Amazon.com: Customer reviews: RainMachine Touch HD-12, Cloud Independent Smart Wi-Fi Irrigation Controller, Compatible with Alexa, 12 Zones

I think I finally found a smart irragation controller I like... only one little issue to resolve

Reviewed in the United States on July 12, 2015

I received the RainMachine HD-12 today from Amazon. I've had several controller in the past... I started originally with a stock Rain Bird unit that was installed with my system. I immediately knew that it was not going to do the job, so a couple years back I moved to OpenSprinkler, a controller I built from a kit. This unit served me well, but the one feature I really wanted was the weather integration, which by the time it was available on OpenSprinkler my hardware was obsolete, which meant I was going have to upgrade hardware to take advantage of it. Since an upgrade was inevitable, I decided to take a look at what else was on the market. For better or worse (worse as it turned out) I decide to go with a Blossom controller. Blossom is fairly new to the market and I though they had a solid product. As it turned out, the hardware was great, but the software was riddled with issues. I sold the Blossom and today, after much research, I received the RainMachine HD-12. What drew me to this unit was the long track record, the open API, weather integration, the fact the unit could be totally controlled from the unit's touch screen (important if you have folks come to maintain your system) and most importantly the unit does not rely on a cloud service to run. If you are reading this review and trying to decide on a controller, in my opinion, this one single point should weigh heavy in your decision. If there is a problem with the service, the internet or the company just plain goes out of business-- where does that leave you? It leaves you with not so smart of a controller.

So, if I love the RainMachine so much way only four stars you may ask. Well, my brand new controller arrived with a defective zone. One of the 12 zones will not activate. I know that things are going to happen, so I'm not so concerned about this one issue. What is more important to me is how a company stands behind their products-- I think that says a lot. I have sent an email to their support and I'm waiting to see how they handle my problem. From everything I've read in other reviews about Green Electronics I have no reason to believe that I will get anything less then stealer service. Once I know more I will update my review.

UPDATE: I was contacted by support within a couple hours and they informed me that I needed to do a firmware upgrade to fix my issue. The upgrade was a simple process that I completed from the Rainmachine app on my phone and only took a few minutes. After the upgrade my issue was resolved. I'm impressed with the quick response from support and my HD-12 is working great now. I'll update my review again once I've used the HD-12 for a while.

UPDATE (9-25-16):
I've been using the Rain Machine for a while now and it still works as well as the day I purchased, no issues. Green Electronics has update the firmware a few times and has added additional features. One I really like is the ability to choose other weather data providers, such as Weather Underground. Weather Underground is a whole weather eco system on it's own, which allows me to get weather data from other user's stations, one as close as a mile from my home. If you pick multiple providers then it averages the data from all your choices. Using weather data to help control the amount of water I'm using has saved me 80% over a conventinal "set and forget" stock controller... and that is a good return on my investment.

322 people found this helpful

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Intelligentsia

It destroyed my lawn. Completely bogus forecasts. Had to disable it.

Reviewed in the United States on June 17, 2014

Verified Purchase

***UPDATE***
I have had to disable the forecasting feature. My lawn turned brown, many of my garden plants died. Worst fruit harvest in years.

The forecasting feature that decides how much to water is just plain wrong. We can go for two week stretches of dry hot weather and the Rain machine suggests watering 41% or even 0% of normal. It just makes highly destructive, incorrect decisions. When a day has a 30% chance of participation the Rain Machine will often decide not to water.

The owner/support person is nice enough, and he has explained all of his complicated calculations. But no matter how complicated they may be, they are blatantly incorrect. Something must be in error because we can go a week or two with no rain and scorching hot heat and yet the Rain Machine will cut back to minimal (or no) watering.

I have had to disable the forecasting feature, reducing the device to a $75 timer.

I cannot in Amy way recommend this product. It has been terrible for my gardens.
-----
***ORIGINAL REVIEW***

RainMachine is recommending 0% watering times for the next week. My lawn is turning brown and the flowers are withering. It is making completely stupid decisions.

It doesn't matter how many minutes I have programmed the zones is Rain Machine decides to do 0% watering.

Afternoons are warm and dry. It hasn't rained in many days. Temperatures are in the high 60s in Seattle. The lawn is crisp. The flower gardens are parched. Yet, Rain Machine won't allow any watering, insisting that 0% is the correct amount.

