User Manual Rachio 8ZULW-B Water Heaters

The Iro utilizes EEPROM, persistent memory, so the last saved schedule(s) are stored on the device itself. So Please rest assured knowing that if the Iro loses connectivity with your WiFi, it will always continue to water using the last saved. Any updates/changes to these watering schedules will upload to the Iro the next time it reconnects with the cloud. You will receive an e-mail notifying you that it is off line.

Thank you for reaching out to us. We appreciate your interest in our product.
You can definitely control that many zones. You would need to purchase two controllers to cover all of your zones.
*Rachio Generation 1 controllers comes in an 8 zones or 16 zones unit
*Rachio Generation 2 controllers come only in 16 zones, at this time
You can add and manage multiple Iros from your Rachio account using the iOS or Android app. To add a second (or third) controller to your Rachio account, please follow the provided steps in this support article. Please note, at this time, they do not know about each other and will need to be operated as different controllers simultaneously. In the meantime, here are a couple ways to avoid any sort of collisions with schedules on two different controllers:
*Try scheduling the separate controllers on different days. This can be done in both automatic and manual modes.
*If you live in an area with restrictions, try scheduling one controller late in the evening and the other one early in the morning.
Please let me know if you have any additional questions. We would certainly appreciate your business.

Should you lose power to your home, the system won't run at all because there is no way to power the solenoid valves with the 24VAC. When power is restored, the Iro will reconnect to your WiFi network. If for some reason the router doesn't come back up the Iro will continue to run the last schedule it saved. The Iro utilizes EEPROM, persistent memory, so the last saved schedule(s) are stored on the device itself. So Please rest assured knowing that if the Iro loses connectivity with your WiFi, it will always continue to water using the last saved. Any updates/changes to these watering schedules will upload to the Iro the next time it reconnects with the cloud.
Please Note: If you are running flex schedules, the Iro will not run the last saved schedule as this is dynamic. What will occur is that 24 hours after your Iro goes offline we will initiate our "backup flex schedule." If you had your flex schedule set to run every day we will default to every 3 day and run on the predetermined start time that you had set already. If you had specific days based on restrictions, we will continue to run on those allowed days as well as at the predetermined start time that you had set already.

This controller can be installed indoors or outdoors. If outdoors, you would want to get the weatherproof cover also if you don't already have something to protect it.
I do not know what your indoor controller is set up to do, so I don't know how to answer that question.
This controller should be able to do everything you need up to eight zones.