The short answer
Four dial positions, in this order: CURRENT TIME/DAY, START TIMES, RUN TIMES, WATER DAYS. Then the dial goes back to RUN, or nothing waters. The four steps are right below. Further down is a tool that writes a program for your yard and explains the three words the dial never does.
If the X-Core takes the schedule and a zone still stays dry, that is a repair rather than a setting, and Hunter sprinkler repair is the page for that.
Program a Hunter X-Core in Four Steps
Have your run times handy. If you do not have them yet, the program builder below writes them for you.
Step 1: CURRENT TIME/DAY
The clock every start time is read against. Set it first.
- Turn the dial to CURRENT TIME/DAY. The year flashes. Set it with
+and-, press►. - Set the month, press
►. Set the day, press►. - Pick AM, PM or 24 hour with
+and-, press►, set the hour, press►, set the minutes.
- Turn the dial to CURRENT TIME/DAY. The year flashes. Set it with
Step 2: START TIMES
When the program begins. One start time runs every zone in the program, one after another.
- Turn the dial to START TIMES. Press
PRGuntil the display shows program A. - Set start time 1 with
+and-. It moves in 15 minute steps. Early morning, so it finishes before sunrise. - Press
►to start time 2 and set it about an hour later. Add a third in summer. Each one is another short pass over the yard. - Press
►through the rest. Anything you did not mean to set, press-past 12:00 AM until it reads OFF. PressPRGand check B and C the same way, because a forgotten program B is why a yard waters twice a day.
- Turn the dial to START TIMES. Press
Step 3: RUN TIMES
How many minutes each zone runs each time its turn comes. Per pass, not per day.
- Turn the dial to RUN TIMES. The display shows program A, station 1, minutes flashing.
- Set the minutes with
+and-. On clay, about 6 for spray heads and 15 for rotors per pass. - Press
►for station 2 and keep going. A zone you want skipped gets 0. - To change one zone later, come back here, press
►to its number, change it, dial to RUN.
Step 4: WATER DAYS
Which days the program runs. Most DFW cities allow two.
- Turn the dial to WATER DAYS. The cursor sits on Monday.
- Press
+to make it a watering day or-for a day off. The cursor moves to the next day on its own. - Go through all seven, then turn the dial back to RUN. The X-Core waters only from RUN.
Hunter walks the same four steps on camera.
Water right now. Dial to MANUAL-ONE STATION, press ► to the zone, set minutes, turn the dial to RUN and it starts. For the whole program, leave the dial on RUN and hold ► for about two seconds. It offers program A and begins on its own after a short pause.
Stop for rain. Dial to SYSTEM OFF and wait for OFF to appear. Everything stays in memory. Dial back to RUN to resume. If the display already reads OFF with an umbrella icon after a rain, the rain sensor did it, and the SENSOR BYPASS switch on the face overrides it.
Program, Start Time and Run Time on a Hunter X-Core
Almost all of the confusion with this controller comes from three words the dial uses without explaining.
| The word | What it means | What most homes need |
|---|---|---|
| Program | One watering schedule: which days it waters, what time it begins, and how long each zone runs. The controller offers several, lettered A, B, C, so lawn and drip can keep different schedules. | One for the lawn, A. Drip beds get their own, B. |
| Start time | A clock time the program begins. From that time, the zones run one after another, zone 1 then zone 2 then zone 3, until the last one finishes. It is not a time per zone. A second start time runs the whole program again. | Two or three, an hour apart, before sunrise. Each is a short pass, so the clay can soak between them. |
| Run time | How many minutes each zone runs each time its turn comes. Set zone by zone, and it is per pass, not per day. | About 6 minutes for spray heads and 15 for rotors per pass. Two passes doubles it for the day. |
The one that trips people up is the start time. The X-Core allows four of them per program, numbered 1, 2, 3 and 4, which looks like it wants a time for each zone. It does not. One start time runs every zone in the program, in order, and a second start time runs the whole yard again. That is exactly what clay wants when the run times are short: 6 minutes of spray, soak for an hour, 6 more. It is a flood when the run times are long.
Build a Simple Program for Your Hunter X-Core
Walk the yard once and note what each zone waters and what kind of heads it has. Spray heads pop up a few inches and fan out a mist. Rotors turn and throw a single stream. Drip is the tubing in the beds. Then fill this in. It writes the worksheet and the dial steps for you.
Build your program
A simple program for your X-Core
List your zones, pick the two days your city allows, choose a start time. The sheet and the dial steps below update as you go.
The season sets how much each zone gets for the day: about 6 minutes of spray or 15 of rotor in winter, twice that in spring and fall, three times in summer. Clay cannot take a day's worth at once, so the total is split into passes an hour apart. Tick Slope on any zone that runs downhill. A slope does not need less water, it runs off sooner, so it gets the same total in more, shorter passes.
