The short answer
Four dial positions, in this order: CURRENT TIME/DAY, START TIMES, STATION TIMES, WATERING 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 TMC-212 takes the schedule and a zone still stays dry, that is a repair rather than a setting, and sprinkler repair is the page for that.
Program a Toro TMC-212 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 hour flashes. Set it with
+/ONand-/OFF, pressNEXT. - Set the minutes, press
NEXT. Set the year, pressNEXT. - Set the month, press
NEXT, then set the day. Hold a button to roll the digits fast.
- Turn the dial to CURRENT TIME/DAY. The hour 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. Slide the PROGRAMS switch to A, because everything here belongs to the program that switch is on.
- Set start time 1 with
+/ONand-/OFF, watching the AM and PM indicator. 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. Anything you did not mean to set, press both buttons together until it reads OFF. Slide the switch to B and C and check them too, because a forgotten program B is why a yard waters twice a day.
Step 3: STATION TIMES
How many minutes each zone runs each time its turn comes. Per pass, not per day.
- Turn the dial to STATION TIMES. Station 1 and its minutes are flashing.
- Set the minutes with
+/ONand-/OFF. 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 OFF, which is both buttons pressed together. - To change one zone later, come back here, press
NEXTto its number, change it, dial to RUN.
Step 4: WATERING DAYS
Which days the program runs. Most DFW cities allow two.
- Turn the dial to WATERING DAYS. If the display does not read
CAL, press+/ONuntil it does, then pressNEXT. Sunday flashes. - Press
+/ONto keep a day or-/OFFto remove it. The display steps to the next day on its own. - Go through all seven, then turn the dial back to RUN. The TMC-212 waters only from RUN.
- Turn the dial to WATERING DAYS. If the display does not read
Water right now. Leave the dial on RUN, slide the PROGRAMS switch to the program you want, and press MANUAL START twice for one pass through every zone. For a single zone, press MANUAL START once, +/ON to include a station or -/OFF to skip it, then MANUAL START again. NEXT jumps ahead while it runs.
Stop for rain. Dial to RAIN DELAY and pick 1 to 7 days with +/ON. It counts down one per day and resumes on its own, which beats the OFF position because you cannot forget to turn it back on. Everything stays in memory either way. If watering stopped by itself and a no-watering symbol is showing, a rain sensor did it, and the sensor control switch in the cabinet moves to DIS.
Program, Start Time and Run Time on a Toro TMC-212
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 TMC-212 allows four of them per program, numbered across the top of the display, 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 Toro TMC-212
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 TMC-212
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 TMC-212
- 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 (slide the PROGRAMS switch if it is not). Set start time 1 to 4:00 AM with plus and minus, then NEXT 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 STATION 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 NEXT to move between stations. Set station 6 to 0 in program A.
- Turn the dial to WATERING DAYS and set Tue and Sat on, every other day off (plus keeps a day and moves to the next one, minus removes it, and the display steps through the week by itself).
- Slide the PROGRAMS switch 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. Slide the PROGRAMS switch to B and repeat the four steps for the drip stations only, with the lawn stations left at OFF in program B. Give B one start time, the same as A's first. The controller runs A's first pass to the end, then B.
Check That the TMC-212 Program Runs
Do not wait until 4:00 AM to find out. With the dial on RUN and the PROGRAMS switch on A, press MANUAL START twice. The first station flashes and the controller runs one pass through every zone with the minutes you entered. Walk the yard and watch each one come on in turn, pressing NEXT to jump ahead once you have seen it. If a zone stays dry, one zone not working covers what it usually is.
Season Adjust and Passes Through the Year on the TMC-212
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 station times.
Add or drop a pass. Summer wants three start times, spring and fall two, winter one. Turn the dial to START TIMES, press NEXT to the one you are adding or removing, and set it or clear it to OFF with both buttons together. The per-pass minutes stay the same all year, because the clay does not change.
Season Adjust. Turn the dial to SEASON ADJUST and set the PROGRAMS switch. It reads 100 percent, meaning your station times run as written. The range is 10 to 200 percent in 10 percent steps, so for the in-between weeks nudge it down with -/OFF or up with +/ON and every zone runs that percentage. The seasonal watering schedule has a percentage for each month. The TMC-212 also has a cycle and soak hidden in this same dial position, because above 100 percent it splits the run time in half and runs the program twice back to back, which does the splitting for you if you would rather keep one start time.
When a TMC-212 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
FUSEwith that station number, meaning a short on that circuit. - 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 with the power on is the transformer connection indoors or the breaker outdoors.
The controller error codes guide covers every message a controller like this shows 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.
Toro TMC-212 Programming Questions
How do I set the time on a Toro TMC-212?
Why does my Toro TMC-212 keep watering over and over?
How many minutes should each zone run on a Toro TMC-212?
How do I run a zone manually on a Toro TMC-212?
Does the Toro TMC-212 lose its program when the power goes out?
What does FUSE mean on a Toro TMC-212?
Sources
- The Toro Company. “TMC-212 Residential and Commercial Irrigation System Controller User’s Guide,” document 373-0402. Control dial positions and button labels, setting the current time and date, Calendar watering days, four start times per program, station run times, manual operation and program stacking, Season Adjust 10 to 200 percent and its split-cycle behavior above 100 percent, Rain Delay, rain sensor bypass switch, non-volatile memory with no battery, automatic circuit protection and the FUSE displays, and the troubleshooting table.