Review of the Rachio Smart Sprinkler Controller

The Rachio Smart Sprinkler Controller is an easy to use system to manage water consumption through sprinklers and still keep lawns and gardens beautiful. What makes it so smart is its connection via Whole-home Wi-Fi , a smart phone app and the Internet to weather data, allowing automated turning on/off sprinklers. Another benefit of the Rachio is the easy to use phone app that you can control from anywhere. While Rachio isn’t the only smart sprinkler controller on the market, we very much like what we’re seeing.

From Bruce: “My house if full of smart devices – lights, streaming media players, garage door opener, smart thermostat, smart doorbell, wi-fi security cameras, Echo/ Alexa devices and Sonos wireless speakers. But none of these devices is as smart as the Rachio Smart Sprinkler Controller I just installed.”

“What makes the Rachio so smart? Its connection, via Wi-Fi and the Internet, to weather data allows it to schedule watering by need and not just by a rigid timing schedule. Frankly, its pretty incredible. This relatively inexpensive device, for example, is significantly helping me save money and conserve water during the worst drought in the last 1200 years. As of July 25, 2022, see my upcoming water schedule as seen in the Rachio mobile app:”

Rachio Smart Sprinkler Schedule

Notice how there is no watering scheduled until next Saturday, 5 days from when I wrote this blog post. The Rachio Smart Sprinkler takes a look at the forecast and determines the proper watering schedule for me.

Prior to installing the Rachio, my sprinklers would have gone off on their even day regular early morning schedule, even if heavy rain was expected in the afternoon. The only way I could have conserved water is remembering to manually turn the sprinklers off, and then, remember to turn them back on. Now, my sprinkler system is smart enough to know ahead of time.

For this to work, I set up the Rachio to use a “Flex Daily Schedule” and I setup the “advanced zone configuration.” This included setting up plant and grass type, sprinkler head type, soil type, sun exposure, and slope of the zone. Below is an example of how this was setup for Zone 2 at my house:

Once my five zones were set up (Zone 5 is a drip line with most of the plants in the shade), I then turned on the Flex Daily Schedule.

Now, my Rachio Smart Sprinkler figures out how to optimize water usage to get the best results for my lawn and garden while saving water and saving me money.

Hard savings and water conservation with the Rachio Smart Sprinkler

I installed the Rachio Smart Sprinker seven days ago and here is the result as tracked by my water company.

My water usage is down 58% over the previous week. If I had kept my old sprinkler controller in place, even with rain sensors, I would not have conserved 2,399 gallons of water.

Conclusion: Rachio Smart Sprinklers Conserve Water & Save Money

The Rachio Smart Sprinkler delivers real savings – for me and our community. With 58% less water consumed, many water districts will charge less per gallon of water consumed due to conservation. The key to making it work is having a reliable Whole-home Wi-Fi network to ensure connection to the Internet and weather data. Should you choose to move forward with the Rachio Smart Sprinkler Controller, we highly recommend you have the right Whole-home Wi-Fi network in place first, to ensure you dont have connectivity issues.