There is no want to "mandate" a minimum watering percentage, just to ensure that the gardens get something.

I simply can't understand why it things 0% watering for the next week is a good choice. It's nonsensical and will ruin my gardens.

Really terrible at the moment!

20 people found this helpful

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indub

A sprinkler system controller that finally greets the new age

Reviewed in the United States on May 9, 2014

Verified Purchase

I bought the RainMachine to replace my old Hardie RainDial RD-1200, which was watering the lawn when it was supposed to be off due to a faulty dial and buttons. I also like to be able to manage my devices remotely if I need to so that was a great selling point of the RainMachine for me. My review thus far is based off of limited use of the RainMachine, just something to keep in mind. I'll update my review as time goes on.

Pros:
- Simple to setup
- Organizes your zones and programs in an easy to use manner
- Ability to block watering on certain months and under certain temperatures
- Ability to add cycle & soak times to your programmed watering schedules. The cycle portion allows you to split the total watering time per zone and the soak time is the time between the cycle. For example, set zone 1 to water for 20 minutes then set the cycle to 2 and the soak to 20 minutes. Zone 1 will then water for 10 minutes, then allow that water to soak into the soil for 20 minutes, then Zone 1 will finish off the last 10 minutes. Basically, the cycle portion just divides the total watering time for the zones in that specific program. You can have unlimited programs setup all with their own unique cycle & soak times, if desired.
- There's also a station delay function that will delay watering between zones.
- Ability to remotely manage your RainMachine if you're away from the house. Port forwarding is simple.
- Ability to update its firmware. I'm not sure how often updates are provided and what, if any, features will be added but the possibilities are there.
- Ability to use NOAA weather data for your location and adjust your watering accordingly. Also has a feature to water extra on hot dry days.

Cons:
- The device can delay if you press to quickly so you have to go through the setup patiently. I recommend getting the basics done first on the device, i.e. device name, location, wifi and port forwarding if desired, and then use the mobile app to setup your zones and programs. Firmware updates may fix this issue.
- The app is basic, not really a con because it does work but it could be better - see 'My Wishlist for this product below'.

Conclusion:
If you're looking to replace your sprinkler controller, consider this, most controllers don't have the added features of the RainMachine yet are almost the same price. I think you get a lot more for your money with the RainMachine.

My Wish List:
- Email notification options
- Ability to add a digital rain gauge, weather sensor or ground moisture sensor, then adjust watering amounts based on that instead of only the NOAA data, if desired.
- Have a "Winter Mode" with passcode lock to ensure you don't mistakenly run your system in the wrong season. That is, if you plan on leaving the controller powered on while watering is out of season.
- Create a zone map tab for the iOS app. Ability to google map view your yard to place sprinkler zones so you can just tap on a zone to run a zone quickly. Could also provide an overlay to the map for status updates, like the last run time per zone or current watering status, etc.

3 people found this helpful

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GA

Horrible support. Update broke my controller. When it works, it's good

Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2017

Verified Purchase

I've had my controller for about 2 years. It's had bugs along the way about reporting usage, not displaying on iPhone correctly, locking up, etc. Over time they have released new firmware that fixed most of the issues. However, a couple weeks ago the newest firmware/software update made my device inoperable. After calling tech support, I had to hard reset my controller, and it lost all my programs and zone information. In addition I could not get it to take my address, so the smart water feature will not work (i.e. it turns on even if it's raining). I've talked to tech support a number of times, but they have no solution. At one point they promised to send a new unit if this solution does not work. They have never fulfilled that promise.

I am every disappointed in the lever of customer support and care they have give me. They broke my device and have not been able to fix it for weeks. This is unacceptable.

**Update***
Within hours of posting this review, customer support sent me this email:
> Jun 30, 00:19 MST
>
>
> Hi, George
> We are very sorry about your experience with our support and sorry that made you rate us low on Amazon.
> We do care about your satisfaction using our products.
> Please give us your complete address where the replacement unit should be sent and we should take care of the rest.
>
> Accept our sincere apologies, George
> We will fix this.
>
> Thank you for your patience and understanding.
> RainMachine Support

They then called me this morning to get my invoice. He then tells me the unit is out of warranty. I expressed that their firmware update broke it, so they need to fix it or replace it. He asked if they replace, would I change my 1 star review. I told him that was irrelevant. It is sad the company is not worried about doing the right thing, but only about a star rating. They don't seem understand, if you do the right thing, the reviews will follow.

