The short answer
Four dial positions, in this order: Date / Time, Start Times, Run Times, Water Days. Then the dial goes back to AUTO, 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 controller takes the schedule and a zone still stays dry, that is a repair rather than a setting, and Rain Bird sprinkler repair is the page for that.
Program a Rain Bird ESP-Me or ESP-ME3 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: Date / Time
The clock every start time is read against. Set it first.
- Turn the dial to Date / Time. On the older yellow ESP-Me this is two positions, Set Date and then Set Time.
- One field blinks. Change it with
-and+, holding either button to move faster. - Press the
Nextarrow for the following field and work through day, month and year. - Set the hour, press
Next, set the minutes. Watch the AM and PM indicator.
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 (Set Watering Start Times). Press
Program Selectuntil the display shows program A. - Set start time 1 with
-and+, checking AM and PM. Early morning, so it finishes before sunrise. - Press
Nextto 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
Nextthrough the rest of the six. Anything you did not mean to set, press-past 12:00 AM until it reads OFF. PressProgram Selectand check B, C and D the same way, because a forgotten second program is why a yard waters twice a day.
- Turn the dial to Start Times (Set Watering 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 (Set Station Run Times). The display shows a station number with the minutes blinking.
- Set the minutes with
-and+. On clay, about 6 for spray heads and 15 for rotors per pass. - Press
Nextfor station 2 and keep going. A zone you want skipped gets 0. - To change one zone later, come back here, press
Nextto its number, change it, dial to AUTO.
Step 4: Water Days
Which days the program runs. Most DFW cities allow two.
- Turn the dial to Water Days. One day blinks.
- Press
+to make it a watering day or-for a day off. The cursor moves to the next day on its own. - The yellow ESP-Me splits this up: choose BY DAY at Advanced Watering Cycles, then set each day at its own dial position.
- Go through all seven, then turn the dial back to AUTO. These controllers water only from AUTO.
Rain Bird walks the same four steps on camera. The video shows the grey ESP-ME3, and the older yellow ESP-Me follows the same four positions.
Water right now. Dial to Manual Watering (Manual Station), press the arrows to the zone, set the minutes, then hold Hold to Start. The display reads STARTED. For the whole program, dial to AUTO, press Program Select to the letter, and hold Hold to Start. A damp rain sensor will not block either one.
Stop for rain. Dial to OFF and leave it three seconds. Everything stays in memory until the dial returns to AUTO. For a pause that ends by itself, set a rain delay of up to 14 days by holding the back arrow from AUTO (Delay Watering on the ESP-Me). If a rain sensor stopped the watering, no alarm light comes on, which Rain Bird says is normal.
Program, Start Time and Run Time on a Rain Bird ESP-Me and ESP-ME3
Almost all of the confusion with these controllers 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. These controllers allow six per program, numbered 1 to 6, 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. Rain Bird's own troubleshooting table lists multiple start times in one program as the cause of too much irrigation, and its example is three 15 minute zones started at 8:00, 8:15 and 8:30, two hours and fifteen minutes with no time to soak.
Build a Simple Program for Your Rain Bird ESP-Me or ESP-ME3
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 ESP-ME3
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 ESP-ME3
- Turn the dial to Date / Time and set the clock. Every start time is read against it.
- Turn the dial to Start Times. Make sure program A is showing (press Program Select if it is not). Set start time 1 to 4:00 AM with the minus and plus buttons, then the Next 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 Next 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 (minus and plus set the blinking day on or off and the cursor moves to the next day by itself).
- Press Program Select 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 AUTO. 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 Program Select until the display shows B and repeat the four steps for the drip stations only, leaving the lawn stations at 0. Give B one start time, the same as A's first. Only one program runs at a time, so the controller finishes A's first pass and then starts B.
Check That the ESP-Me or ESP-ME3 Program Runs
Do not wait until 4:00 AM to find out. With the dial on AUTO, press Program Select until program A shows, then hold Hold to Start. The display reads STARTED and the program runs every station with the minutes you entered. Walk the yard and watch each zone come on in turn, using Advance Station to skip ahead. If one does not come on, one zone not working covers what it usually is.
Seasonal Adjust and Passes Through the Year on the ESP-Me and ESP-ME3
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 the Next arrow 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. The ESP-ME3 has a true Cycle and Soak, but only in the Rain Bird app, so on the controller itself the start times are the way to do it.
Seasonal Adjust. Turn the dial to Seasonal Adjust. It reads 100 percent, meaning your run times run as written, and moves from 5 to 200 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.
When an ESP-Me or ESP-ME3 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 alarm light goes solid and the display reads
STATION X WIRE SHORTED, naming the circuit for you. - A system that waters with the dial on OFF has a valve stuck open. Shut the water off at the irrigation shutoff, because the controller cannot help.
- A display that is blank, or reading
NO AC, is power. Check the breaker and the GFCI outlet.
The controller error codes guide has the rest of the messages and what each 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.
Rain Bird ESP-Me and ESP-ME3 Programming Questions
How do I set the time on a Rain Bird ESP-ME3?
Why does my Rain Bird ESP-Me or ESP-ME3 keep watering over and over?
How many minutes should each zone run on a Rain Bird ESP-Me or ESP-ME3?
How do I run one zone manually on a Rain Bird ESP-ME3?
Does a Rain Bird ESP-Me or ESP-ME3 lose its program when the power goes out?
What does the alarm light mean on a Rain Bird ESP-Me or ESP-ME3?
Sources
- Rain Bird. “ESP-ME3 Controller Advanced User Manual,” document D41274 15JA20. Dial positions, basic programming steps, start time behavior and the repeating-program example, manual watering options, Seasonal Adjust range, rain delay, alarm and error detection, battery and memory.
- Rain Bird. “ESP-Me Enhanced Modular Controller Advanced User Manual,” document D50029EO. Dial layout, set date and set time, start times and run time limits, advanced watering cycles, Seasonal Adjust, delay watering, manual station and manual program, program stacking, troubleshooting table.
- Rain Bird. “FAQ Guide, ESP-Me Controller.” No 9 volt battery required, alert light behavior including rainfall not raising an alarm, and the Seasonal Adjust effect on displayed run times.