# Hydrawise "Grow in Program" - Advanced Mode



## Want2BS8ed (Jun 25, 2021)

After 16 years with a Hunter Pro-C, I finally upgraded to a Hydrawise HPC controller this spring. Took full advantage of 'Advanced Mode' during initial setup and other than a few quirks while dialing everything in; have been relatively pleased (1st water bill was 30% lower YOY).

Getting my ducks in a row for over seeding next month and am uncertain how to setup the Hydrawise to keep seed moist. With the Pro-C, I used Program A for normal watering and Program B for grow in; manually switching between the two. Hydrawise has a grow in program for Standard Mode, but I cannot find anything for Advanced Mode.

For those using Advanced Mode, how are you handling fall over seeding?

Many thanks,

M


----------



## pdefeo (Sep 10, 2019)

I had this same question and I sent an email to Hunter support. You cannot do this in Advanced mode. You need to switch to Standard.


----------



## Want2BS8ed (Jun 25, 2021)

pdefeo said:


> I had this same question and I sent an email to Hunter support. You cannot do this in Advanced mode. You need to switch to Standard.


Thanks @pdefeo. Was afraid of that... Hunter hasn't returned my email yet, but I was really hoping someone had figured out a work around.

I guess the real question now is a) flip flop back and forth and reprogram twice a year, or b) abandon Advance Mode/ET altogether?

Appreciate the input though.


----------



## JTravers (Aug 27, 2019)

Personally, I decided to abandon advanced mode with ET and move to Standard mode with Virtual Solar Sync.

I've watched some of Hunter's training videos, and according to them the "Advanced" mode is poorly named and is really more of a legacy Hydrawise (pre Hunter acquisition) mode. Think of Advanced = Zone based vs. Standard = Program based. They also stated most new features would require Standard mode, so it's better to get on board with it unless you absolutely require a feature that is only available in Advanced mode.

I'm new to these controllers (and irrigation systems in general), and we've had so much rain this summer that I really haven't had a chance to fully test and compare. I started off in Advanced mode and tried Smart ET. I noticed some strange behavior where if it skipped watering for a week because of rain and watering triggers (or a rain sensor) the controller would then water for multiple days in a row to build up the moisture it thought it lost to evapotranspiration over the past week. It was like it ignored the rain as an input to the ET calculation. Maybe I did something wrong or didn't have things set up correctly, though. That just didn't make much sense to me.

VSS seems to be working okay and is easier to understand the watering choices being made. One thing I don't like is how interval based watering (every x days) handles days you don't want to water on. For example, if you set it to water every 3 days and allow watering on every day but Monday, when the next interval hits Monday and it doesn't water - instead of watering Tuesday - it counts 3 more days and waits to water until Thursday. Not ideal, in my opinion.

Anyway, would love to hear your experiences with Smart ET and how it's worked for you vs. going with Standard mode and VSS instead.


----------



## Want2BS8ed (Jun 25, 2021)

JTravers said:


> Personally, I decided to abandon advanced mode with ET and move to Standard mode with Virtual Solar Sync.


Yes, after a rather terse response from Hunter I reprogrammed to Standard Mode as well.

I too find the behavior of water triggers/cycle suspensions odd as well. Last week I put down my final app of Pylex & Triclopyr and suspended the zones for a day assuming it would just push everything back as it did under advanced mode, but it ended up skipping the day all together and continuing on a couple of days later. Not a big deal, but I feel like I'm relearning Hydrawise's quirks and idiosyncrasies all over again...


----------