I'm unclear what they will do. But will update the review accordingly.

Update

They did honor their email and send a replacement unit which seems to functioning again. I hope this is the end of problems.
I am not updating the star rating since they would not do anything until I posted this review.

8 people found this helpful

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kparrent

Highly recommend! Great interface, app, and web capabilities. Functional and flexible!

Reviewed in the United States on July 29, 2017

Verified Purchase

I'm so glad I spent the extra money on this unit. I had a professional design done for my house by one of the major sprinkler companies, and they of course recommended one of their units. In my research, I found that almost all of the irrigation controllers out there today look like they are made to be survive an airplane crash. The displays are all black and white and you interact with giant knobs and buttons. Nobody wants one of those!

This controller intrigued me because of the smart functionality. Unfortunately my area did not have any Water Sense incentives, but yours may and it is worth looking into. The cool thing about this is that you aren't relying on an external rain sensor to detect/measure the amount of rain and choose to water or not. This actually interacts with national weather databases based on your specific address to determine how much it rained. It doesn't just skip watering then, it takes that amount of reported rain and calculates how much your lawn still needs watering! It may not water at all, it may cut the cycle to 80% of the scheduled, etc. I'm very impressed. It also works with a master valve which, if you are installing or planning a new system, I highly recommend.

The screen is great and very easy to use, but honestly I use the android app most which is very well done. The PC browser is also just as easy. Why go out in my hot garage if I don't have to? I like to view the watering history. It tracks when each program run, tells you how much time you had it scheduled to run, and how much time it actually ran. The actual run time can change for at least two reasons - rain and really hot days. If you have the feature enabled, on scorching days it will over water to a certain degree to compensate for the temperature.

Scheduling is intuitive and extremely flexible. I currently have two programs but you could have many more. One program kicks on at 120 minutes before sunrise (which will change throughout the year automatically) and runs every 3 days. This runs most of the zones in my yard, but then I have another zone setup for areas of my yard which are lower and tend to hold water to run every 4 days. I could have just as easily picked days out of the week to always run each of them, but I like the watering consistently spaced.

What is important is that I do believe this unit saves a significant amount of water over the traditional clunky units. It will in the long term pay for itself.

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Pierre LeBear

Excellent, easy to use and saves water

Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2017

Verified Purchase

This is an EXCELLENT weather aware sprinkler controller. It was super easy to install in my garage where the old one was. It is not recommended for outdoor installation, I got this one instead of its less expensive cousin since I wanted screw terminals that would make a positive connection with the fairly thick wires I have. I also wanted a controller I could set from the front panel.

The software is very nicely done on this controller. It is super easy to connect to WIFI, and allows you to work with it locally, or remotely over a web connection. The data is local to your system, not requiring a cloud connection. The programs are easy to set up. You can name your programs. There are some options to tune your watering. The best effect is achieved if you let the weather from NOAH adjust your sprinkler down from 100% (which is the amount you would need on a hot summer day). It adjusts based on predicted temperatures and rainfall, and then goes back to actuals to make further adjustments. It's a pretty sophisticated algorithm...

The whole project started when I discovered some major leaks in my system that were costing a lot of water in our semi arid climate. Beyond fixing the leaks I wanted to use a water saving The notion of watering is to balance the humidity that is lost through evapotranspiration. I had to check with a friend who is a professor emeritus of irrigation to understand what we're really trying to do. That is: take account of the amount of water that is evaporating, plus the water that a plant transpires through its leaves. That is why temperature is as important as rainfall to tune your watering.

When you set it up, you also have the option to tell it how much water each circuit is using in gallons per minute and the area represented by the circuit. Unfortunately, they only use this information to tell you later how much water you saved. I'd rather have them use this information to determine how long the circuit should run. I'd like to see a future update to improve on this. They use some other parameters like the kind of heads you have etc. to estimate how long it should run. There is a wide variety of sprinkler heads in the industry, so I think this is not so great an assumption. In reality, you will probably want to make measurements on your lawn with some tin cans to see how much water the grass is actually getting and then adjusting from there. You can be as nerdy as you want, or make it as easy as possible. I measured the gallons per minute to each circuit from the water meter.

