Sprinkler Controller?

[luke duke 6420]

Does anyone have one that they like? One that isn’t a pain in the ass to modify zones/time/duration?

 

An app would be cool.

[Quagmire 2147]

I’ve had the ranchio for about a year. It’s all app controlled.

Got tired of those worthless water sensors never working , this uses weather stations across the city and will skip a schedule if it rains or it’s predicted. Also adjusts the zones seasonally on its own.

Also nice I can start a zone from my phone if I need to adjust a sprinkler I don’t have to walk back and forth to the controller.

[Damor 1237]

I was down to the Rachio or the Hunter Hydrawise when we put ours in.  My installer was more familiar with Hunter systems, so that's what I went with.  The general features are pretty similar I think, as far as app control, several adjustment rules you can set up based on local weather stations/sensors, etc.

I think you can play around with a demo at their website, I've found it pretty easy to use.  I suppose the best endorsement is that I don't think about it that much -- although that got bad once, when we were out of town for a couple weeks last July and it got booted off my wifi network.  The lawn and plants did not appreciate it, but hey, low water bill.

[RamjetFDO 10578]

Have the Rachio - love it.  Full app control from my phone, smart watering based on weather, automatic seasonal adjustments, zone specifics based on soil and plant/grass type...  can do a "quick run" on any zone at any time, if some plants in the garden need watering off-schedule, etc.

[Lobwedgephil 1139]

Big fan of Rachio as well. 

[joe dirt 285]

+1 for rachio. check with your water company for rebates too. i got $80 back after i submitted a copy of my receipt for the rachio.  

[William_Cannon 86]

Rachio

/thread


It’s my favorite IoT and it’s not even close. It’s stupid easy. It does everything your controller does today, makes that easy and does even more like use weather station data . You can even customize watering based on soil samples, types of heads, etc.

Do you remember what zone 8 is? Nope, me neither. With Rachio you take a picture of what gets watered with zone 8 and assign it to the app. It’s so easy even my wife can use it. When my wife asks if I can change the watering schedule for her garden, I tell her nope ... look at the pictures and follow the menu.

[Yarbr 123]

So Rachio 2 or 3? 3 worth the extra 75 dollars.

[dcbc 14566]

I've had the Rachio 2 since last summer and have been sufficiently impressed with the "let the internet decide how to water your grass" setting.  My only mistake was assigning a local personal weather station a block away instead of letting it use a full service WS about 7 miles away.  The one a block away didn't have a rain gauge.  So I didn't get the benefit of skip days.

[Native Horn 3516]

Did you guys with the Rachio controller replace an existing controller?  If so, was it something an idoit could tackle?  My controller makes my head asplode because it is the least user-friendly device I have ever come across.  Thanks for any input.

[Nueces River Rat 5569]

16 minutes ago, Native Horn said:

Did you guys with the Rachio controller replace an existing controller?  If so, was it something an idoit could tackle?  My controller makes my head asplode because it is the least user-friendly device I have ever come across.  Thanks for any input.

This is my question.   My 12 year old controller appears to be ready to call it a a day and need to replace it soon and the Rachio looks like the way to go.  

[Gravy Train 974]

I replaced my relatively-modern Rain-Bird ESP-Me controller (with WiFi dongle) for the Rachio 3, just to see how much better the app was.  The Rain-Bird offered 80% of the digital functionality with just a different methodology of talking to the controller.  Both were very easy to use and set up.

I found the Rachio 3 a complete pain in the ass to wire up and it made me want to strangle the hardware engineers as they tried to make it too simple.  There just isn't enough room to store extra wire length, the magnetic cover is too weak to hold with a bulk of #10 wire entering the controller and it won't accommodate a 1" PVC conduit entering the controller either.  I trimmed the pipe with a dremel and tried stuffing as much of the extra wire back into the conduit before mounting the Rachio.

Tag your wires with tape and numbers before removing the old controller.  If your prior controller uses hardwired power, you won't need the old power wires.  

My Rain-Bird ESP-Me is for sale with the wireless rain/freeze sensor.  I sorta wish I didn't spend the money on the Rachio but it does a better job of predicted rain delays and zone watering times. 

