The rain is coming… at least that’s what normally happens in December and January.  One of our biggest pet peeves at Benchmark is seeing sprinklers running during a rainstorm.  Most irrigation systems are run by automatic irrigation controllers these days and they’ve all been programmed to water the landscape at the appropriate run time for the plants, but what happens when it rains unexpectedly and your landscape team hasn’t been able to turn off the controller or adjust the schedule?

If you have a weather based controller with an on-site weather station, then the controller automatically turns off.

If you have a weather-based controller with an offsite weather station, it will typically receive weather data within 12 hours and will adjust irrigation schedules with the measured amount of rain taken into consideration.

If you do not have a weather-based controller, then we’re rushing out to your property at our earliest opportunity to turn off your controller.

So, landscapes irrigated by non weather-based controllers and weather-based controllers with offsite weather stations have the potential to waste hundreds of gallons of water by irrigating landscapes while it is raining.

You’re thinking, “There’s got to be a solution to this, right?”   And you’re right; there is a rather simple solution.  It’s called a Rain shut off device.   Most of the irrigation manufacturers make them.  The Rain-Clik is one we’ve used many times and it can be added to almost any irrigation controller whether its weather based or not.  The Rain-Clik will turn off the irrigation system within 2 – 5 minutes of the beginning of a rain event.  The Rain-Clik will keep the irrigation off for about 4 hours if very little rain has been received and for about 3 days after the end of a significant rain event.

The addition of a Rain-Clik can guarantee you the following:

• Your sprinklers will never run while it is raining
• There will be no need for special visits by your landscape team just to turn off the irrigation controller, which allows us more time to focus on other landscape tasks.
• You will save one of our most precious resources – WATER
• You should save money on your water bill.
• You won’t give the impression that you don’t care about wasted water to those who pass by your landscape while it’s raining.

Please let us know if we can help you by installing one of these Rain-Clik’s on your property.  It may be one of the easiest and best investments you could make.