Generally, the software was a pleasure to use, since the user interface was so well thought out. One added bonus: you can walk up to your sprinklers to adjust them and just turn them on and off with your phone. That saves a lot of time and effort when draining the system or adjusting it.

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AR

The Ultimate Sprinkler Controller System: The RainMachine.

Reviewed in the United States on May 26, 2018

Verified Purchase

Rain Machine or Smart Machine? I guess the name needs to be associated with rain, water, etc. This is a Smart Sprinkler System Controller. It has all kind of features. One of then, and always thought about is the following: If it is too windy, don't do any watering. The wind will blow away half of the water. No sure how efficient is that feature with this controller. Also I like the feature that I can have my own weather system, and feed the data to this controller, and this will reflect 100% accuracy how is the weather in my backyard.

In my opinion, all weather reporting systems(like NOAA) is that they used sensors installed no really close to your house. So the weather will be very different in my house at 2800 feet compare to 2300 feet where the sensor is installed. Any way, I got it yesterday, installed it, tested it,
it works!

Weather Underground is a little different, still I find differences how is the weather in my backyard and the closes sensor they are using to report weather.

Here are some pictures how I installed it. Now, this is not my idea, I got this idea from another reviewer here on Amazon. Why I did this? Just look some of the wires, very thick wires. These wires will break the connectors of the RainMachine.

Here is one thing that I dont like about the RainMachine: The Mickey Mouse thing for the WiFi. The pictures these guys(RainMachine guys) posted, the WiFi adapter thing is white, so chances are you will not pay attention until you get the controller. When I saw that I thought: what the heck is this thing? Well they mickey mouse the controller to make it WiFi compatible.

UPDATE 06/06/18
The Rainmachine has been working without a glitch. The feature that I like the most is the: Weather-Adaptive Watering. It adjust itself accordingly to the weather conditions. Too hot? It increases the watering time. Too cold? It decreases the watering time.

I changed the power transformer, I did not like the cheap transformer included with the rainmacine. During the installation using this Orbit box: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000VYGMF2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I found that the transformer puts out 31 volts! The reainmachine is supposed to be designed for 24 volts, so I ordered this transformer: which is also class-II : https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004VMVDTA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Now this transformer is 24 volts(actually 26 which is only 2 volts above the 24, but not 7 volts like the black transformer included with the rainmachine), and has more current, 1.6A to be precise, the transformer included with the rainmachine is only 0.75 A Having more available current will not hurt the rainmachine, having more volts will fry the rainmachine. The new transformer has an LED that indicate that the power is present.

UPDATE 01/18/19:
Rain Machine Rain Machine, save water save money! I just love the Rain Machine. Because is easier to control it (turn OFF, turn ON)due to the fact that is WiFi, definitely I saved water, therefore I saved money. I just paid my water bill, it was about 15 Dollars less compare to previous years!

Mine is installed in the garage, during this time the garage gets cold, during summer time it gets very hot, of course we dont like to go to the garage when is too cold or too hot. Just grab the iPhone and control the Rain Machine, and from anywhere around the world. How nice is that!

4 people found this helpful

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3/4 Time

Easy as pie... even for a home repair moron like me!

Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2016

Verified Purchase

Let me just start with a totally honest confession... I know NOTHING about home repairs. Literally. Nothing. Whenever I have attempted to tackle a home project on my own, my wife begins pacing nervously, and usually slips off into the back room to secretly call one of my friends and ask them to "drop by" as soon as possible so they can "just happen" to be there to lend a hand and keep from electrocuting myself or blowing the house up. And who could blame her? We all remember the bathtub repair incident... the day I decided to buy a DIY fiberglass repair kit and mend the crack in the tub. I became delightfully intoxicated from the fumes of that liquid glue, and I ended up putting so many layers of fiberglass over the crack that afterwards, when you stood in the shower, you actually LEANED at an angle. Who could forget that?!

But I am not a quitter. No sir. I am undeterred by obstacles or failures. After all, it was one of my heroes, Winston Churchill who said, "Never, ever, ever, ever give up!" Right on Winnie ol' boy! So naturally I ordered myself the RainMachine Touch HD-12 WiFi Irrigation System and began installing it all by my brilliant self. My wife began pacing. I knew it wouldn't be long before one of my friends "just happened" to be passing by our house and decided to drop in for a spot of tea. But something strange happened this time. It's hard to explain. It defies logic, really. Within just minutes after opening the RainMachine box, it was somehow magically mounted to the wall, wires connected, lights blinking... and it was working! The house didn't burn down. EMS wasn't called. I didn't feel the awakening jolt of 220 pulsing through my body. It was truly a miracle! Granted, every time I tap the touchscreen on the HD-12, my neighbor's garage door goes up and down... but I'm pretty sure that's just a coincidence.

