Rachio WiFi Smart Lawn Sprinkler Controller

 

Rachio WiFi Smart Lawn Sprinkler Controller, Works with Alexa, 8-Zone (2nd Generation) (8ZULW-B)

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Brand

Rachio

Item Dimensions LxWxH

9.25 x 1.5 x 5.5 inches

Material

Plastic

Item Weight

2.5 Pounds

Product Dimensions

9.25"L x 1.5"W x 5.5"H

About this item

• 5-STAR RATINGS. Amazon’s most- and highest-rated Wi-Fi sprinkler controller.

• Avoid watering in the rain. Exclusive weather intelligence 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.

• Power source type: Corded Electric. No Hub Required for Voice Control.

• Take the guesswork out of watering with a Rachio Smart Sprinkler Controller. The easy-to-use mobile app lets you manage your sprinklers without running back and forth to the controller, while automatic weather adjustments mean no more watering in the rain. Get peace of mind - Rachio knows just how much water your yard needs. Control your sprinklers using a smartphone or with category-leading smart home integrations, including Amazon Alexa and more. Master Valve-Compatible with master valve, pump relay, or indexing valve. Wi-Fi Connection - Wi-Fi (2.4GHz) required. Supports dedicated 2.4GHz and dual-band networks. Cannot operate on 5 GHz only networks. Sensors Rain Sensor - Wired & Wireless Normally Closed (NC) sensors, Soil Sensor - Wired & Wireless Normally Closed (NC) sensors, Wired Flow Sensors 

REVIEWS

I chose this controller based on the many positive reviews and I am not disappointed. This is a fantastic controller. Although the quick start guide was bare bones, their website has an incredible wealth of information on installation, setup and use of the controller. I have 24 zones, so I had to buy an 8 zone and a 16 zone. Jump to the bottom of my review for some limitations, then pluses you should consider.

My Situation

My only problems installing were caused by the fact that my old controller was installed way out on the other side of my property and Rachio controllers, being Wi-Fi, need to be close to your router to get a strong signal. That meant we had to re-route our wires from the back yard to the house. Unfortunately, the 5 wires ran along a cement border around my massive clump of bamboo and over the years the bamboo had grown over the wires and they could not be removed. They had to be cut, which meant we lost all possibility of knowing which individual wire out of 35 (being 18-7 wire) went with what valve. I did know which valves were in each of my 6 valve boxes, which made it easier. It was actually pretty straight-forward to figure it out. We just picked 3 cables and wired 1 to the 8 station and 2 to the 16 station controller. Then I went outside and just used the remote mode to manually run each station and wrote down what physical zone it watered (or not, since there are 11 wires not used) then I just labelled each of those wires as to what order I wanted them to finally be in. After that we took out the 2 bundles from the 16 station and wired in the remaining 2 bundles and repeated the process. I was really lucky that my back yard has 8 zones and the front yard has 16 zones, because you can't split a bundle between controllers. It is nice that there are 2 common connectors for each set of 8 connectors.

Limitations

1. The Rachio needs to be close enough to get a strong signal from your router. I didn't play around with this. I just had my helper drill through my house wall into my living room where my router is and install them behind the window drapes, right next to an outlet.

2. The transformer to step down the voltage to 12v is separate and plugs directly into an outlet. The cord is 6 feet long.

3. There are only two sizes for this controller, 8- and 16-zones. The work-around for this is that it is easy to access multiple controllers from the app on your phone.

4. You can't split your bundles of wire between controllers without using a "relay" due to the common wire needing to be split between the controllers. That seems like it might be a problem for those who have more than 24 zones or lots of cables with few wires being used in each. For that, you should splice some of those together so that you have an 18-7 wire all connected to 6 of your zones and then connect that to one of your controllers.

5. The Rachio is designed to be a "smart" controller. It allows you to describe each zone as to slope, soil type, sun exposure, type of plants, type of head, etc. The limitation here is that they have a limited number of soil types and irrigation heads. I water some zones that only have pots. There is no setting for that. I have several zones where I replaced the top 6-8 inches of clayey soil with high-quality soil mixes. There is no setting for that. The part where you describe your nozzles does not include drip and has a bunch of nozzles to choose from that may or may not actually represent any of your actual nozzles so you might need to add custom nozzles. To do that, you need to know your PSI and use the specifications for your nozzles or whatever it is you are using to calculate your inches/hour.

