# Poor Sensor Reading **URL:** \ **Category:** Help & Support\ **Created:** [June 27, 2026, 3:34pm UTC](https://geodrops.discourse.group/t/poor-sensor-reading/367 "2026-06-27T15:34:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![homedigy-stanley](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/user_avatar/geodrops.discourse.group/homedigy-stanley/32/14_2.png) [@homedigy-stanley](https://geodrops.discourse.group/u/homedigy-stanley)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2026, 11:11pm UTC](https://geodrops.discourse.group/t/poor-sensor-reading/367/22 "2026-07-24T23:11:02Z")
Hi @pjbanman , You can order spare screws (although there should be some that came with your device when you bought them) on [our store](https://geodrops.com/products/2x-screws-4x-o-rings). Thanks for keeping us updated. We’re in the process of making the app to be more intuitive as we speak. Stanley Marketing PM Team GeoDrops ---
**Author:** ![Bob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea666f/32.png) [@Bob](https://geodrops.discourse.group/u/Bob)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2026, 11:30pm UTC](https://geodrops.discourse.group/t/poor-sensor-reading/367/23 "2026-07-24T23:30:09Z")
Stanley, We started having afternoon rain storms so I’m going to put the sensor back in the ground tomorrow. Bob ---
**Author:** ![Gr8M1ke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8491ac/32.png) [@Gr8M1ke](https://geodrops.discourse.group/u/Gr8M1ke)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2026, 2:51pm UTC](https://geodrops.discourse.group/t/poor-sensor-reading/367/24 "2026-08-27T14:51:16Z")
Hey Geodrops Team, I’m having a difficult time understanding what my sensors are doing. As a bit of background, I’ve set up the Home Assistant and Rachio integration as detailed under another topic on this forum. I also have my home assistant set to provide me a notification whenever a sensor pushes a moisture update to rachio. So far so good, but here’s where I get confused. Most of my sensors actually push increasing moisture numbers vice what I would expect to be decreasing numbers. I haven’t watered and there hasn’t been much rain (by which I mean over the course of the past couple of weeks that I’ve been observing this behavior), but this happens all the time. Also, I have a couple of sensors that really never seem to make it below 85% or so. I bring all this up because my lawn is browning and yet my moisture levels are in the affected areas are above 80%. Thoughts? The devices most in question are 3367YD, 336AKU, 334PWJ and 3356QF. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![homedigy-alpha](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/user_avatar/geodrops.discourse.group/homedigy-alpha/32/16_2.png) [@homedigy-alpha](https://geodrops.discourse.group/u/homedigy-alpha)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2026, 9:03pm UTC](https://geodrops.discourse.group/t/poor-sensor-reading/367/25 "2026-08-29T21:03:36Z")
Hi @Gr8M1ke We will be publish a simple example and update our API documentation very soon for integration on our Knowledge Base. You may want to wait a a bit and check out our example first. Regarding the moisture reading issue you are experiencing, @homedigy-lawrence intends to talk to directly but we are currently trying very hard to do some last minute improvement to the soil learning. Long story short, for those sensors the soil is “sticky” and are reporting values a bit higher than it should be. He will get back to you with the details once he is ready. Thanks for you patience Al Engineering ---
**Author:** ![Gr8M1ke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8491ac/32.png) [@Gr8M1ke](https://geodrops.discourse.group/u/Gr8M1ke)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2026, 1:41pm UTC](https://geodrops.discourse.group/t/poor-sensor-reading/367/26 "2026-08-30T13:41:52Z")
Appreciate it, thank you! ---
**Author:** ![homedigy-alpha](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/user_avatar/geodrops.discourse.group/homedigy-alpha/32/16_2.png) [@homedigy-alpha](https://geodrops.discourse.group/u/homedigy-alpha)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2026, 10:17pm UTC](https://geodrops.discourse.group/t/poor-sensor-reading/367/27 "2026-09-09T22:17:28Z")
Hi @Gr8M1ke Sorry for the belated response. We are still quite busy trying to push out another update, so I will respond on behalf of @homedigy-lawrence . As I have mentioned before 3 of the devices are installed in a way that has what we called “stuck soil”, meaning that for soil with certain amount of clay content, the soil would be sticky enough stick onto the probe of the sensors causing the reading to be higher than the actual soil around the probe. This will happen when the soil starts to dry out which is likely what happened since you have not watered for a while. This is happening to : - 334PWJ - “Right Back Yard” - 3356QF - “Driveway” - 3367YD - “Front Yard” The possible solutions to these problems are similar to loose soil: 1. You can wait and water _normally_ (meaning watering when you think it is appropriate) and eventually the soil will settle properly around the sensor probe and return to normal. Also use the **Tune Irrigation** feature to mark your irrigation to help the AI figure out the watering. This may take a while. 2. You can pack and moist soil around the sensor to help it form better contact, then hit **Learn Max Moisture**. This may hasten up the process by “reseting” the installation a bit. 3. Finally if nothing else works you can pull the device out of the soil, reinstall it in a undisturbed patch close to the original spot. Then hit **Learn Max Moisture** again. One of the things that will be updated is in fact a notification for this condition, so I would like to take this opportunity to ask for your feedback on how we will communicate this to the user. This will be the current message that you will see. Is this something that is clear to you on the nature of the problem and is it easy for you to find out or figure out what to do in this scenario. Do we need more specific guidance on how to deal with these messages ![Screenshot (Sep 9, 2026 2_48_43 p.m.)](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/uploads/geodrops/original/1X/705b33362460d247f4da0d5b5d5b12dc1d1cdbfc.png) Thank you for your help and patience Al Engineering ---
**Author:** ![Gr8M1ke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8491ac/32.png) [@Gr8M1ke](https://geodrops.discourse.group/u/Gr8M1ke)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2026, 8:22pm UTC](https://geodrops.discourse.group/t/poor-sensor-reading/367/28 "2026-09-10T20:22:52Z")
Thanks for the response. As far as the message goes, I guess it isn’t clear to me how calibrating again would solve the issue. You gave me a lot of background about the issue and several options for correcting it, but the user facing message only offers the problem and directs the user to calibrate (you do have the link for more help). I’m assuming that if I did calibrate again that at some future date if the soil became un-sticky another calibration would be required? I don’t have the big brain understanding how the sensors and AI work like you guys do. Long story short because I may be overthinking it, perhaps verbiage to the effect of recalibrating will enable tomato to reflect your soil moisture more accurately until the sticky situation resolves itself. See help for more information (then the help article can go through the more manual methods of correction you explained to me in this email should the end user want to try something else). A bit rambly, but I hope helpful. Thanks! [Previous page](https://geodrops.discourse.group/t/poor-sensor-reading/367.md?page=1)