# Zone Settings for RainMachine



## Ri22o (May 6, 2020)

I have been using the RainMachine Mini-8 for a couple seasons now, and generally like it, but was looking for some help to get the most out of it.

I finally did the can test for a couple zones yesterday and was wondering how the sprinkler types for these zones want to be set.

I put out 16 cans. Some ended up with more water, some with less, but they were all reasonable based on their proximity to a sprinkler head. I combined them into one can, measured the water height, divided by the number of heads, and then multiplied by four (I ran them for 15 minutes). This gave me 1.2", 1.2", and 1.7" /h averages for three of my zones.

This is one of my zones:
1,500sqft
Field Capacity: .86 inch
Suggested daily watering time: 18min 11sec
Cool Season Grass
Clay Loam
Flat
Custom Sprinkler Head at .8 in/h with 70% efficiency
Full Sun

Changing to 1.2 in/h with 70% efficiency drops watering time to 12min 7sec. This makes sense as both rates end up at .24" per cycle based on their run times. Where I am trying to decide how to set them is if the heads are actually averaging a flow of 1.2 in/h, when set to .8 in/h, then I would think I would be getting closer to .36" put down. It doesn't seem like much but it's 1.68" vs 2.52" for a 7 day period. Currently the grass doesn't seem overly wet or soggy after watering, which is why I never messed with it much more than looking at advertised head rates and setting from there.

Can anyone help give some insight?


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

What was the inches in each cup after the 15mim run? What was the the lowest? Set your system to match the precipitation rate you find.


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## Ri22o (May 6, 2020)

g-man said:


> What was the inches in each cup after the 15mim run? What was the the lowest? Set your system to match the precipitation rate you find.


Since I didn't actually measure each can, I can only guess as to what the different depths were, but I would say 3/16" to 1/4" was the majority average with some cans having closer to 1/8" and some near 3/8". The former were far more common though.

I will set the rates to 1.2", or their respective numbers, and see what happens. Are you familiar with the RainMachine at all? I am using the setting for adaptive watering for heavier, less frequent waterings for root growth, but not sure how that changes how long it runs and when.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

You should use the lowest value you found instead of the average. That spot of the yard is getting less water and will suffer if you use an average.

I'm not familiar with rainmachine. In indy we are averaging 0.18in of ET per day. That's 0.5in of irrigation every 3 days.


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## SpiveyJr (Jun 7, 2018)

Reading this thread makes me second guess my RainMachine settings...

How did you decide your application efficiency is 70%? Mine are all set to 90% because I believe that's the default. I would make sure your precipitation rates are as close to accurate as possible because this will determine how long your zones need to run to put down the proper amounts of water. Whether you have your zone set to .86 or 1.2" per hour doesn't mean it's going to put down 1.68" or 2.52" per week unless you have it programmed to do so. RainMachine tries to make sure your lawn will receive enough water to cover 7 days by taking in account how much water you and mother nature put down, how much is lost due to run off, and how much your soil can hold.

I have my zones set up probably a little different than most. I grouped my zones into programs, Zones 1+2 are for the Front Yard so they get a Program, both sides of the house consist of 3 zones so they get assigned a Program, the backyard is a single zone on another Program, and the area around the pool is another Program. I have each Program set to run over 2 or 3 days and based on my precipitation rates each zone runs for 40 - 90 minutes. For example, my backyard runs for 1hr 33 min on Mondays, and 1hr 10 minutes on Wednesday. They hardly EVER run for that long even with this heat and dry spell.


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## Ri22o (May 6, 2020)

SpiveyJr said:



> Reading this thread makes me second guess my RainMachine settings...
> 
> How did you decide your application efficiency is 70%? Mine are all set to 90% because I believe that's the default. I would make sure your precipitation rates are as close to accurate as possible because this will determine how long your zones need to run to put down the proper amounts of water. Whether you have your zone set to .86 or 1.2" per hour doesn't mean it's going to put down 1.68" or 2.52" per week unless you have it programmed to do so. RainMachine tries to make sure your lawn will receive enough water to cover 7 days by taking in account how much water you and mother nature put down, how much is lost due to run off, and how much your soil can hold.
> 
> I have my zones set up probably a little different than most. I grouped my zones into programs, Zones 1+2 are for the Front Yard so they get a Program, both sides of the house consist of 3 zones so they get assigned a Program, the backyard is a single zone on another Program, and the area around the pool is another Program. I have each Program set to run over 2 or 3 days and based on my precipitation rates each zone runs for 40 - 90 minutes. For example, my backyard runs for 1hr 33 min on Mondays, and 1hr 10 minutes on Wednesday. They hardly EVER run for that long even with this heat and dry spell.


I decided on 70% because I know the heads are not 100% efficient. 70% seemed like a good number because it does put down lower amounts of water in areas, decreasing the efficiency.

I had mine set to run every day and, based on rate and amount of time it wanted to run, I determined it wanted to put down .24" of water a day. I have since changed my rates to 1.2" and set it for every other day. I am going to let the program run several days and then stab the lawn and see how deep the water is. I may also put cans out for a cycle and see how much is collected.

I have a single program and my zones run anywhere from 21 to 28 to 42 minutes depending on size. They are sized 800, 1000, 1500, 2800.


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## SpiveyJr (Jun 7, 2018)

There's so many settings and configurations with the RM you can go insane. When you had it set to run every day, did the zones run every day or did they adapt to fewer days with longer run times?

I ask because somebody from RM support said on their forum they prefer to have the zones scheduled to run every day and have the controller adjust the watering schedule automatically. I never did this and went with my own scheduled days but I'm curious how it worked for others.


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## Ri22o (May 6, 2020)

SpiveyJr said:


> There's so many settings and configurations with the RM you can go insane. When you had it set to run every day, did the zones run every day or did they adapt to fewer days with longer run times?
> 
> I ask because somebody from RM support said on their forum they prefer to have the zones scheduled to run every day and have the controller adjust the watering schedule automatically. I never did this and went with my own scheduled days but I'm curious how it worked for others.


Yes, I totally agree that the thing is way smarter than it needs to be and makes setting it up near impossible.

I had it set to run every day with the suggested watering time (based on details per zone). I also had Weather Adaptive watering turned on so it would then computate and schedule to give it at least .XX" per day. If it rained, it would give less or none at all (would put it into a surplus). The only thing I don't know is how it figured the ET into it because it never scheduled for over 100% of the suggested time, which might be needed in the summer. If I changed it to every other day then it would just double the run time per zone.

I have tried the Adaptive Frequency setting ("When necessary, skip watering and carry over to next cycle. This promotes deeper root penetration.") but only recently.


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