Your worksheet
- Days
- Tue, Sat
- Start times
- 4:00 AM, 5:15 AM (2 passes, each about 48 minutes)
- Finishes about
- 6:33 AM
| Station | Zone | Per pass | Per day |
|---|---|---|---|
| Program A, lawn, 2 start times | |||
| 1 | Front lawnSpray heads | 6 | 12 |
| 2 | Front lawnSpray heads | 6 | 12 |
| 3 | Side yardSpray heads | 6 | 12 |
| 4 | Back lawnRotors | 15 | 30 |
| 5 | Back lawnRotors | 15 | 30 |
| Program B, drip, one start time | |||
| 6 | BedsDrip | 30 | 30 |
Drip goes in program B with a single start time, so it runs once, longer, and can water on fewer days. In program A, leave the drip station at 0. In program B, leave the lawn stations at 0.
Enter it on the X-Core
- Turn the dial to CURRENT TIME/DAY and set the clock. Every start time is read against it.
- Turn the dial to START TIMES. Make sure program A is showing (press PRG if it is not). Set start time 1 to 4:00 AM with plus and minus, then the right arrow and set start time 2 to 5:15 AM. Any start time past that stays OFF. Each start time runs the whole program once, which is what the passes are.
- Turn the dial to RUN TIMES. In program A set station 1 to 6, station 2 to 6, station 3 to 6, station 4 to 15, station 5 to 15, using the right arrow to move between stations. Set station 6 to 0 in program A.
- Turn the dial to WATER DAYS and set Tue and Sat on, every other day off (plus turns a day on, minus turns it off, and the cursor moves to the next day by itself).
- Press PRG to program B. Give it one start time, the same as A's first, set station 6 to 30, leave the lawn stations at 0, and pick its watering days. It runs right after A finishes.
- Turn the dial back to RUN. Nothing waters from any other position.
About the minutes. Spray heads put water down fast and North Texas clay takes it slowly, so 6 minutes is about as long as a spray zone can run before water heads down the driveway. Rotors put it down at a fraction of that rate, which is why they get 15. A zone on a slope gets the same total in more, shorter passes, because water leaves a slope sooner. Those are minutes per pass, not per day: two passes of 6 is 12 minutes of spray for the day, three is 18. The DFW seasonal watering schedule has the month by month numbers and the watering schedule guide shows how to measure your own yard.
If you have drip
Beds on drip want one long run on fewer days, not short passes, so they get their own program. Press PRG until the display shows B and repeat the four steps for the drip stations only, with the lawn stations left at 0 in program B. Give B one start time, set after program A's last pass has finished, so the two schedules never ask for water at once.
Check That the X-Core Program Runs
Do not wait until 4:00 AM to find out. With the dial on RUN, hold ► for about two seconds. The display offers program A, and after a short pause it starts, running every station with the minutes you entered. Walk the yard and watch each zone come on in turn. If one does not, that is the zone to look at, and one zone not working covers what it usually is.
Seasonal Adjust and Passes Through the Year on the X-Core
Once the program has run for a week and the lawn looks right, the schedule changes with the season in two ways, and neither one touches the run times.
Add or drop a pass. Summer wants three start times, spring and fall two, winter one. Turn the dial to START TIMES, press ► to the start time you are adding or removing, and set it or run it down to OFF. The per-pass minutes stay the same all year, because the clay does not change.
Seasonal Adjustment. Turn the dial to SEASONAL ADJUSTMENT. It reads 100 percent, meaning your run times run as written, and it moves anywhere from 10 to 150 percent. For the in-between weeks, nudge it down with - or up with + and every zone runs that percentage of its minutes. The seasonal watering schedule has a percentage for each month. X-Core units built from July 2013 on also have a built-in cycle and soak, reached by holding + while turning the dial to RUN TIMES, which does the splitting for you if you would rather keep one start time.
When an X-Core Problem Is Not Programming
A controller that takes the program and still misbehaves is telling you about something outside the box.
- A zone that never comes on, while the others do, is a valve or a wire, not a setting. The display may show that station number followed by
ERR, which means a short on that circuit. - A system that waters with the dial on SYSTEM OFF has a valve stuck open. Shut the water off at the irrigation shutoff, because the controller cannot help.
- A display that is blank with the power on is a transformer or a fuse.
The controller error codes guide has every message an X-Core can show and what it points at. If you are tired of walking to the garage, a Wi-Fi controller moves all of this to your phone. We are a Certified Rachio Pro installer, and smart controller installation explains what changes and what does not.
Hunter X-Core Programming Questions
How do I set the time on a Hunter X-Core?
Why does my Hunter X-Core keep watering over and over?
How many minutes should each zone run on a Hunter X-Core?
How do I run a zone manually on a Hunter X-Core?
Does the Hunter X-Core lose its program when the power goes out?
What does ERR mean on a Hunter X-Core?
Sources
- Hunter Industries. “X-Core Residential Irrigation Controller Owner’s Manual and Programming Instructions.” Dial positions, button sequences, start time behavior, run time range, water days, manual operation, Seasonal Adjustment range, sensor bypass, battery and memory retention, troubleshooting table.
- Hunter Industries. “X-Core Troubleshooting Guide” and “X-Core Err Messages,” hunterirrigation.com support. Station ERR causes and the continuous watering cause.
- Hunter Industries. “X-Core Cycle and Soak,” hunterirrigation.com support. Availability by date code and the button sequence.