half hour 3 times a week summer....20 minutes 2 times in winter...turn it off if a lot of rain

Watering daily will cause your turf to have a shallow root system that dries out fast and is weaker. Watering 2-3 times per week for longer periods will result in the turf having a deeper root system, more tolerate to temp changes and overall healthier.

Just installed b-hyve for under 100 bucks smartphone WiFi its excellent

You change the times to more in summer, less in winter. If you have a service company to inspect your system, they make adjustments for you. I use ACI 352-266-3158. They are the only vendor I have used in all the years we have a property here!

This is me. 15 minutes for all zones and 30 for front lawn for 5am with rain sensor on. I also run the sprinklers in the afternoon twice a year to check what I'm watering. I have a neighbor who waters his lawn and the one across the street. Not good.

Good answer

I water, according to my scheduled days, twice a week.

I have placed small cans on my lawn/grass and measured one and a half inches. I have zoyzia grass and it takes my system to run 90 minutes to put down 1 1/w". I set my timers to put that much on the grass in total. I set Program A to run for half that time, (45 minutes) throughout all of the zones....Flower beds get 10 minutes. I set Program B to run the remaining half of that time (45 minutes).

My reasoning.....I want as much water as possible to reach the roots and by running the system in two passes, I loose less to evaporation and more going to the roots.

I know it may be a little complex, but I have a great looking lawn.

Make sure you are aware of the type of head your system uses. I'm by means not close to being an amature at this let alone expert, but I believe the some heads just don't distribute as much water as other types/brands so 10 min on one type head may mean 45 min on another that has much less spray but not distribute any more water to the lawn.

With that in mind it's probably good to speak with neighbors or irrigation specialist for information. Here you're going to get 130,000 opinions and most probably turn into a "poop" discussion, just saying from experience.......

When we first moved to TVs, I attended one of the UF's seminars on irrigation system. The advice they gave was in the spring and summer, run your rotor sprinklers twice a week for 45 minutes, and pop-ups for 20 minutes. With each watering cycle, you want to deliver 3/4" of water to the roots. You can check the efficiency of the sprinklers by placing clean tuna fish tins in various locations within a zone, and then measuring how much water was delivered to the spots. I used 4-5 tuna fish tins in each zone. Once I knew how much water was provided to the roots, I could increase or decrease the timing for the zone on the controller. I would repeat the process for successive zones.

In the late fall and winter, you can run rotors for 30 minutes and pop-ups for 15 minutes. Or, you can water only once a week. There are other combinations to reduce the amount of water you deliver to the grass each week in the late fall and winter. In the rainy season, be sure your rain sensor is activated (and works) to preclude watering following a heavy rain.

In addition, start your cycle about 4:30 or 5:00 AM. Starting it after sunset, causes the water to remain on the blades of grass which contributes to growing fungus that can destroy your lawn. Running the sprinklers during the daytime will cause a high rate of evaporation, doing little to help your lawn. Running the system a few hours prior to sunrise allows the water to soak into the root system and the excess water evaporates after sunrise.

Hope this helps.

I finally installed my Rachio 3 and curious to see what settings the other Rachio people here are using. Also did you keep that big backup power supply/battery or disconnect it?

False. That will lead to a shallow root system which is then negatively affected by summer heat. All lawn professionals recommend watering 2-3 times a week for a longer period to develop a deep root system that won't be affected by the summer sun.

Time watering means nothing.
Every system is different. Every zone may have a different time.
GPM of each nozzle can vary greatly.
Place shallow cans around each zone, adjust the time to get 1/2"-3/4" per watering.
Corner rotors only travel 90 deg., so replace the nozzle with a lower GPM.
There are many YT vids on how to fine-tune your system.
A time that works for your system may not be the same as your neighbors.
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A simple answer. It is not a matter of run time but how much is delivered. Different heads deliver different quantities of water. For that matter different plants need different amounts of water.

Most people, are asking about a lawn. The first question is evenness of water distribution. Do all your heads work? Have bushes, trees etc begun to block the water from the heads? Easy to check by putting out shallow pans to check and measure.
Washed tuna, pet food cans are perfect. If you use something like jars, you will get a false reading. Some of the water will bounce off the side.

Some of us, including me, think we can force nature to do what we want. You will lose.
First you need to know the type of grass you have and the type of soil you have.
For most of us our soil is sandy clay. It can be, it should be improved.

If, you have empire zoysia, as I do, it shuts down for the winter and does not grow much until the end of march. I simply shut off my watering system during,"the winter," our bushes are well rooted in. No need to water and promote weeds.

It is all a balance. If it says so much fertilizer per 1,000 sq feet. So many think, me included -sometimes, if it says so much per 1,000 my lawn deserves more than that.
The result is you need to apply more water, you have fat lazy grass that insects and disease love

Actually, 1 inch of water once a week is better, because it will make the grass grow its roots deeper, thus more drought resistant. Besides, the villages only allows you to water twice a week.

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