The reason I'm sharing my experience with you is, well heck, it's to brag to the whole world about what I just accomplished! Uh-hem. Actually, it's to give everyone out there the confidence of knowing that if "I" can install this thing in just a matter of minutes, YOU can too. Seriously, you can. When I popped the cover off our old sprinkler control box and saw that ugly mess of colored wires, I was afraid that I was in over my head once again. But all I did was write down the color of each wire and the valve number it was connected to, then I reconnected those same colors to the same valve numbers in the HD-12, and bada-bing! It was showtime! (I realized later that I totally forgot to UNPLUG the old controller from the power outlet before I started fiddling with the wires, but apparently I either just got lucky, or these particular wires don't shock you. But I'd suggest you unplug yours first and don't tempt fate.

As soon as the HD-12 is plugged in, it begins stepping you through the configuration process. It only takes a few minutes, and it's easy as pie. Then I downloaded the RainMachine app to my iPhone, retired to my air-conditioned office upstairs, leaned back in my luxurious leather chair, and set up all my zones and schedules from there. It couldn't have been easier! The app is beautifully designed and remarkably intuitive to navigate. (I'm a software developer, so I do know what I'm talking about here.) Really, the app is gorgeous. They've chosen the perfect colors to represent Active, Paused, Stopped watering, etc. It's completely self explanatory.

So here's my summary of pro's and con's for this device:

PRO'S
- Surprisingly easy to install, even for the DIY-challenged, like me.
- Quick system setup.
- Instant WiFi connection.
- Beautiful, informative, intuitive phone app.
- Historical watering data provided.
- System can also be accessed via the Internet.

CON'S
- During initial setup from the device screen, some of the text is extremely small and hard to read. Not everyone has 20/20 vision, you know.
- This is the only electronic product I've ever purchased in my entire life where the other end of the wall plug cord (the end that connects to the HD-12) is just two bare wires sticking out! You have to insert these into little slots and screw them down in the same way you connect all the valve wires. Why not just put a normal slide-in connector tip on there like laptop battery cables and other devices have? This made no sense to me, but then again, I'm not really the guy to ask about wiring issues.
- The app always opens up to the DEVICE screen and makes you choose which HD-12 device you want to control. (Seriously, how many people actually have more than ONE of these?) This is a totally pointless step. It would be a much better user experience if they would add an option in Settings that allowed us to choose which screen we wanted to see first when we open the app. I can't imagine any homeowner in the world actually WANTING to see this screen!
- Although the HD-12 does connect to live weather, I wish they would also allow us to connect a rain sensor. This would make it TRULY local weather! Right now, the local weather it goes by might not show rain at MY house when it's time for a schedule watering, even though it may well be raining at my house at that moment. With the ability to add a rain sensor, it would provide pretty much fool-proof accuracy.
- We shouldn't have to go into Settings to see our Watering History. (Watering History is NOT a Setting!) This really should be another section on the Dashboard screen that we can tap on to see more detailed info. One of the main things we want to see when we quickly pop into this app is, "What have the watering patterns looked like over the past week/month?"

The bottom line is, I'm thrilled with my purchase, and only wish I'd bought it sooner! The ability to check on my system from anywhere and make whatever schedule changes I want to from my phone is extremely helpful. If you're on the fence about buying this... DO IT! You'll be so glad you did!

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J. Young

Looks impressive, software is flaky,

Reviewed in the United States on April 4, 2016

Verified Purchase

UPDATE 4/7/16
Some things I learned tinkering around.
Number 1, when you call product support, if they can't answer your question you will be asked for your email address and then a Zendesk ticket will be created. You'll get an email requiring you to register in order to follow along with the case.

