Share Your Summer Lawn - Join the Rachio Block Party

Is your yard a summer paradise of hammocks, yard games or DIY landscaping? You could win a free Rachio Smart Sprinkler Controller, $50 Visa Gift Card and Rachio swag!

We want to feel your grass between our toes. Figuratively. Invite us over by sharing your amazing summer yard on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter - if you’ve spent time manicuring a perfect lawn, hosing down a Slip’N Slide, installing garden boxes, planting rosebushes, or just laying in the hammock, now is your chance to give us lawn envy.

Submit a photo and join the #RachioBlockParty to win a free Rachio. Show off your summer lawn!

How to Enter

Join the block party and enter for a chance to win a free Rachio by posting a photo of your summer yard, garden or landscaping project between now and Friday, July 22. Know someone else who wants a Rachio? Tag your friends to invite them to the party! Here’s how to enter:

• Facebook: Post a summer yard photo to our Facebook page or in the comments of any Block Party post. Bonus envy for describing what we’re looking at! 
• Instagram: Post a summer yard photo on your Instagram account tagged #RachioBlockParty
• Twitter: Post a summer yard photo on your Twitter  account tagged #RachioBlockParty

Guidelines

• One entry per contestant.
• Featured yards/projects/etc. must be your personal property, photographed by you.
• Photo content must not be photoshopped/altered (filters may be applied).
• Winner must be a U.S. resident, 18 years or older.
• Read our Sweepstakes Rules & Guidelines for more details.

Selection

On Friday, July 22, one winner will be randomly selected to receive a 16-Zone Generation 2 Rachio Smart Sprinkler Controller and Rachio swag. Already have a Rachio? Get upgraded to new best friend by passing it on to a yard in need (keep the swag).

Rachio + You = 1 Billion Gallons Saved

Last week, the Rachio community reached a milestone - more than 1 billion gallons of water saved on outdoor water use.

That’s billion with a “B.” Kind of a big deal.

At Rachio, we have a passion for saving water to ensure its availability for future generations - but to do that, we need forces on the ground. That’s where you came in.

You, the forward-thinking, water-saving, Rachio-using dynamos who refused to accept overwatering as the status quo for yard care. Maybe watching wasted water dribble down the sidewalk motivated you to find a solution. Maybe you were just looking for an easier way to water. Or maybe you just love really, really, ridiculously good smart gadgets.

Whatever your reason for taking control with Rachio, you’re part of the big picture now. Thanks to you, we’re a billion gallons closer to securing water for future generations.

That’s enough water to support 2.5 million people for one month. Or to...

• Shower every person in Colorado 22 times
• Support 7,800 American households for a year
• Fill 74,000 average-sized swimming pools
• Flush 200 million toilets
• Bathe 167 million puppies
• Water 20 million elephants for one day

You get the picture. A LOT of water. The best part, though, is that number is only a fraction of where we are headed. As more and more people take your lead in maximizing watering efficiency with a Rachio Smart Sprinkler Controller, together we can hit the next milestone, and the next.

You are the yard pioneers, the water heroes that started the revolution. Let’s spread the word and make that billion gallon number grow. Share our Facebook post, retweet our achievement, or send your friends to rachio.com to show them how to get smart with water.

This community has taken the first steps toward managing one of Earth’s most critical resources - and it’s making a difference. Rachio couldn’t be prouder to give homeowners the power to take control of water usage and bring us closer to achieving our mission.

One billion gallons equals 50 million beers, so let’s raise a glass. Celebrate 1 billion gallons saved with Rachio!

New Scheduling Options with App v2.6

The latest version of our app now provides four distinct scheduling options to address your needs. And after listening to customer feedback, we’re happy to reintroduce Flex schedules, now called Flexible Daily schedules, in addition to a few updates that streamline the user experience.

What’s New

Flex schedules. Flex schedules are back, permanently and out of beta. We buffed them up with a new name, new description, more flexible minute adjustments, and new creation wizard. Also, Flex schedules will not be going away in November.

Schedule creation start screen. The schedule creation process now starts with a screen that provides an easy comparison for the options.

Schedule creation detail screen. Each schedule option now includes a detail screen about the option.

New names. We’ve tweaked the names slightly, as there are now four scheduling options to choose from:

• Intervals > Fixed Interval
• Specific Days > Fixed Days
• Water As Needed > Flexible Monthly
• Flex > Flexible Daily

Add / remove zones from Fixed Interval and Fixed Day schedules.

