachio, I let it do its thing but sometimes the rain isn't enough to justify skipping a schedule which in dead of summer is roughly 2.5 times a week. I normally would just manually quick off the schedule the following morning.

I would say there is nothing wrong with irrigating while raining. It would mostly be the neighbors who would frown and think you're wasting water but not all rainfall isn't created equally.


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## jeffjunstrom (Aug 12, 2019)

spaceman_spiff said:


> I let my Rachio 3 controller work it's magic. If the forecast is for over X inches, it'll skip watering. Same goes for freezing temps or wind over X mph.


Yea, this is where mine is too. I have it triggered to skip a scheduled irrigation if 1) 80% chance of rain, 2) 0.3" in past 24 hours, or 3) 1+" in past seven days. I might adjust the first trigger...while it could be 80% chance of rain, that could also be just a sprinkling (like I'm expecting tomorrow).


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## JohnnyBGreen (Apr 19, 2021)

Same here, I will let the Rachio decide. I have the Gen3 now and its forecasting has been working well the past few weeks. 
I've been growing new seed in most of the yard so I've been running a couple light sprinkles throughout the day.
There have been days where we've had some drizzle but it's not enough to keep the soil moist for the seed babies, and I'll either let it run while drizzling, or let it run again later in the day. 
If it's a much heavier rain, the Rachio or my rain sensor have worked well cancelling programs.


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