Number 2, if you want to SSH into the unit, just checking the SSL checkbox and clicking change isn't the whole process. If you just try to SSH into it at this point you'll get an error. You'll want to make sure you installed or have the executables for PuTTY, PuTTYGen and Pageant. First, run PuTTYGen and create a public and private key. Save these two files out somewhere safe and copy the full string in the "Public key for pasting into OpenSSH authorized_keys file". Maybe park this in another file named SSH-RSA.txt. Then open Pageant and in the tray, right click and select "add key". Browse to your private key file and add it. Then, browse to your RainMachine at https://<ipAddress:8080/api/4. In the first box beneath POST auth/login enter your RainMachine password you assigned when you went through the setup wizard on day one. Then click POST auth/login. You should get a popup window with an access_token: and a hash code. Close that window and scroll down to the bottom and find the box for RSA SSH Key string. Take the string you copied from PuTTYGen and paste the ENTIRE string in there beginning with ssh-rsa and ending with rsa-key-some random numbers. All of that, then click the link above the box POST dev/import/sshkey (SPK3 only). NOW, yes, you can launch PuTTY and SSH into the unit. When it asks for your username give it root, no password. Bingo-bango, you're in with root privileges. So glad they published that process nowhere.

Number 3, the NOAA, MetNo and PWS parsers (the three I use) all are hard-coded to check in at six hour intervals. That's no bueno. You can verify this by browsing to https://<ipAddress>:8080/api/4/diag/log and reviewing the boot process. You'll see the parsers show the interval 21600 - as in seconds between check-ins. Look for the line like "*** Registering parser NOAA Parser with interval 21600". They didn't expose a way you to easily edit these but it is possible. SSH back in and change to /rainmachine-app/RMParserFramework/parsers/. 'ls' the directory and you will see Python files for each parser. The only editor they bundled is vi - so have fun with this. You want the .py files. Leave the .pyc files alone. Copy the original file so you have a backup, then in vi edit the parser file for your selected service. You'll see in the NOAA file they set it to 6 * 3600 for six hours. In others they specified 21600 seconds. Either way works as evidenced in the log file you read earlier. Make the change, save the file and reboot the RainMachine. I have mine set to update every 30 minutes.

Number 4, my unit is running Android 4.3 (JellyBean) using API version 18.

Number 5, I cannot find a way to force the display backlight to stay on permanently. Product support stated it cannot be done but that several requests have been made fro this feature. We'll see what happens.

Number 6, If you enable SSH and click change in the web UI, the next time you load the page it will be unchecked. You'll come to rely on just trying to SSH into it to see if it's on or not.

Number 7, if you set up remote access then you can access the unit at my.rainmachine.com. If you want direct local access (and you do, don't you?) then you can't just browse to the unit. There are two ports depending on http or https, and neither are default. To browse in http then use http://<ipAddress>:18080. For https use https://<ipAddress>:8080. But both of these take you to the API web UI. Fun but not the UI you probably want. To get to the same UI as remote access provides you need to use the same URI's as previously stated but put a /ui at the end (ex: https://<ipAddress>:8080/ui)

ORIGINAL REVIEW
I don't know. It's a little frustrating. Mounting it was a breeze. The template gives you drill marks so it's a no-brainer. I ran the wires in-wall so it's cleaner looking so that added some complexity regarding where to drill for the wires to poke out but I got it. The initial setup is simple - just a Q&A session. No issues joining WiFi or finding my location. Identified my zones and labeled them. So far, so good.

I loaded the app on my iPhone and iPad and both linked up with no issues. Then I logged in with Chrome from my PC. It seemed easier to do it this way BUT, I found out then that something is up - Zone 1 when programmed this way shows up as Zone 2 in the iOS app. So I ended up programming it all through the app. Using IE worked ok but Edge would save my settings and not show them. Very strange. Even Ctl-F5 wouldn't refresh the data. Opening in another browser would show the new values. Soooo... I would recommend sticking to the app for programming and browser for reviewing. The programming is rather flexible and I really like the ability to split up run times with interval watering so a 45 minute run can be split up into multiple intervals with a custom delay between the intervals. They call this cycle and soak. It works pretty well.

I live in Phoenix and I question a little about the setup suggestion of setting the zone runtime to be for a typical summer day. When I do that, it reduces the runtime as expected for spring time; however, it still seems to be too much water. I would watch your soil wetness for the first few runs as I now have soggy areas because it didn't reduce the water duty as low as it should have. So it needs to be babied for the initial setup period.

