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Netro Customer

Lives in: McKinney, TX, US
Using: SPRITE-12

Questions

Bug in Smart watering Algorithm

50
texan4ever521
Updated at 2024-07-16 18:53:40 UTC
Topic: Smart Watering

I would like to know how to get a serious bug in the smart watering algorithm resolved.


I live in north Dallas.  All of our soil is clay.  Most yards (like mine) have Bermuda grass, which is extremely drought tolerant.  This grass grows roots several feet deep and can survive with zero watering for 3 weeks after a downpour that saturates the clay.  (I can show you green grass in a yard that is hard as a rock)  During mid July to mid September the average low is 80 and the high is over 100.  Bermuda grass will go dormant(not dead) if not watered during summer.  You can easily keep the yard looking decent with only 10 minutes of watering per week.


I bought my house in 2020 and it came with a Netro.  After a summer of use, my wife and I failed to look at the auto-pay CC card water bills.  We had accidently spent thousands of dollars on yard watering during the summer. (I can show the water bills)!  (FYI, I had each zone set to the max ECO level)  Instead of buying a new timer, I changed smart-zone to basic instead of advanced and setup very detailed schedules.  


My timer got hit by lightning back in May.  I bought a new one and set it up.  I failed to notice that the default value for new zones is "smart zone enabled with advanced setting".  Even though I had set up manual programs the timer found 'loop holes'.  The advanced mode was watering some zones as much as 70 minutes in 1 WEEK!  (compared to previous 10 min a week).  My water bill went from $160 to $400 ( at least I caught it before it got to $800 again).  


This bug has literally cost me thousands of dollars with a feature that is supposed to be saving me money.  I am not asking for compensation, it was my mistake that that I failed to look at the schedule and CC auto-pay.  


But this bug is ridiculous.  


How do we get the following implemented:

1) Global setting for water conservation (impacts all zones) that limits the max per week and max per month that a zone can be watered 

2) Budgets inside manual programs that will set limits for max per week and max per month.

3) expand frequency for programs to be across 14 days instead of 7 days

4) notifications from app that informs owner of minutes watered per week and per month.

 

Thanks

Need Sprite to water less often

50
texan4ever521
Updated at 2022-08-24 20:24:11 UTC
Topic: Smart Watering

I have a netro sprite.  I live in Dallas.  My lawn as drought tolerant bermuda grass.  The grass can easily get by with 10 minutes of watering once a week.  When I look at the logs I see that the sprite is watering the each zone 5 to 15 minutes a day.  I enabled water regulations which  restricted water to Wednesday and Saturday.  Even with this change, the schedule still says 14 to 18 minutes of watering for each zone on the watering days.  I do not have a whisperer


My settings :

grass type:: warm season grass

soil type: clay

sprinkler type: rotor head

shade: none or some shade

smart zone: enabled (Level=advance, mode=eco)

area = 1000 sq ft (I tried reducing this value but then the estimates under "smart zone" go to zero)