Master Pump or Control Zone

[MrEcosse]

My set up has a master switch that controls a pump from my rainwater tank. This needs to be turned on whenever a zone is activated and turned off if no zone is active. I can obviously add automation to do this but it would be great if it was built in. I also manually delay the pump turning off by a few seconds so it doesn't continuously cycle when zones are being watered sequentially.

[drake69]

Thanks — this is a sensible built-in to have. A master switch/pump that turns on whenever any zone is active and off when none are, with a short off-delay to avoid rapid cycling during sequential watering, is a well-known irrigation pattern (master valve / pump-start relay). It's now tracked.

One detail that would help me set a good default: in your current automation, how many seconds of "linger" do you use before turning the pump off between sequential zones? Any other behaviour you rely on (e.g. a startup delay before the first zone opens) is useful to know too.

[MrEcosse]

I have found 5 seconds works fine. Just to stop a continual cycling of the pump. On start up a one second delay after the first valve has opened would work fine.

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On Tue, 30 Jun 2026 at 08:58, Luigi Corsaro ***@***.***> wrote: *drake69* left a comment (never-dry/NeverDry#95) <#95 (comment)> Thanks — this is a sensible built-in to have. A master switch/pump that turns on whenever any zone is active and off when none are, with a short off-delay to avoid rapid cycling during sequential watering, is a well-known irrigation pattern (master valve / pump-start relay). It's now tracked. One detail that would help me set a good default: in your current automation, how many seconds of "linger" do you use before turning the pump off between sequential zones? Any other behaviour you rely on (e.g. a startup delay before the first zone opens) is useful to know too. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#95>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AO4LKIASGULAOO4PTTKL43D5CNXJ5AVCNFSNUABGKJSXA33TNF2G64TZHMYTEMBUGU3TCMZXGM5US43TOVSTWNBXGYZDKMJQGE4TBILWAI> . Triage notifications, keep track of coding agent tasks and review pull requests on the go with GitHub Mobile for iOS <https://github.com/notifications/mobile/ios/AO4LKIEON4DWWZRRCLJUIWD5CNXJ5A5CNFSNUABFM5UWIORPF5TWS5BNNB2WEL2JONZXKZKDN5WW2ZLOOQXTIOBUGEYTMNZSHE22M4TFMFZW63VGMF2XI2DPOKSWK5TFNZ2KUZTPN52GK4S7NFXXG> and Android <https://github.com/notifications/mobile/android/AO4LKIGV7H5MFZMSYOUWALD5CNXJ5A5CNFSNUABFM5UWIORPF5TWS5BNNB2WEL2JONZXKZKDN5WW2ZLOOQXTIOBUGEYTMNZSHE22M4TFMFZW63VGMF2XI2DPOKSWK5TFNZ2K4ZTPN52GK4S7MFXGI4TPNFSA>. Download it today! You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

-- Simon Scotland

[drake69]

@MrEcosse — to be straight about where this is: NeverDry does not support a master pump today. There is no field for it, and nothing in the integration turns a shared switch on and off around zone runs. If you are handling it with your own automation, keep it — you are not missing a setting somewhere.

Your answer shaped the design, and one half of it corrected me. I had the behaviour written down as pump on before or together with the first zone; you said one second after the first valve has opened, which is a different thing — the pump starts against an open circuit instead of pushing into a closed one. Five seconds off-delay, staying on through the gap between sequential zones rather than cycling. Both are recorded that way.

It is planned and it sits behind the valve-control rework, so I am not putting a date on it. When it ships it will be in a beta and I will say so here.