Watering Schedule Basics
A watering schedule consists of three basic instructions:
•What days to water
•When to water – called a start time
•How long to water – called a run time
The following example illustrates how a program has a watering schedule set for the sprinkler system shown on page 14. The diagram on the right depicts how the pro- gram runs the watering schedule to complete a watering cycle
The program start time is set for 4:00 am. Lawn zones 1 and 2 each have a run time of 10 minutes and lawn zone 4 is set to run for 20 minutes. Note that zones 3 and 5 water shrubs and flowers and have been excluded from this program. (These zones will be scheduled to operate on a another program.)
As shown in the Watering Program Diagram, at 4:00 am the timer starts the program watering cycle. Zone 1 sprin- klers run for 10 minutes and shut off. Zone 2 sprinklers then turn on, run for 10 minutes and shut off. The timer skips zone 3 then turns on zone 4, which runs for 20 minutes and shuts off. Zone 5 is skipped and the watering cycle ends at 4:40 am.
As you can see from this example, only one program start time was needed to operate three different zones.
Watering Program Diagram
Program starts at 4:00 am
Zone 1 | 12 |
9 | 3 |
| 6 |
Zone 2 |
|
| 12 |
9 | 3 |
| 6 |
Zone 4
12
9 | 3 |
6
Program ends at 4:40 am
Using more than one program for example, would enable lawn zones to be watered every day on program A, shrub zones to run on on Monday, Wednesday and Friday on program B and drip irrigation to soak the flower beds every three days on program C.
Because of variations in plant watering needs, the ECXTRA provides three separate programs. The programs, called A, B and C, are completely indepen- dent of one another – like having three timers in one housing.
Although the ECXTRA offers the multiple program fea- ture, you may want to have all zones on one program if it meets your needs. The other programs can remain turned off until you need to use them.
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