I decided to use my Rachio as a "dumb" controller and just water based upon the number of minutes I want each zone to water and on what days. This is not a serious limitation, since I hadn't really wanted to give up my control anyway.

Pluses

You can set it to not water when it is raining and it uses GPS to decide, based upon the weather for your location. You can also add a rain sensor for more accurate info on rain. There are other sensors you can add for soil condition, etc.

You can set it to water 1/2 of the amount for each station, then run again with the other half to reduce any runoff.

The great thing about this controller is that it is Wi-Fi and can be controlled from your phone anywhere your phone has a signal. That means that I can water my plants any time I see it is excessively hot, including being able to only water the zones that are in full sun, or any combination for whatever length of time I want then just start run and I'm done. It also means I NEVER have to run back and forth between my controller and my zones to test the heads again! That is revolutionary!

2.      I have installed the Rachio Gen 2 controller a few months ago and since then I've had an opportunity to discover helpful features and missed opportunities. I have read numerous reviews on this product and decided to purchase through Amazon.ca since there was no retailer available here in Canada. The product was delivered in a timely manner and the price was comparable to other irrigation controllers. Upon receiving the product I was surprise and pleased with the small size of the controller. I ordered the 8 zone model but the size is no different from the 16 zone model. The manuals provided or the ones available for download were fairly helpful. Some of the language and terminology could be changed but basically they were helpful. This model, Rachio Gen 2, has replace a Rainbird Esp-ME (working) and is used for my 4 zone irrigation ( front yard, side yard, back yard and flower gardens). We don't experience the water restrictions that others in warmer clients do however we do have some restrictions occasionally. We are on city water and we pay a flat rate for the water service each year. Water savings is not critical however it is always a concern. It also rains here...a lot.

Since I am a building contractor, installing the Rachio controller in my home was not a problem. The controller looks as though it is hardwired however it is not. A nice clean look is very important to me. I was able to modify the wall which accepts the controller. Installation of the controller was pretty straightforward. Here are a few of the pros and cons:

Pros: The ability to control most aspects of the irrigation through my phone or computer is certainly beneficial. The Rachio Gen 2 controller uses local weather or PWS's for irrigation times. There are a couple of sensor options on the controller as well. (rain, flow) I can also manually water each zone, anytime, anywhere, if I want, thru my phone. I can also change schedules through my phone or computer. This is a very convenient feature for myself and potentially for my clients. I haven't had to use the one 800 number yet and the updates are relatively frequent. The engineers at Rachio seem to be making slight changes to the product with some improvements. So far...so good. (That's encouragement btw)

Cons: since the Rachio product is reliant on local weather stations to preform at its best, availability of good local or personal weather stations in my area is critical. The Rachio app allows you to choose local weather stations however these are limited to a few. My closes pws is 4.5 km away and the reliability is questionable. Having the WU (weather underground) as an option could be benificial to me and to Rachio. Personal weather stations in my area afiliated with the weather underground appear to be more reliant. Rachio does provide a work-a-round to the WU, but you must have a Mac ($1000-$2000). There are other option too but the price just goes up. ( special router, your own PWS $$$).

Power. An option to hardwire the product. I don't want to see the wires.

Start/Stop. I see the option to start irrigation at a specific time within the app but...I don't see the option to stop irrigation at a specific time. I need to stop at 9am. C'mon!

Generally the Rachio Gen 2 product is fairly good. The updates and improvements seem slow in coming but I hold out hope that they will eventually arrive. I'll use the Rachio and watch the updates but I will keep the Rainbird ESP-ME on hand just in case.

Update; April 2017, I've been using the Gen2 Rachio for almost a year now. No glitches at all. Updates are regular and the controller preformed as advertised. Other irrigation controllers are late to the table (smart features) or too bulky. I would give this controller 4 1/2 to 5 stars (ability to hardwire and weather station).

So far...very good.