Anyone know of a *date* programmable sprinkler timer?

[SoonerDave]

Just as the thread title implies....

I'm looking for a regular electronic water timer that can be programmed by *date* rather than by day-of-week to ensure I only water on even-numbered days.

I don't have and really don't want a big, expensive, hairy, automated sprinkler system for my yard, so I have a simple timer from Lowe's that lets me tell it to sprinkle every other day (even days for me). That was fine until they implemented permanent rationing. If the month ends on a 31st, the next day is a 1st, so watering on that day will get me in the gunsites of the OKC Watering Police. The only way around that is to find a sprinkler timer that let's me specify the current *date* and then only water on even-numbered days - but darned if I've found one locally or online so far (at least one not part of a full irrigation system). Anyone?

[Bill Robertson]

Managing the watering of our facilities lawns is part of my job. I've looked myself quite a bit and haven't found anything. There are so many options for water/rain/moisture sensing systems that I wish the city would exempt people with a water conserving system from odd-even rationing. Probably not going to happen.

[SoonerDave]

Managing the watering of our facilities lawns is part of my job. I've looked myself quite a bit and haven't found anything. There are so many options for water/rain/moisture sensing systems that I wish the city would exempt people with a water conserving system from odd-even rationing. Probably not going to happen.

I hear that. I only water for 20 minutes every other day - one sprinkler in one corner of my front yard - and that *might* get my 1/2"-1"/week coverage, so I'm trying to live by the rules; but its frustrating on one of those odd months to have to figure out how to "trick" the timer into "not working" for one day - because you miss one, and I guarantee you the water police will be there the morning it goes off errantly. The most frustrating part is that I've seen the little water car go through the neighborhood, and they know full well who cheats and who doesn't, so it's an easy mark to write tickets only for those people whose timers are off a day by virtue of the way the calendar works. The "spirit" of the law is every other day.....Grrr...

[mkjeeves]

I feel your pain. I put in a new controller on my system that would do odd/even and knows the date. Then later upgraded to a smarter controller that looked at weather forecast and still do odd/even.

Are you looking for one you can screw a hose on rather than to control a hardwired valve? Both of these below say odd/even in the features section.

$30
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Ray-Padul...ETIN/205148014

$70
http://www.homedepot.com/p/DIG-Water...O100/205692601

[Midtowner]

My rainbird does odd/even. It's a controller for a full sprinkler system though. Fancy.

[PhiAlpha]

The Rachio Iro is a smart sprinkler system that I use. It allows you to set odd/even watering based on date (or anything you want) but goes a step further and will actually water grass automatically based on the weather and soil moisture content (estimated) so that it deeply waters your grass with less frequency to promote healthier turf. You can also control it from your phone or computer. I've been very impressed with mine, it's really a set it and forget it type of system. Having said that, it is definitely on the fancy side of things and is somewhat expensive. The first generation one is $130 for 8 zones and $150 for 16 on amazon, and the second generation is $200 for 8 zones and $250 for 16. It was well worth it to me as my sprinkler system is in a detached garage, was a pain to manually set, and I'm out of town a lot.

http://rachio.com/
https://www.amazon.com/Rachio-Smart-...=1&*entries*=0

[SoonerDave]

I feel your pain. I put in a new controller on my system that would do odd/even and knows the date. Then later upgraded to a smarter controller that looked at weather forecast and still do odd/even.

Are you looking for one you can screw a hose on rather than to control a hardwired valve? Both of these below say odd/even in the features section.

$30
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Ray-Padul...ETIN/205148014

$70
http://www.homedepot.com/p/DIG-Water...O100/205692601

Thanks, mkjeeves. Sorry not to reply sooner - just haven't had a chance to go through things and get caught up. Yup, sure enough, these guys indicate date programmability. I think I overlooked them because they're not immediately available - you have to order them.

Have to get back to looking at these, because I'm now into Day 9 of trying to recalibrate my every-other-day programmer. GRRR.

I appreciate the posts to the other sprinkler timers, but I can't justify something in the range of $100-$200 for this. It's one regular hose-connected sprinkler for my front yard - no integrated system. If I end up having to go that route, I'll probably end up talking to a sprinkler guy at my church and have him give me an estimate on a full system.