Need Clarification on Daily vs Monthly watering timing

Can someone explain the difference in the Daily Flex algorithms vs the monthly algorithm.
If I choose daily flex, all my fixed heads get between 4 and 5 times the watering time as they do when choosing monthly.
Also, the monthly schedule is believable but there is no way I’m going to water my flowerbeds for an hour per cycle when my grass is only getting 20 minutes as indicated by the daily flex.
If I choose the daily flex, I could be watering for upward of 8 hours as opposed to the 4 hours that has been working fine on my Hunter dumb controller.
Not impressed.

While they are both flexible schedules, one is based on thirty year average temperatures (flexible monthly), and one is based on real time temperatures and precipitation (flexible daily). Flexible monthly schedules are very predictable. You can actually go to the calendar view and see the frequency of watering change as you move month-to-month. This is the schedule that will be followed throughout the year (unless you adjust your zone characteristics).

Flexible daily schedules adjust immediately to warmer and cooler temperatures. Overall my bet is that you will see more efficiencies (especially during cooler times or precipitation events) than flexible monthly, but they are largely dynamic and unpredictable (they are also a little harder to dial in if you want to adjust the frequency). If you have an abnormally warm summer it will want to adjust and water more.

I always tell customers if they want to use flexible daily to start with one zone, get it dialed in, and then if it fits your needs apply it to the other zones. Some customers like using flexible monthly since it’s more predictable and a little easier to configure.

The community is also a great resource to help you get zones dialed in, we have quite a few customers in TX.

We had a quick look at your zones. It looks like for grass flex monthly was at 24 minutes, flex daily was at 31 minutes, which seems reasonable. With 14 zones (including cycle soak) you are bound to run for some time.

Also noticed that you had changed a couple zones to a 4 inch root zone depth. TX is typically warm season grass with about a 9 inch root zone depth. I’d probably change them back to the default.

Even if you completely disagree with the watering times (which are fully adjustable on all schedule types), we have a lot of features in our weather intelligence software that will help save water and money.

https://support.rachio.com/hc/en-us/articles/115010542188-What-is-Weather-Intelligence-

More information on flex schedule types:

https://support.rachio.com/hc/en-us/articles/115010541708-Flex-Daily-Schedules-FAQ

https://support.rachio.com/hc/en-us/articles/115010378767-Flex-Monthly-Schedule-FAQ

And if you want to get fully indoctrinated…

https://community.rachio.com/t/flex-schedule-guidelines-and-documentation/3799

Hope this helps explain the software a little better.

:cheers: