Rain Bird Sprinkler Timer Guide

Which Rain Bird do you have?

The model name is printed on the front of the box, usually above or beside the dial. The common ones in Southwest Florida homes:

ESP-TM2 — a grey box with a large dial and a small screen. The most common one on new construction.
ESP-Me and ESP-Me3 — a larger box with a dial, a screen, and room for extra zone modules inside the door.
ESP-RZXe — a slimmer box with a screen and buttons, no dial.
Rain Bird SST — a simple box with dedicated WATER ALL NOW and WATER 1 ZONE NOW buttons.
Older ESP models (ESP-M, ESP-Modular) — an older faceplate with its own Manual Start and Advance buttons; see the short note below.

If yours is not listed, or the name has worn off, text us a photo.

Run it by hand on your plan’s permitted days

This is the whole job for most customers. Monday’s email tells you how many minutes; you turn the dial. Two ways to do it, depending on your yard:

Every zone is grass: follow your model’s manual-watering steps below. Use Monday’s minutes for each grass zone.
Bed or drip zones stay automatic: use the model’s one-zone controls to run only the grass. Keep non-lawn watering on its own schedule. The dial-model program runs below are for yards where every zone is watered manually.

For the dial models, manual watering may require AUTO/RUN. Check inherited start times before the run using the model-specific list below. If non-lawn zones retain automatic schedules, use the single-zone controls for the lawn and preserve AUTO/RUN afterward.

ESP-TM2

All-stations run:

Turn the dial to MANUAL STATION. The screen offers a run of all stations.
Set the minutes from Monday’s email with the – and + buttons.
Press and hold the start button, or turn the dial to AUTO RUN. Either starts the run. The box waters every zone in turn, shows the zone number and the minutes remaining, and stops by itself.
After it finishes, use OFF only when every zone is manual. Keep AUTO/RUN if other zones need their automatic schedules.

Program run (mixed grass and bed zones):

Once, the first time: turn the dial to RUN TIMES, press Program Select until the screen shows A, and enter the minutes for each zone with the – and + buttons, moving between zones with Next. Grass zones get Monday’s number; bed and drip zones get less. Then turn the dial to START TIMES and make sure program A’s start times all read OFF.
On a permitted day in your plan: turn the dial to AUTO RUN, press Program Select until A shows, and press and hold the start button. The program runs every zone with its own minutes and stops by itself.
After it finishes, use OFF only when every zone is manual; otherwise preserve AUTO/RUN.

One zone only (to water in a treatment on request, or to check a zone): turn the dial to MANUAL STATION, press Next to reach the single-station screen, pick the zone with the arrows, set the minutes, then press and hold start or turn the dial to AUTO RUN.

ESP-Me and ESP-Me3

All-stations run:

Turn the dial to Manual Watering. The screen offers a run of all stations.
Set the minutes from Monday’s email with the – and + buttons.
Press the Hold to Start button until the screen says STARTED, then turn the dial to AUTO. The box waters every zone in turn and stops by itself.
After it finishes, use OFF only when every zone is manual. Keep AUTO/RUN if other zones need their automatic schedules.

Program run (mixed grass and bed zones):

Once, the first time: turn the dial to Run Times, press Program Select until the screen shows A, and enter the minutes for each zone. Grass zones get Monday’s number; bed and drip zones get less. Then turn the dial to Start Times and make sure program A’s start times all read OFF.
On a permitted day in your plan: turn the dial to AUTO, press Program Select until A shows, and press Hold to Start until the screen says STARTED. The program runs every zone with its own minutes and stops by itself.
After it finishes, use OFF only when every zone is manual; otherwise preserve AUTO/RUN.

One zone only: turn the dial to Manual Watering, pick the zone with the arrows, set the minutes, press Hold to Start, and turn the dial back to AUTO. You can queue several zones this way and they run one after another.

ESP-RZXe

The RZXe schedules each zone separately; it does not use the dial models’ lettered programs.

Grass by hand, beds or drip automatic:

Before the first run, press ZONE SCHEDULE and select a grass zone. Advance to watering days, select Custom Days, and set all seven weekdays to OFF. Repeat for every grass zone. Keep their stored start times and runtimes; the empty weekday selection prevents automatic lawn runs. Leave bed and drip settings unchanged.
On a permitted day, press MANUAL WATERING, select one grass zone with +/–, then press NEXT. Enter Monday’s minutes with +/– and press NEXT to start. Repeat for the remaining grass zones only. Do not add a manual run for beds or drip that retain automatic schedules.
Press AUTO afterward so the non-lawn schedules continue. A lawn skip means no manual grass run; keep its seven weekdays OFF.

If every zone is grass, the same weekday check applies; ALL under MANUAL WATERING can then run the lawn together. See Rain Bird’s RZXe manual, pages 4–6.

Rain Bird SST

Grass by hand, beds or drip automatic:

Before the first run, turn the dial to each grass zone and press ZONE OFF to disable that zone’s automatic watering. Leave bed and drip schedules unchanged.
On a permitted day, turn to one grass zone and press WATER 1 ZONE NOW. Use the arrow keys to set this manual run to Monday’s minutes; do not assume it uses the saved schedule’s runtime. Repeat for grass zones only. Keep beds and drip solely on their retained schedules, rather than adding manual runs.
After watering or adjusting a zone, return the dial to AUTO RUN so non-lawn schedules continue. Leave grass zones’ automatic watering disabled. Skip the manual grass run when the plan says skip.

