There is some commentary about the various moisture sensors in Rachio's forum - the summary seems to be "there isn't a perfect one yet", but they certainly seemed to be interested in supporting them.
My Rachio has been installed for about a month now, and with the rain we've had the last week or two, it's been nice to watch it cancel almost every watering cycle due to predicted or accumulated rainfall. Really want to see their v2.0 software that should be out in a few weeks - the concept of a dynamic/flexible watering schedule (just water as the soil needs it, not on a fixed schedule) really gets to a truly 'automated' system. Having soil sensors to give more precise feedback would be cool - but I wonder, with so many weather stations nearby, if that data will be essentially "good enough"...
I think it is more dedicated to your lawn. Some other thoughts for why I think its cool. I have a lot of indoor plants that.... well sometimes forget to water. So it has a function to let you know hey go water them to.
Also I have some outdoor potter plants that are on a drip system. They are under my gazebo so they don't always get rain depending on what way the wind is blowing. Kind of cool.
Also for slopes and such, I have quite a slope out back in my yard. So having a sensor there to let me know - hey your water is getting frisky in that corner.
He has a lot more info now up on his site and only 12 hours to go.
Systems like this are already in use with tensiometers but they are wired. A wireless solution would be cool. And based on experiments at universities, they save a lot of water and grow plants to 2-4 times their size with traditional watering.
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