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The Cycle and Soak feature allows users to split each station’s run time into more usable, shorter-duration watering. This feature applies particularly to slopes and tight soil (such as clay) because Cycle and Soak will help prevent excessive runoff. You should enter the Cycle time as a fraction of the station’s watering time and the Soak time as the minimum soak required before watering the next portion. The total number of cycles is determined by dividing the total programmed station run time by the Cycle time.
IMPORTANT: If a flow sensor is installed with Alert - Auto suspend for high flow configured, the system will shut down after the FIRST CYCLE if using this feature.
- Cycle Time (3-minute minimum) is the minimum number of minutes the zone can run at a time. The minimum time is to conform with the EPA requirements. Learn More
- Soak Time (3-60 minute range) is the minimum time between zone watering to allow water to soak into the soil.
Example: Station 1 requires 20 minutes of water, but after only 5 minutes, runoff occurs. However, after 10 minutes, all the water was absorbed. The solution would be to program 20 minutes for the Station Run Time, 5 minutes for the Cycle time, and 10 minutes for the Soak. Station 1 will water for 5 minutes, and then the rest of the stations in the program will water. After all the other stations have watered, the controller will check to see if Station 1 has soaked for at least 10 minutes. If it had, then Station 1 will water for another 5 minutes. This process would repeat itself until Station 1 was watered four times for 5 minutes each, a total of 20 minutes.
To test Cycle and Soak, you must have an automatic cycle scheduled since running a zone manually from the app does not allow Cycle and Soak to take effect.
If your controller goes offline, your default watering schedule will still run, but Cycle and Soak will not work. Each zone will water its full length while offline.