What should I do if my wires don't fit?

Summary

You may be in front of the controller trying to plug the wire into the controller's terminal at the wiring bay, but it's not working due to the thickness of the wire. What should you do in order to properly accommodate the wires in your Rachio controller?


Useful Parts for Special Situations

Additionally, to ensure the Rachio controller is set up properly, some situations* require you to:

• (a) reduce the number of wires you have
• (b) increase the number of wires you have

*This mainly comes into play if:

1. you have  very large wires  that won't fit into the wall mount
2. you have  too many common wires  to connect to your Rachio(s)
3. you have  not enough common wires  to connect to your Rachio(s) 

•  for instance, if you have two controllers, but only one common wire, a terminal strip (aka, a "barrier block") will be necessary to create two common wires - one for each device. 

Keep in mind, each situation will be different. However, by using a  terminal strip  (or barrier block), one can feed wire into one side of the barrier and have wire(s) connected to the corresponding side. This allows the combination of two wires into one, or vice versa.

This approach is also useful in situations when someone has very large wires and needs to use a barrier to connect to a smaller wire — one that fits the Rachio terminals (see note, above). There may be other circumstances that arise but these are the most frequent situations we see.

Remedying these situations is easily done using the following parts.

Terminal Strip

These are commonly found in 6, 8, 10, 15, and 20 circuit types

.

  Pictured above: an example of a 15 circuit Terminal Strip.

Wire Nuts

 These may not be necessary for all situations 

• Waterproof Nuts
• Wire Connector

Sprinkler Wires

• 18 Gauge Wire

What if my wires are too short? 

Not a problem! You can use solid 18 gauge wires to extend them. Wire nut the extension and the existing wire together and then you’ll have room to plug in the extension to the terminal. You can also reach out to a Home Depot or Lowe’s (or local hardware store) where they sell sprinkler field wire by the foot and purchase one foot of the type that has as many conductors as you have. This way they'll have a specific wire color instead of all the same to make troubleshooting a little easier.

Do you still need help?

We have a chat support team ready to assist you! You can submit a support request by selecting the chat icon in the bottom right of this page and a member of the support team will contact you live.

Summer Hours (April-September)

7am-5pm (MST), 7 days a week.

Winter Hours (October-March)

8am-5pm (MST), Monday - Saturday. We are closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years Day.