8-zone sprinkler controller

Unlike all of the other models we tested, this RainMachine controller doesnt need to connect to the cloud to function, and it depends on the internet only to receive weather updates, so some owners could choose to use it without its smart features.

The benefits of smart-home devices don't stop at the door. All smart sprinkler controllers rely on estimations of evapotranspiration, or ETthe sum of evaporation and plant water useto figure out when to water your yard and for how long. The Gro Controller by Scotts (formerly Blossom) supports up to eight zones, is simple to set up, and is one of the least expensive options.

In addition, RainMachines app cant automatically create a custom schedule for you, as Rachios app can. A smart sprinkler controller is like a smart thermostat for your garden or yardit controls your watering schedule automatically so you dont have to lift a finger.

An outdoor security camera can alert you to prowlers, package deliveries, and visitors, as well as to animals in your trash and things that go bump in the night. According to experts we spoke with, many weather-based controllers fail to calculate ET effectively and often end up watering when they dont need to. Plaid Systemss second-generation Spruce controller (16 zones) is a solid model with basic on-device controls and a simple setup that automatically creates a smart schedule for you.

Thanks to its straightforward scheduling options using hyperlocal, internet-delivered weather information, the Rachio 3 can figure out on its own when, where, and for how long to water your garden. A smart garage-door opener controller lets you open or close your door remotelysome open it when you arrive home. Compatible with: Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, Google Assistant, IFTTT, Samsung SmartThings.

(Orbit also sells a model that comes with an enclosure, a 12-zone smart controller thats weatherproof and equipped with full on-device controls; that model, however, is also utilitarian in design and unintuitive in its control scheme.). It does alert you when watering is finished, however, and it does indicate any weather-prompted delays.

Alternatively, you can create your own schedules, up to four different schedules for different zones, and have the same weather adjustments apply, including customizable rain, wind-speed, and temperature delays. (You can also dive into the advanced menu and tinker with the Application Rate and Maximum Allowable Depletion settings, if you are so inclined.)

One important thing to know: Many sprinkler controllers arent waterproof, so you need to install them either indoors or in a protected space such as a covered porch or garage, or you need to buy a compatible weatherproof enclosure.

But with this EPA certification, they will be able to qualify for rebates, and hopefully theyll become more affordable as a result. The Touch HD is not weatherproof.

The Rachio 3 is often expensive, usually around $230 for the eight-zone version and $280 for the 16-zone model.

The Orbit B-hyve XR (available in versions for eight or 16 zones) is a slick, higher-end version of our budget pick that can handle larger yards, for less money than our top picks. (Dont worry: If your Wi-Fi goes down, they will continue to operate based on a preprogrammed schedule.) With the Rachio 3, in contrast, you can use either option or choose, for example, to put your veggie-garden and flower-bed zones on a fixed schedule and your lawn on a flexible one.

We installed each device in the covered porch of a 1960s home in Charleston, South Carolina. Smart smoke alarms send alerts to your phone if a fire or carbon monoxide leak occurs. But the app has no notifications at all, and the device doesnt work with wired rain or soil-moisture sensors; its compatible only with its own Whisper sensor, which was unreliable in our testing. If Rachio were to go out of businessas other sprinkler controller companies haveyour device would eventually stop working.

RainMachine also offers a huge range of optional weather services and provides deep, granular control over your irrigation. One feature we like is Adaptive Frequency, which skips a schedule if RainMachines algorithms determine that it needs to water for only a few minutes and then adds those minutes to the next watering. This information comes from the weather-data service the controller uses, so that source is key to getting the best results. For example, one day it told us, Your device is in auto rain delay for 24 hours and Your next watering will be in 12 days. Now thats useful. They found that, compared with regular clocks, most of the smart controllers did a good job of managing the seasonal water requirements of landscapes.

It works by adjusting whatever program you schedule manually based on the forecast, but it offers no smart scheduling, and without a separate rain sensor, it doesnt have a rain delay.

On top of all that, the app doesnt have notifications. Our test yard is not a controlled lab site, and though we enjoy the convenience and features of smart controllers, for a scientific perspective we turned to Guy Fipps and Charles Swanson of the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, who have been testing and researching weather-based irrigation controllers for more than a decade.

Its also the smallest device we tested, able to fit neatly in the palm of a persons hand.

It has some great features other controllers dont offer, such as options to specify the species of plants in your garden and to customize rain delays up to three days before and after rainfall to maximize water savings. The eight-zone Orbit B-hyve Smart Indoor Irrigation Controller represents an inexpensive way to make your irrigation system smarterand because its a WaterSense-certified device, you may also qualify for an EPA rebate. However, Fipps said that if you dont use a smart controller, you need some other method of knowing how much water you should apply to keep your garden healthy. Its worth considering only if you are looking for a cheaper way to integrate your sprinklers into your HomeKit setup than our top picks, and if you dont plan on using its smart scheduling. It adjusts the length of the watering time based on the weather and has a nice app thats fine for simple operation. The Rachio 3 doesnt automatically detect the wiring in the unit; only the Gro Controller and Sprinkl Control models do.

