You can literally save thousands of gallons of water on your Gainesville lawn with the proper setting of your Gainesville sprinkler system controller. But you can't just set it and forget it. You need to change the watering schedules as plants become established, with the changing seasons, and when it rains (unless you have a working rain sensor). Here's an easy guide to make setting your irrigation controller easier than programming your DVR.
Basic Irrigation Timer Terminology
- Stations is another word for Zones on your irrigation system. A Professional Gainesville Irrigation installer will put plants with similar water needs on the same station or zone. This allows for more efficient watering since all the sprinklers on a single valve will run for the same amount of time. Multiple stations or zones allow you to customize watering amounts for different types of plants by allowing for different run times for different valves. (You may want more water on a sunny area of your lawn, and less in the shaded area)
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The Start Time is the time at which a specific valve will open to irrigate a station or zone. This is best set early in the morning. (We set ours for around 4 or 5am)
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The Run Time or Duration is the time, in minutes, a specific zone will stay running. (The recommended amount is typically anywhere from 15-60 minutes, depending on the sun / shade of that zone, type of plants/grass, etc.)
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Off or Stop will stop programs from running until you switch back to ‘Run’. Your programs will be saved. This is great during rainy periods. (as long as you remember to turn it back on!)
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The Manual Start button allows you to run a single zone for the amount of time you select. This is helpful when you want to tune-up your irrigation system or when you only want to run one zone that needs some extra water.
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A Program is where you store all of your settings. For simplicity, we will not go into separate programs at this time.
Programming Your Gainesville Sprinkler Controller
Due to there being a varying array of different timer brands and types from Rainbird to Hunter to Irritrol and others, we recommend you to use YouTube for the best programming help.
Programming Tips
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Different plants have different watering needs.
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Group stations or valves that require similar watering frequencies on the same program (such as A, B, or C)
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Enter only one start time for each program even when there are multiple stations or valves
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Enter different start times on different programs (A, B, C) to avoid overlap of water times.
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Use multiple start times if excessive runoff is a problem
Remember…
The controller controls the Gainesville irrigation system, but YOU control the controller.
Links to Gainesville Irrigation Controller Manufacturers
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Rainbird 800-724-6247, www.rainbird.com
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Hunter 800-733-2823, www.hunterindustries.com
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Irritrol Systems 800-634-8873, www.irritrolsystems.com
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Orbit 800-488-6156, www.orbitirrigation.com
Here's a few YouTube videos of the most popular irrigation controllers to make changing your Gainesville Irrigation Controller settings easier.
If none of these videos are similar to your controller, please visit www.YouTube.com and type in the brand and model of your irrigation controller for videos related to your controller.