A family member texted me recently asking about shutting down their Rachio controller for the winter.
The text read: "Hey Rob, I disabled all my schedules. Is this what I'm supposed to do? I feel like I did something different last year. Thanks!"
In short: No. But don't you worry, I'm here to help.
First off, if you (or a family member) live in cold-weather climates, make sure you get your sprinklers blown out before the first hard freeze of the year. This can be done yourself with a compressor, but we recommend hiring a pro if you have any questions. Please note, pros get quite busy each fall, so schedule out early.
Once the water has been cleared from your system, you're ready to to put your Rachio controller into Hibernation Mode for the winter. This can be found under the Settings tab of your controller in the Rachio App.
What is Hibernation Mode?
Rachio's Hibernation Mode pauses all controller functions indefinitely. Any and all schedules will be temporarily disabled, but you won't have to disable them one by one. This will also leave your controller online to receive important firmware updates. We do NOT recommend unplugging your controller over the winter.
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