$259 is a lot of money. I kinda wish I could have bought the Rachio Iro Gen2 to compare - and I still might! Other than that I really like it.

14 people found this helpful

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S. Deb

Great sprinkler controller, except the first one died on the same day!

Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2014

Verified Purchase

Oh - I wanted it to work so bad! Am tired of rain-sensors that do not work, and this unit will calculate the watering needs based on temperature, precipitation and forecast -- great idea - right? What could go wrong, you ask?

Got it yesterday, took me 30 mins to move the wires from my existing RainDial unit to this one, and turn this on! Slow touchscreen and webpage, but bearable! Set it up with Wifi, home address etc. and with three programs for my 7 zones.

30 minutes later, tried connecting to the unit over WiFi again -- but this time -- no response! Tried turning on the screen -- it is dead. Unplugged the power supply, and plugged it back in -- still dead! Measured input voltage - 28V AC -- so, transformer is fine; it is the electronics inside the unit that is fried! Unplugged all wires, let it sit around for hours, and plug in just the power --- still dead! Tried the reset button multiple time -- dead as a brick!

It is installed in my heated basement and all my zone valves function normally wand continue to do so with my trusty RainDial. It is not like we had rain or thunderstorm -- so, this is the most gentle operating condition, and yet it died! So, this is very fragile electronics, and people are going to use it under much more harsher operating conditions (in the garage, or outdoors). I doubt if this will last too long for the others who have given it 4 or 5 stars, but time will tell! Did I mention, there is no ground wire -- my trusty RainDial has one! Bottom line, it is too delicate for the stated purpose, and I am glad it died now, rather than a year later.

BTW, do not expect free returns on defective products -- you get to pay $20 to ship it back all the way to California!! Still - better to lose $20 now, than $250 a year later when it is out of warranty!

What a disappointment!

*** Update May 8,2014 ***
Shortly after sending back my product, got email from Green Electronics offering to refund my shipping charges and send me a free one! Wow - awesome service! Upgrading to two stars for the generous gesture!

Makes me think it was just my bad luck, otherwise they will go broke offering free products to everyone whose product died! I do not feel good taking freebies; so offered to pay half, in return for an extended warranty! If they do take me up on my offer - I will come back and update this review with my long-term experience with the product!

*** Update July 19, 2014
It's been 6 weeks now, and my replacement has been working great. So, let's say the initial failure was simple bad luck, and rate the product based on its performance - it is real good, but has some room for improvement.

First, the Positives. It takes into account predicted and recent precipitation and evaporation/transpiration to adjust the runtime - it does so real well! First half of June was rainy - and it ran my sprinkler only 10% of the full demand. In the second half, it even scaled run times to up to 120% of normal. If you want a sprinkler that you want to set and forget, there is nothing else like it. If you don't mind the $250 price, it is definitely the smartest sprinkler around.

Now, let's look at areas that could use improvement.
1. I like to water deep, but once or twice a week. This controller seems optimized for daily watering. For example, if I water only on Sundays, and it rained heavily the Thursday before and is going to rain again Wednesday, it would run my Sunday program, whereas my weekly water needs are probably satisfied by the rain.
2. I like each zone to run at least 5 minutes to ensure the Sprinkler head has time to do a full sweep. This one may scale a 10 min runtime down a minute - I think you should be allowed to set a minimum runtime for each zone.
3. Combining 1 and 2, a suggestion to RainMachine folks - instead of adjusting the runtime, can you adjust the number of days per week it runs? For example, in summer - run every day; but in cooler/wetter climate, instead of running for half the time, run on alternate days?
4. I like to have a program that cools the lawn midday during heat waves. Products like EtherRain let you set programs that run only on hot days - RainMachine does not seem to have that capability. They also allow you to program the sprinkler not to run on winter months - whereas for RainMachine, it is based only on temperature. So, if my sprinkler is set to run at 4am, when it could be frosting, while afternoon highs could be 70 - i think he RainMachine may kick in, and in effect damage my lawn. I prefer to set it not to water from October through March - but RainMachine does not allow me to enable/disable programs based on calendar.
5. The app and the browser works fine, but I do not see my watering history/logs in them. RainMachine - could you add that capability please!

So, I updated the rating to 4 stars - as in very good, but not perfect! Let's look at its long term performance and upcoming software updates - it has a real potential to earn my 5 stars! I will update my review again based on how this performs over the next few years.

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