This is my first Rachio product and I purchased on the advise of my next door neighbor and brother whom both own previous versions. I am glad I took their advice as this controller is nothing short of awesome. It is well constructed, has easy to understand instructions, was very easy to install, and the app for your smart phone is very well designed and thought out.
I've been using this device for about three weeks now and I am very happy with the results. The device is hyper intelligent and will run as automated or as manual as you prefer. You can run it every day exactly when you want to, or you can set it up to monitor the weather conditions in your area and allow it to determine when and how much to water. I have a personal weather station on top of my house and I have connected my Rachio to the weather data received by my PWS. Smart watering is based on actual rain fall amounts at my house and not for some remote weather station miles away from me.
It is obvious Rachio has done their homework and have produced a high quality device that works extremely well. The app is equally amazing and you can run everything from the phone app or from the controller itself. At a glance you can verify if the system is on-line and connected to wi-fi and if it is actively watering a zone. This unit supports up to 8 zones. I only have 6 so I have disabled the last two from my setup. If you have an Amazon Echo you can control everything through that device but if you use HomeKit like me, that functionality is waiting in the wings. I am hopeful that feature is added soon, but honestly, the controller is already so automated there's really not much advantage to the voice controlled aspect anyway. Highly recommend this unit. I am thoroughly impressed and pleased with my purchase.
Awesome product. Allows me to hardwire my Rachio 2nd Gen. I was going to go with the other guy WIFI controller, then Rachio came out with 2nd Gen. Now this is great. Highly recommended.
What I don't understand is the lack of pictures from Rachio. Why don't they take more pictures and show them in details on the site? I was wondering how do these work. Why can't they take a picture that shows the plug in there? Rachio! Have you seen Apple website about their products? A good idea to copy them, don't you think? '.
Anyways, love my Rachio 2nd Gen and this enclosure.
I purchased this to replace an existing RainBird unit I was not overly thrilled with. While it was programmable, it was no very good at sensing when it was going to rain and kill the scheduled watering. After the install, which took less than an hour to remove and replace existing unit, I setup the schedules. Overnight it was supposed to water and I was impressed by how it ran. I picked the smart cycle watering and it worked as advertised. It split the watering times into two separate smaller watering to reduce the amount of runoff. I love the fact that I can pick a single zone and set that up to run the sprinklers as well and I was unable to do this on my old Rainbird.
ONLY issue is that it does not work with Apple Homekit yet.
Initial review covering install/setup:
I have a Hunter system with 5 zones, 4-5 heads per zone. It took me 5-10 minutes to analyze the wiring on the Hunter Pro-C unit to figure out what goes where. I also have a Hunter Rain sensor installed. The zone wiring (1-5) was straightforward. I had a single "Com" wire, and then misc other wires for power, the rain sensor and some sort of wired port that the irrigation company must plug into. The Hunter power wires were no longer relevant as were the 3 wires for the random port...so that left power and sensor wires for the rain sensor. Figuring that out, and hooking up the Rachio unit was maybe 15 minutes. Setting up the app / zones / etc was a breeze. Setup is done per zone where you can name the zone and even take a photo. Data like soil type, grass type, what sort of shrubs there are, sprinkler type, amount of sun and slope are all collected. A quick test is done for each zone to make sure everything is connected properly. You also input your address and choose whether to use their weather network, or a specific weather station (eg an Acurite or similar station you might have, or one local from WeatherUnderground). There are 3 types of schedules you can create, and the system accounts for rain / wind / temp as part of the schedule. The whole process took 30 min or less. There are also a number of integrations with Alexa, Google, Nest, etc. So far, so good. Now it's time to see how smart this thing is...will post another review after we're through August, which is typically our hottest summer month.
One month after purchasing and I like it a lot. Between the weather intelligence, zone skips, ease of zone testing, this device should pay for itself while having complete control of your irrigation.
Feature Product
- Save money and water! See up to 30-50% savings on your monthly water bill!
- Avoid watering in the rain. Exclusive weather intelligence plus automatically skips unnecessary watering with features like rain skip, wind skip, freeze skip, and more.
- Control from anywhere with the easy-to-use app. Run sprinklers, view upcoming schedules, and observe your estimated outdoor water usage.
- Experience fast DIY installation. Rachio Smart sprinkler controllers replace 99% of existing sprinkler controllers. Install in 30 minutes or less with no special tools needed. Our in-app installation tutorial helps you get online and watering in no time!
- Deliver all the water your plants need; no more, No less. Rachio creates tailored Smart schedules based on the specific needs of your lawn, including plant type, soil type, sun exposure, and more.
- Enjoy Rachio with all major Smart home platforms. Compatible with Alexa, Google Assistant, apple HomeKit️, nest, and more!
- Save even more with local rebates. As a WaterSense labeled product, Rachio Smart sprinkler controller may be eligible for rebates up to the cost of The controller.
Description
The Rachio 3 Smart Sprinkler Controller raises the smart watering bar with foolproof installation, dual-band Wi-Fi and an expressive light bar. Rachio 3 is the only controller equipped with hyperlocal Weather Intelligence™ Plus and Rachio Wireless Flow Meter compatibility. The Rachio 3 Smart Sprinkler Controller automatically creates watering schedules that lower your water bill and ensure a beautiful yard, while the mobile app lets you manage your sprinkler system from anywhere. Rachio partners with the top smart-home platforms including Amazon Alexa, the Google Assistant, Nest, IFTTT – making it the most connected controller on the market. Easy-press connectors make wiring a snap. Connect with both 14 & 18 gauge wires. Magnetic cover locks right into place. Compatible with master valve, pump relay, or indexing valve
Worth the money. Easy to install and operate.
Easy to install. Follow the instructions with WiFi setup and there is no issue. I recommend.
This thing is awesome. We are coming from the dumb Rainbird system, I say 'dumb' because it was clunky and wasn't even capable of using the wifi module. We had to upgrade the rainbird controller then buy an additional wifi module.
So glad I looked outside the Rainbird brand. I got this thing hooked up in 10 minutes. Wifi over the app, no problems.
We have an interior installation, which makes things easier (See my photos) but I didn't bother tacking down all the wires to make it look nice. In my photos you'll see we have a rain sensor hooked up also... Speaking of this we have a weather station less than 1/2 mile away, when you are that hyper local, I don't see why you even need it. So that's a potential money saver there if you are thinking about buying the sensor and live near a weather station.
The app is very good, we also use nest products and it's just like hooking up and scheduling thermostats. Very similar experience.
Overall I'm very happy, small form factor, smart, and intuitive app and easy installation.
Hard to beat this...
Side note: right now I'm running an everyday schedule which lasts in all 8 zones for 50 minutes, that's my nightly. Then I have the front 3 zones on secondary schedule for 20 minutes as I put down new seed and topsoil and I want to keep those seedlings moist.
Adding the secondary schedule in the app was a bit less intuitive, but just took me an extra minute to figure it out.
This was easily installed and set up. I did have some glitches the first day but after restarting my router (twice) everything has worked perfectly. My router reacts this way to every new member of the family. If you are having problems, try turning your router off and on again. My grass (and weeds) are looking greener already. I bought this to help keep the soil moist when we reseed in the fall. I felt that the chances of me consistently running up and down the stairs multiple times a day to manually turn on the water were slim. There is a page on their website explaining how to set the schedule for that. I was also able to get a WaterSense rebate for half of the purchase price (before tax). I also love that I will be able to easily test and adjust the sprinklers in spring without having to go up and down the stairs.
Seems to be a great product so far no issues at all
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