What is Manage by Flow?

Manage by flow is a feature in BaseManager that optimizes the number of stations that can run at once. This feature is useful for sites that need to irrigate within a certain drought compliance window, or sites that want to irrigate for as little time as possible. When used with a FlowStation, manage by flow can manage multiple stations across separate controllers to optimize watering times for large sites.

When to Use Manage by Flow

Manage by flow is an essential feature for any sites that run multiple stations at the same time. Without manage by flow, a site risks concurrently running stations losing pressure. For sites with drought compliance windows, manage by flow is an important feature that ensures your entire site can be irrigated optimally during the specified window. Finally, if you are irrigating a site during business hours, manage by flow cuts down the length of the site irrigation process without reducing the quality.

How Does Manage by Flow Work?

Manage by flow uses the learned or designed flow of stations and adds them up to reach the total amount of designed flow for the mainline. Manage by flow is designed to not exceed the maximum flow for a system, ensuring that stations receive adequate water supply. The manage by flow feature doesn’t normally take into account the flow meter, but can if you change the settings for flow variance.

Example Scenario

Your site's mainline has a designed maximum flow rate of 100 gph. This site has 6 stations, listed in the table below.

In this scenario, the controller will water stations 1 and 4 concurrently, then stations 2, 5, and 6 concurrently, and finally station 3.

How to use Manage by Flow

When you set up the design flow for the mainline and then enable this option, the controller will use the design flow of the individual zones (or learned flow) and will turn on zones that are waiting to water until their design flow is equal to or less than the available flow on the mainline.

1.  On the main FlowStation App page, click the FlowStation where the mainline that you want to work with is assigned. The slide-out pane displays.

2.  Scroll down to the section where the mainline that you want to work with is shown. If necessary, click the header rows to expand the sections.

3.  Click the mainline that you want to work with. The Mainline information pane displays.

4.  Click Edit in the lower-right corner. The mainline details are available for editing.

5.  If necessary, click the Flow Management header to expand the section.

6.  Click in the Manage by Flow field to add or remove the check mark. When a check mark displays in the field, the mainline is managed by flow. When the field is empty, the mainline is not managed by flow.

7.  Click Save in the lower-right corner.

What happens if Manage by Flow is disabled?

If manage by flow is disabled for a site, the controller will turn on the stations in their listed order, up to the total number of concurrent stations allowed. This can cause pressure loss in the system if the amount of flow required for the stations is more than the amount of flow the mainline can supply. Loss of pressure can lead to the system not operating correctly. Issues can also arise when using a pump on a system without manage by flow, where damage to the pump can occur if the stations draw more water than the hydraulics can handle.