My home has 19 sprinkler zones and the builder installed the Rainbird ESP-Me controller.

It doesn't currently have the wifi-module installed.

Does anyone have an opinion on the effectiveness of their auto-watering based on weather compared to Rachio's?

It is my understanding that to replace w/the Rachio I'd need two units - an 8 zone and a 16 zone - and this scenario can be difficult to deal with because their app can't integrate the two for a single harmonious schedule.

Since its already installed/paid for, I'm leaning towards adding the Rainbird wifi-module and wait until Rachio comes out w/a larger control unit. However if Rainbird's software is good enough to match the Rachio it would make sense to never switch.

Any chance two of your zones end up being watered effectively when activated together? In my first home a couple of the zones were probably only 5-6GPM watering when the water supply could support up to 12-14GPM.

My first thought is that you may be able to combine a couple zones...19 seems like a lot for residential. If you can do that, then I'd switch to a Rachio. You may have a master valve and the Rachio has a spot for it. The rainmachine, I think, requires you to wire to one of the zones eliminating that one as a usable zone for the sprinklers. Both are going to be better than the Rainbird with WiFi module, IMO.

My Hunter Hydrawise can handle that many zones and is WiFi enabled with many of the same features of the Rachio. May want to look into it.

Combining zones might the the trick. There are a lot of separate drip line zones in flower beds.

How do I measure zone flow to determine which if any can be combined?

No sure-fire way, but start counting your drip points and add up what each might be flowing. In general, bubblers and drips are 1-2gph...maybe 4gph at most.

Your system can flow 10 gallons per minutes, or 600 gallons per hour at a minimum. Chances 2 drips won't have any issue at all being on at the same time.

****Actually, you could start your sprinkler on the zones of interest and go look at your water meter to see what it is using per minute****

Stick with the Rainbird and add the wifi module. You might have 19 zones because different beds may require different watering schedules. If you have a bed in a shady area with ferns you might want to keep it more moist than an area with lantana in the sun. Why spend the money to change things if it is working OK? Plus if the beds are drip, just run them during the day instead of when your sprays or rotors are running in the evening or early morning. You could alternate days for your turf areas also.

19 zones? Did you install little league field for your kid in the back yard?

Wasn't the intent. Corner lot with a bunch of beds. The number grew due to the side yard beds and beds around the pool. I was shocked when I opened the controller to see that many zones labeled.

Dallas requires that each streetside boulevard have their own zone. We live on a corner lot, have 14 zones, and not 16 or 17 because we opted to not put bed sprinklers or drips inside the flower beds in our backyard and sideyard.

Adam clarified in the post above.

FincAg said:

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Dallas requires that each streetside boulevard have their own zone. We live on a corner lot, have 14 zones, and not 16 or 17 because we opted to not put bed sprinklers or drips inside the flower beds in our backyard and sideyard.

Adam clarified in the post above.

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Just out of curiosity, does the city come in and do a yearly inspection to make sure of the above?

Lol 19 is nothing. We take care of a 55 zone "residential" system in southlake. House is for sale by the way if anybody is interested.

Doubtful, but it had to pass inspection at installation. I asked the same thing about why I had 4 zones dedicated to these little strips of lawn, and that was the answer from the sprinkler company and code enforcer. Code guy was a stickler, failed it the first time because there wasn't 12" of gravel in the pump thing out front, only 11.5".

mAgnoliAg said:

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Lol 19 is nothing. We take care of a 55 zone "residential" system in southlake. House is for sale by the way if anybody is interested.

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Man.. I thought my 25 zone was large in Fort Worth.... thank goodness I was on a well

Multiple controllers or 2 wire system?

mAgnoliAg said:

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Lol 19 is nothing. We take care of a 55 zone "residential" system in southlake. House is for sale by the way if anybody is interested.

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Probably because they couldn't afford the utility /water bill.

craig09 said:

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Multiple controllers or 2 wire system?

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Should be 2 wire but we have 3 pro-HCs multiple controllers. We didn't put the system in, and we put the controllers in before they came out with the HCC. We could combine 2 zones and put everything on one controller 54 zones

Happy with my Rachio

I had 64 zones in each pedestal and had 22 pedestals in total. But we were irrigating 150 acres.