Inches/hr with new flow meter

Schedules & Zones Set Up & Edit Zones
1

Hello,

I email this question to support, but thought the community might also help.

I’ve struggled a bit with my current nozzle inches/hour settings. I have calculated zone output with catch cups. However, my 10 zones will run for nearly 10-11 hours on watering days (if all are running). It seems like my Rachio is overwatering at times. Prior to adjusting my inches/hour, my grass was dry and turning brown. However, I’m not confident in my settings. I’ve calculated most zones at less than 0.5”/hr, which seems low to me.

I’ve tweaked my heads and adjusted coverage. I primarily have rotary heads and I’ve replaced any that were not working properly. I’ve had an irrigation company verify that my heads were set and working optimally.

This leads me to a few questions.

-Does 0.5” per hour seem low for a zone with an optimal number of Rainbird 5000 heads?

-I am wondering if the new wireless flow meter will help adjust a zones inches/hour setting. Will this meter help make zone watering duration adjustments automatically, or is it strictly an overall monitoring/usage tool.

-Any other advice?

Thanks and I appreciate your help,
Sam

2

Which nozzle are you using? When I used 2.0 nozzle for rainbird, the catch cup shows 0.4x in/hr. After changing to 5.0 nozzle, now the pr is 1.5 in/hr with 75% efficiency. If you think catch cup measure is too low, change the rotor nozzle to higher throughput. But remind that the max throughput is determined by your water pressure. So you might not be able to use 8.0 nozzle (I couldn’t )

3

If these heads are rotating 360, that doesn’t seem odd, which nozzle is installed?

The flow meter will give you an idea of pr, but it will not help with the efficiency metric.

To help with the long schedule, I would create 2 schedules and set one for odd days and the other for even. If they are flex, you’ll have to,fake it with every other day selection.

1 Like
4

@samandbrennen – pending the nozzle(s) used and head coverage, that PR is realistic for a rotor head.

Out of the gates, the wireless flow meter will support monitoring/usage, but additional intelligence could be added to automate PR calculations. A catch cup test will always be recommended to calculate efficiency/DU (distribution uniformity).