[William_Cannon 86]

Did you guys with the Rachio controller replace an existing controller?  If so, was it something an idoit could tackle?  My controller makes my head asplode because it is the least user-friendly device I have ever come across.  Thanks for any input.

Nope it was on a new install.
My only gripe was that the spring clamps for the wires are a pain in the ass to push down to get the wire in or out for the zones

[VonZipper 50]

I installed my Rachio 3.  I replaced a 15 year old Hunter 8 zone unit.  Piece of cake to install and to setup.  It works great and I received a $150.00 rebate from my utility company.

[HRSchenker 2275]

I thought about getting the Rachio but I opted to keep my Rain Bird only because I need to be in full control of my watering rather than letting it get decided by a weather station. The water company in my area is expensive so I spend about $400-500 on water each month during summer. I can't let it get out of control. 

[Lobwedgephil 1139]

13 minutes ago, HRSchenker said:

I thought about getting the Rachio but I opted to keep my Rain Bird only because I need to be in full control of my watering rather than letting it get decided by a weather station. The water company in my area is expensive so I spend about $400-500 on water each month during summer. I can't let it get out of control. 

So what about the Rachio doesn't let you have full control? 

[Nueces River Rat 5569]

1 hour ago, HRSchenker said:

I thought about getting the Rachio but I opted to keep my Rain Bird only because I need to be in full control of my watering rather than letting it get decided by a weather station. The water company in my area is expensive so I spend about $400-500 on water each month during summer. I can't let it get out of control. 

Wow!   WTH are you watering?  

 

[NeverMarryAStripper 22000]

Based on his user name, the whole river

[HRSchenker 2275]

1 hour ago, Nueces River Rat said:

Wow!   WTH are you watering?  

 

Less than 1000 sq ft of grass. It sucks. Even during the winter months when I don't turn them on at all I'm paying around $95 a month for 1500 gallon usage. I'll have to upload a water bill for proof.

3 hours ago, Lobwedgephil said:

So what about the Rachio doesn't let you have full control? 

Well I should probably clarify. I'm not interested in the weather station controlling my watering habits so it's not big enough of a draw to get me to switch to it. I prefer the manual control I have with the rain bird.

[Damor 1237]

Have you considered

It's only $.78/gal.

If they're open.

[Handcruser 2805]

Yeah Rachio is the bomb. Just do it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[dcbc 14566]

Rachio is amazing.  One tip, the 2 & 3 models allow you to tap into local weather stations for data.  Don't do what I did and use one down the street before determining if it has a rain gauge.  Super accurate on temp and wind, but no rain skip days for me last year.  Grass looked great though.

[BonzoMontreaux 1111]

Installed Rachio 3 this week.  Easy to set up.  I already have a rain skip day.  I have set watering days but I am thinking about using Flex Daily to see if it saves money.

The only thing I didn't like about the initial set up was I have a zone with sprinkler heads and tree drips and It would not let me select both.  Basically, one head\drip type per zone.  

Have any of you Rachio users used the Lawn Champion products? Thoughts?

[dcbc 14566]

On 7/9/2021 at 2:40 PM, BonzoMontreaux said:

Installed Rachio 3 this week.  Easy to set up.  I already have a rain skip day.  I have set watering days but I am thinking about using Flex Daily to see if it saves money.

The only thing I didn't like about the initial set up was I have a zone with sprinkler heads and tree drips and It would not let me select both.  Basically, one head\drip type per zone.  

Have any of you Rachio users used the Lawn Champion products? Thoughts?

No answers to your specific questions.  When you say you have set watering days, do you mean, by ordinance or whatever, you only can water on certain days?

I just let Skynet control my watering schedule and it is nothing like I would have suspected.  But the grass looks great.

[BonzoMontreaux 1111]

6 minutes ago, dcbc said:

No answers to your specific questions.  When you say you have set watering days, do you mean, by ordinance or whatever, you only can water on certain days?

I just let Skynet control my watering schedule and it is nothing like I would have suspected.  But the grass looks great.

Yes, water restrictions... 2 days a week per city.  However, I am of the mind set if I spend less time watering, the city should be grateful.