Rachio Sprinkler Timer Guide

Which Rachio do you have?

Rachio controllers are app only. The box on the wall has a light bar and a couple of buttons; everything else happens in the Rachio phone app.

Rachio 3 — the full model, with a light bar across the front.
Rachio 3e — the simpler version, same app, fewer zones.

If the app was never set up, or the box is on the wall but nobody knows the login, text us a photo and we will help you get to the right page. The button on the box can start a short manual run, but the app is the real control.

Run it by hand, once a week

This is the whole job for most customers. Monday’s email tells you how many minutes; you tap a button.

Open the Rachio app and pick your controller.
If you also use Standby Mode (see the next section), turn it off for the run. Rachio does not water at all in Standby, Quick Run included.
Tap Quick Run.
Choose the grass zones (bed and drip zones need less, so leave them out or give them their own shorter run), enter the minutes from Monday’s email, and tap run. The controller runs the chosen zones in turn and stops by itself.
When it finishes, use Standby only if every zone is manual. Leave Standby off when bed or drip schedules must continue. With grass removed from automatic schedules as below, no automatic lawn run follows.

Skip week: when Monday’s email says skip, do nothing.

A hand run counts the same as a scheduled one. Run it only on your assigned day and inside your county’s allowed hours. Monday’s email carries the current rule.

Keep it from running on its own

Open Schedules and inspect each schedule’s zones. Save the existing settings before editing.

All zones manual: delete or disable every schedule. Standby is an optional extra safeguard; turn it off for Quick Run. Standby alone is not enough because retained schedules become active again when it is turned off.
Beds or drip still automatic: remove grass zones from each retained schedule, keeping its non-lawn zones, days and durations. Delete or disable a schedule only if no zone still needs it. Leave Standby off so bed and drip watering continues.

After grass is removed from every automatic schedule, a lawn skip week means no grass Quick Run; needed non-lawn schedules continue.

Want it to run itself? The optional schedule

If your county’s allowed hours are overnight, or you travel, a schedule beats an alarm clock. Set it once, then let Monday’s email tell you when to change the minutes.

Remove grass zones from old schedules first. Preserve bed and drip schedules and their settings; delete or disable only schedules no zone still needs. Standby pauses the whole controller and cannot selectively stop grass.
Turn Standby off if it was on.
Create one grass-only Fixed schedule, not a Flex schedule. Flex schedules pick their own days from the weather, which is exactly what a one-day-a-week rule cannot allow. A Fixed schedule runs on the days you choose.
Pick only your assigned day, and a single start time inside your county’s allowed hours.
Minutes per zone. Enter the minutes from Monday’s email for each grass zone. Keep beds and drip on their separate schedules. Rachio may suggest its own grass durations; use the lawn plan’s durations.
Rain in the forecast? Leave Rain Skip on so the controller skips a scheduled run when enough rain has fallen or is forecast, or disable just the grass schedule for a lawn skip and re-enable it when the plan calls for watering. Use a controller-wide rain delay only when all zones should pause; otherwise keep bed and drip schedules active.

Seasonal Shift: turn it off on this schedule. Rachio would otherwise change the minutes by month on its own, and Monday’s email is the number that tracks your lawn and your county’s rule.

Official manuals

Rachio publishes setup guides and a full help library at the Rachio support site. The steps above are our own plain-language version; the help library is the authority on your exact screens.

Stuck?

Text a photo of your timer to (941) 297-5749 and we will point you to the right step. Waves does not repair irrigation. If a zone will not run or a head is broken, we will refer you to an irrigation contractor we trust.