Any sprinkler controller gurus out there? Fracking Rainbird...

It's a Rainbird SST 600 IN. I got it because it was supposed to be simple, but I'm finding out that's not really the case.

My lawn is getting pretty brown, so I increased the run time. That hasn't done anything, so this morning I started troubleshooting. It's set to go on starting at 4am and run for 25 minutes. I'm usually sleeping so I don't see it, so today I manually ran each zone. Rather than run for the 25 minutes it's programmed to do, it ran for 10 minutes. The screen says run time 25 minutes, but as soon as I push the manual water button it changes to "10 minutes left". Nothing I did or could find online gave me a reason what the frack is going on. I let it run for 10 minutes then tried again. Still said 10 minutes. The only possible link is the Seasonal setting, but any changes I made to that had no effect on the 10-minute run time.








This is the Seasonal adjust. It lowers the run time based on the % you set it. It's meant for when the weather gets cooler, so less watering is needed. I've adjusted it to various %s and it had zero change to the "10 minutes remaining" message. I think the lawn is only getting 10 minutes of water, which explains why it's brown.

 

Once you set the time for the zones don’t you have to put it back in auto?

 

Do you not need to adjust the run time once you manually press the "water 1 zone now" button? To me it seems that as you're selecting a zone with the dial, it's telling you the current programmed amount that it has been set to (or calculated). Then once you press the "water 1 zone now" button, it's coming up automatically at 10 mins, but you should be able to press the arrow buttons right under it to increase / decrease.

 

This ^^^^. Figured it out earlier, thanks. That means I don't have enough current run time, so up it goes. 112f right now... grass is cooking!

 

Rule of thumb for watering your grass--need to have 1" of water per week. Best to irrigate 2x or 3x per week for longer periods to allow deeper root formation. You can check how much water is delivered by setting an empty tuna fish can --> 1 " of water.

 

This, and you also want to make sure you let the water soak in. Different soils absorb water at different rates, and you don't want water to pool or run off. You may have to pause a bit between cycles to give the water some time to soak in. Different types of sprinkler heads apply water at different rates.

And sometimes when it is dry and hot there is just not much you can do.