Watering when temperature is below freezing

[jangliss]

Not sure if I broke something somewhere, or if there is an oddity in the way the weather stuffs works, but this week most of the US had a bit of a temperature drop, with the area I’m in (Texas) getting down to about 8F, wind chills even lower. I’d have expected OpenSprinkler to realize trying to water in below freezing temperature was a bad idea, but I went to walk the dog this morning and slipped on the ice rink I had in my front yard. I have the weather option toggled on for weather adjustments.

For Options > Weather & Sensors
– Weather Adjustment Method: ETo
– Adjustment Method Options:
* Baseline ETo = 0.18
* Elevation: 600ft
– Weather-Base restrictions: None
– Sensor 1 Type: None
– Sensor 2 Type: None

I’m running OSPi, but I cannot guarantee I know the exact firmware version because I cannot find it listed anywhere on the UI, and the binary doesn’t seem to have a –version flag. I believe it is/was 2.1.9. I did a rebuild this morning.

Am I missing something?

Cheers for an amazing product.

[Ray]

You didn’t report what’s the watering percentage? To check firmware version, at the homepage swipe left to right or click the upper-left corner icon, then ‘About’.

[jangliss]

Watering percentage is 18%, but it’s calculated, so I didn’t think it’d make any difference. Watering below freezing is generally a terrible idea, causes ice, and plants+grass to die, etc. I guess that might be a terrible assumption, lots of folks might like their ice rinks 🙂

Aha, that’s where it’s hiding.

App Version: 2.2.5
Firmware Version: 2.1.9 (11)
Hardware Version: OSPi

Thanks for following up

[jangliss]

What’s your opinion of watering when it’s below freezing, Ray? I’d think it’s not a good idea, even if the watering adjustments said to water.

I’ve got ways around it, as I use Home Assistant, and Node-RED, so I can toggle the sprinklers off if the temperature is below a set value. I’d think it’d be part of the software, or at least a configuration.

Cheers!

[Author]

Posts