# Rachio soil/system setup



## kolbasz (Jun 7, 2017)

Is there an easy way to determine and set my soil type?

Silt clay, clay, loam clay

I have dirt and then clay, so what is that considered

Going through initial setup, this thread will keep me in one place for questions


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## Ware (Jan 28, 2017)

Here you go...

What type of soil do I have?

For the initial setup, you could guess - then come back and change it later. :thumbup:


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## kolbasz (Jun 7, 2017)

I was reading this last night. I'll have to revisit it.


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## kolbasz (Jun 7, 2017)

How do I know my gpm if I don't know what my psi is? I have maxipaws and they have a huge range based on psi. Tuna can test ?

Also, is entering the sqft important for the calculations done in the software?


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## Mightyquinn (Jan 31, 2017)

I use my water meter to find out how much water I use per zone. I write the number down, run the irrigation zone for 10 minutes, then I recheck the meter and do some simple subtraction and multiply by 6 and I know my gallons per hour. Once you know that just divide by 60 and you have GPM's.


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## kolbasz (Jun 7, 2017)

Mightyquinn said:


> I use my water meter to find out how much water I use per zone. I write the number down, run the irrigation zone for 10 minutes, then I recheck the meter and do some simple subtraction and multiply by 6 and I know my gallons per hour. Once you know that just divide by 60 and you have GPM's.


Brilliant, I am doing this tomorrow. Good thing I have the rachio now so I can do this from my phone in a controlled fashion...

I assume the rachio setting just want gpm for the zone, it can care less if I have 8 heads or 1


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## Mightyquinn (Jan 31, 2017)

kolbasz said:


> Mightyquinn said:
> 
> 
> > I use my water meter to find out how much water I use per zone. I write the number down, run the irrigation zone for 10 minutes, then I recheck the meter and do some simple subtraction and multiply by 6 and I know my gallons per hour. Once you know that just divide by 60 and you have GPM's.
> ...


Correct! You can just do a custom nozzle and set it for whatever you come up with. The Rachio will also estimate your gallons used with each cycle and you can bounce that number off what you came up with.


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## kolbasz (Jun 7, 2017)

Had my first awesomeness...rained yesterday, rachio changed the schedule from Tuesday to Thursday.


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## kolbasz (Jun 7, 2017)

OK, so curious. I had rain this past weekend, Sat/Sun. Like heavy downpour rain.

On Wednesday my system ran a full cycle. This seemed very close to the recent heavy rain and I was curious if this is normal? Is this because my weather source did not report adequate rain? Is this because i do not have something set right?

I am on the full auto setting and I would not have expected the need for irrigation until at least today or the weekend really.

I just want to get an understanding of things. I have only had the unit a few weeks, but ive used 21k gallons, saved 0. So I am not being very green.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

Go to the zones and look at the moisture table. You could see how much rain it recorded and how much evaporation it assumed.

Also, unless you enter the zone area, the gallons calculated are inaccurate.


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## kolbasz (Jun 7, 2017)

hmm. seems I will need to fine tune things. Could be all it needs, I havent done much.

As for the data, it does show moisture to 110% on saturday, so it appears it did record rain accurately. Maybe I need to just adjust soil type, etc. In due time I guess.


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