As always, we love hearing from our users - particularly on our community site!

• The Rachio Team

Tightening the LA Water Belt

Angelenos use a huge amount of water -- especially for the outdoors. It’s estimated that just the homes in L.A. proper use over 28 BILLION gallons each year for their yards and pools. That’s equal to the daily drinking water needs of the entire U.S. population for almost 6 months.

Even more surprising is that only 20% of these homes use almost 60% of the 28 billion gallons. These homes are in a series of 20 neighborhoods that we’ll call the Water Belt. It literally stretches across the middle of L.A. from Pacific Palisades to the Hollywood Hills to Sherman Oaks to Woodland Hills. Some of these neighborhoods use over 2 BILLION gallons annually by themselves. The challenge is that many of these homeowners just don’t want to reduce their water as they don't want to compromise their yards.

We here at Rachio have a few suggestions to reducing water use without compromising. The biggest impact? Smart sprinkler controllers like ours. We’ve estimated that it could save 2.9 BILLION gallons annually for these neighborhoods alone.

So, check out our infographic to learn more about the Water Belt and our suggestions. Want to cut your water use or tell someone else who needs to? Visit rachio.com today.

Rachio + Southern Nevada Water Authority

We are proud to be working with the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA), which serves the Las Vegas metro area, on an innovative way to redeem rebates for customers in their district. Rather than the traditional process of customers submitting rebate forms after purchase, we have implemented an instant rebate that takes the rebate amount off the selling price on our online store.

For SNWA customers, this means the Rachio Smart Sprinkler Controller, Generation 2 will be 50% off at the time of purchase. SNWA customers can visit www.rachiovegas.com for more information on how to get a Rachio controller for 50% off today.

We hope this becomes a new model for how companies and municipalities can work together to promote smart irrigation to homeowners and make saving water simple. It’s a win-win for everyone--especially customers that are looking to get the most savings on their watering.

Improved Scheduling With Rachio v2.5 App

We've released the 2.5 update to our apps (iOS, Android, and Web). Look for the update!

What’s New

New Schedule Creation and Edit. The biggest update is that we simplified how you create, edit, and review schedules. You can now view your watering schedule on a month-by-month basis to understand when watering will happen.

Climate Skip. Watering times will be skipped based on past and future weather conditions, so you can save even more water and make every gallon count.

Freeze Skip. You can now set a custom temperature to activate a Freeze Skip.

Seasonal Shift. Schedule durations will be adjusted each month based on local weather data to make sure your yard is getting the right amount of water.

Start and End Dates. You can now schedule start and end dates for individual schedules. This can be used to set up schedules for specific needs like new grass seed.

Flex Schedules Coming Out Of Beta

This update merges our existing schedule types, Fixed and Flex, into one simple but powerful schedule. Flex schedules will be retired and removed from beta, but will be accessible for the remainder of the watering season for existing users. This means new Flex schedules will not be able to be created in 2.5 and beyond. Don’t worry Flex fans, we’ll continue to support Flex Schedules until the end of the year, so you have plenty of time to switch over. Flex schedules will not be forgotten!

Thank you to all the Flex beta users - we learned a lot from the beta. Many of the best parts of Flex schedules are now features that you can enable or disable for any schedule. For example, Climate Skip and Seasonal Shift are direct descendants of Flex schedules.

New Scheduling Options

Our new schedule has three modes to set up watering times: As Needed, Interval, and Specific Days. If you want Rachio to determine your schedule, use As Needed. Use Interval or Specific Days if you have a preferred schedule or restrictions.

If you would like to learn more about these changes, please read about it on the 2.5 app release support article.

Thank you!

1-Day Offer - Santa Margarita Water District + Home Depot

1-Day Offer for SMWD Customers at Home Depot

Rachio is working with the Santa Margarita Water District and Home Depot to increase water conservation in the Mission Viejo area. Santa Margarita Water District customers are eligible for a $195 rebate, and the Mission Viejo Home Depot is putting Rachio controllers on sale for $195 for 1 day only. This combination makes a Rachio Smart Sprinkler Controller free (except sales tax) when purchased from the Mission Viejo Home Depot on Saturday April 30th only.

Come down to the Mission Viejo Home Depot this Saturday to grab your Rachio controller and representatives from SMWD will help you fill out the rebate form on the spot. A few folks from the Rachio team will be there as well to help answer any questions, so come say hello.

See you Saturday!!