Water Story: Travis Johnson

Travis Johnson

Montara, CA

Rachio user since June 2015





We discovered Travis's amazing setup after he posted about it on the Rachio community site. To view his fantastic post, please check it out there.

Q. What led you to purchase your Rachio Iro?

A. I was starting a new landscaping project from scratch and wanted a cutting edge system to control it. I have a lot of home automation in place and love anything "smart home" related. After extensive research, it was clear the Iro was the best choice. Rachio is an agile, rapid iteration company that takes user feedback seriously. In some cases, a customer requests a feature and you'll see it live a few days later. That's the type of company I love to support.

Q. How has the Iro changed your lawn/ landscape?
A. Since this was a brand new irrigation install, I can't say how it has changed my landscape. What it has done though is bring a level of control and intelligence to watering we desperately need in drought conditions. Being located in California, it's more important than ever to only water as much as is needed. Not to mention, reckless watering is likely to get the neighbors grabbing their pitch forks these days.

Q. Where is the best place you have controlled your Iro from?
A. I was sitting in my office, showing off the setup to some co-workers. There's a security camera in my garage that can see some of my shrubs when the door is open. Naturally, I remotely opened the door, turned on the camera and fired up the zone using the Android app, all from my desk. Within a few seconds, we were watching the water sputter out of the bubblers. What a great age we live in.

Q. What is your favorite feature of the Rachio app or webapp?
A. Personal weather station support. I actually installed my own weather station just to serve the Iro. Living on the Northern California Coast means a lot of microclimates which have a significant effect on your landscape. The ability to send my own, localized data to Rachio means I'm using not just accurate rainfall data, but also temperature as well.

Q. How has owning an Iro enhanced your understanding of your water use?
A. I've never paid this much attention to irrigation. The Iro makes something traditionally mundane into something fun. Just turning on a zone for 30 minutes a week seems archaic now. The future is all about local weather, soil conditions and making smart, automatic decisions based on a wealth of data.

Q. Do you have any other stories about the Rachio Iro you'd like to share?
A. Not since the Nest have I seen a slicker hardware installation or been so impressed with the thought put into how it was built. The community of Iro users is great, the product is always evolving for the better and is a must-have for anyone serious about doing irrigation the right way.