# Soak & Cycle Feature



## JayGo (Jun 13, 2019)

I replaced the irrigation controller my builder installed, and I put in a Rachio3. (By the way, Costco has the 12-zone on sale for $170 this week.)

I've been doing my own "soak & cycle" for a few years with my Hunter where I ran two scheduled waterings back to back, but I'm curious how well the automatic soak & cycle feature on the newer controllers works. Anyone care to share their thoughts?


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

It works pretty good. The zone slope controls it. The more steep, the more it will soak/cycle.


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## TSGarp007 (May 22, 2018)

g-man said:


> It works pretty good. The zone slope controls it. The more steep, the more it will soak/cycle.


Also the soil type.


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## HoosierLawnGnome (Sep 28, 2017)

Yes, soil and slope.

I have my soil configured as clay, so it kicks in for all zones. One zone has more of a slope I havent noticed a difference but I havent paid close attention either.

I turn it off on some schedules.


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## Utk03analyst (Jun 8, 2019)

I have a Rachio1 I like it. I set my cycle and soak to manual vs. automatic. It seemed to take all day to water so I set mine to 15 minute cycle and 30 minute soak. I haven't seen any run-off but in terms of total time to water including the soaks the more zones you have on a schedule the shorter the total time to water. With it on automatic it would take nearly 8 hours to run a schedule.


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## JayGo (Jun 13, 2019)

Thanks for the info, gents. I need to run a cycle during the day so I can see what it actually looks like when it does that feature.


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