Every zone is grass: the same one-zone method works. WATER ALL NOW uses scheduled zones, so it is not the manual-only workflow described above. See Rain Bird’s SST manual, pages 4 and 7.

Older ESP-M and ESP-Modular

These do not have the TM2’s MANUAL STATION position. Their manual run starts from the Manual Start button (with Advance to step to the next zone), using the run times stored in the program, so set the minutes under Run Times once and start the program by hand each week. The card inside the door shows the exact buttons, and a photo to us gets you the right steps.

To stop a run early on any model: turn the dial to OFF (press the OFF button on the RZXe) and hold about three seconds until the screen shows OFF. Once watering has stopped, return the dial to AUTO/RUN (press AUTO on the RZXe) if bed or drip schedules must remain active. Leave OFF selected only when every zone is manual.

Skip lawn watering: when the plan says skip, omit the lawn run. Preserve separate schedules for any other zones that still need water.

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.

Check inherited starts before manual watering

Many boxes still carry a schedule the builder or the previous owner programmed. If that schedule runs and you also run by hand, the lawn gets watered twice, and one of those runs is probably outside the allowed hours. Leaving the dial on OFF between runs makes that impossible: Rain Bird’s own manual says watering will not occur while the controller stays in OFF.

Before the first manual run, check for inherited automatic watering. RZXe and SST owners: use the per-zone steps above. On the TM2, ESP-Me and ME3, if the entire controller will be operated manually, clear every start-time slot in every program:

ESP-TM2: at START TIMES, select each of programs A, B and C. Step through all four start-time slots in each program and set each slot to OFF.
ESP-Me and ESP-ME3: at Start Times, select each of programs A, B, C and D. Step through all six slots in each program and set each slot to OFF.
Other models: use the matching model manual to find every program and start-time slot; do not assume the TM2’s counts apply.

Confirm every slot reads OFF before leaving a fully manual controller on AUTO/RUN for a hand run. If beds or drip need an automatic schedule, do not clear their programs or turn the whole controller OFF. Preserve those schedules and clear only unwanted starts in the separate lawn program. If lawn and non-lawn stations share a program, check the model manual or ask an irrigation contractor before changing it.

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. The steps below are for the dial models (ESP-TM2, ESP-Me, ESP-Me3). RZXe and SST schedules are per zone; use the matching manual linked above if you later switch grass zones back to automatic watering.

Set the date and time. Turn the dial to DATE/TIME. Check AM and PM twice. A wrong AM/PM is the number one reason sprinklers come on at noon.
Choose the lawn program. The TM2 has A–C; the ESP-Me and ME3 have A–D. Use a separate lawn program and clear unwanted starts from it. Preserve programs required by beds or drip zones.
One lawn start time. Set one permitted start in that program and leave every other slot OFF: check all four slots on the TM2 or all six on the ESP-Me or ME3.
Minutes per zone. Turn the dial to RUN TIMES with the separate lawn program selected and enter the minutes from Monday’s email for each grass zone. Set every non-lawn zone to zero in this lawn program so beds and drip do not also run with the grass. Keep their minutes in their separate programs, and set grass runtimes to zero in those retained non-lawn programs. If you are not sure which zone is which, identify it with a brief manual run before changing its program.
Water days. Turn the dial to RUN DAYS (Water Days on the Me3) and choose only the day or days in your plan and current local schedule. Clear the rest.
Back to AUTO RUN. A schedule only runs with the dial in this position.
Rain in the forecast? If every zone should pause, set a controller-wide rain delay: with the dial on AUTO RUN, press and hold the + button until the Rain Delay screen appears, then set the days remaining, up to fourteen. Watering resumes on its own when the days run out. (Holding the start button from AUTO RUN starts a program instead, so it is the + button here.) OFF also pauses the entire controller. If beds or drip must continue: photograph the lawn program’s start times, select only that separate lawn program at START TIMES, and set all its slots to OFF (four on TM2; six on ESP-Me or ME3). Leave non-lawn programs unchanged and return to AUTO RUN. When the lawn plan calls for watering again, restore the recorded permitted lawn start time, keep its other slots OFF, and return to AUTO RUN. Leave SEASONAL ADJUST at 100%: a percentage set for one rainy week stays on and scales every number you enter under RUN TIMES after it.

Rain sensor: if a small sensor is wired to the box, the SENSOR dial position (a Sensor setting on the Me3) sets the controller to obey it or ignore it. Leave it on obey (ACTIVE or SENS ON). A sensor left bypassed all summer keeps watering through the rainy season, and that is how lawns get fungus. Note that a hand-started run ignores the sensor and waters anyway.

Official manuals

Rain Bird publishes the full manual and a quick-start card for every model at the Rain Bird support center. Search by the model name on your box. The steps above are our own plain-language version of the ESP-TM2 and ESP-Me3 manuals; the manual is the authority on your exact buttons.

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.