Well test the new models when they are released next year. Wirecutter is the product recommendation service from The New York Times. All of the models we tested are WaterSense certified; similar to the Energy Star program for home appliances, the WaterSense program involves testing products to the EPAs specifications for water efficiency and performance.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $270.

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We found great ones for the backyard and garage. Or it can let you run the show while automatically adjusting to save you water if rain, freezing temperatures, or heavy wind is in the forecast. This controller doesnt alert you as to why its not watering, so you might easily think its broken, and in our tests we had lots of issues with consistent operation.

Only buy if you have or will install a wired, underground irrigation system. Beyond setup, however, the app becomes a bit too simple and unintuitive. The B-hyve XR supports dual-band Wi-Fi, and the app does a good job of walking you through programming each zone with the soil and plant type, the amount of sun and slope, and the number of sprinkler heads.

RainMachine also offers an excellent web interface, which makes managing your device easier.

Compatible with: Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, Google Assistant. We found the HomeKit integration to be the most seamlessif youre in the yard with your iPhone or Apple Watch, a quick Hey Siri, stop watering will shut down your system. Other important features and capabilities: For this update, we retested our three top picks as well as four new models: the Aeon Matrix Yardian Pro, the Netro Spark, the Orbit B-hyve XR, and the Wyze Sprinkler Controller.

However, in our testing its smart watering feature failed to water our yard sufficiently.

After setup, the Rachio 3 offers you two options for watering schedules: You can create a standard time-based schedule or have the unit generate a schedule for you. However, the EPA recently released its specifications for soil-moisture-based irrigation controllers and describes this category as one option to help homeowners and businesses achieve water-efficient irrigation scheduling. One problem with soil-moisture sensors is the expense, especially since you need one for each zone. Also, its relatively inexpensive.

Most smart controllers connect to smart-home systems such as Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, and a few also work with Apple HomeKit, as well as SmartThings and Wink hubs.

The RainMachine Touch HD uses one of the zone terminals as the connection for a master valve, so if you have one, you get only 11 or 15 zones of coverage. If you live in an area that has fairly predictable weather patterns or you have a personal weather station, you can safely choose the Rachio 3e. You can even set different schedules for each of your systems zones. Its WaterSense-certified and equipped with a compatible solar-powered soil-moisture sensor that also records temperature, though we found that component unreliable in testing.

Then, as the weather started to warm up, it switched to single, longer runs.

If you are a loyal Rain Bird fan and you have wired sensors you want to continue to use, youll like this controller. Weve observed several instances when other controllers set rain delays due to forecasted events that didnt actually happen, and in every case the Rachio 3 wasnt similarly fooled by the meteorologist. And you can program any smart controller to work with local water restrictions, which helps you avoid potential fines. Rain Birds ST8I-WIFI (eight zones) is large and bulky, and it comes with a weatherproof enclosure. You can also share access with a landscape tech using a temporary access PIN, and you can choose from a variety of weather services, including private weather stations. An informative water-usage screen shows you an estimate of how much water the system applied to each zone both monthly and daily. You can also turn on features such as zone delay and Cycle and Soak, and you can prevent the device from watering if rain exceeds a certain depth.

(The B-hyve app does seem to get its knickers in a twist if you try to add a smart watering program and regular schedules to the same zone, with constant warnings that you may be overwatering a zone.). The Orbit B-hyve Smart Indoor/Outdoor Irrigation Controller (12 zones) looks like a traditional irrigation clockbig, heavy, and bulky.

In our testing, we found that some of these integrations offered real value and werent just gimmicks. For example, you can turn the sprinklers off when you send the dog out for a break, or when you arrive home early and theyre spraying your driveway, or if you want to pop out to do yard work on a Sunday morning.

The EPA says that a WaterSense controller could save the average home 7,600 gallons of water a year (PDF).

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy writes about smart-home technology use and sustainable living, while trying to practice both (one is a lot easier than the other). The Tailwind iQ3 is our pick for most everyone.

A rugged device with on-device and local control, the B-hyve XR can handle larger yards for less money than our picks, but its app isnt as easy to use as others.

To help you understand what data the companies youre bringing into your yard are harvesting, we asked them to complete a privacy and security questionnaire.

Our pick, the Ultraloq U-Bolt Pro WiFi, is small, attractive, versatile, and reliable.

(In contrast, since we began this guide, Rachio has launched four different models, only one of which is HomeKit-compatible.

The B-hyve XR is WaterSense-certified and lets you choose your weather station, too, but it lacks some features we like, and its app isnt as good as that of our pick, the Rachio 3. But the Yardians smart scheduling has never worked correctly in our testing, and although this WaterSense-certified controller meets most of our criteria, including shared access, offline alerts, and selectable weather stations (it even rates stations based on the type of information they provide), we cant recommend it. Along the way, she has turned her home into a smart home to explore more ways to save energy, water, and other resources. Its not intuitive, and the instructions written on the back of the removable cover are in what looks to be 7-point font. She has spent countless hours testing smart-home devicesincluding smart thermostats, smart garage-door controllers, and smart smoke alarmsfor Wirecutter. It also provides a handy Quick Run button, and a pause button appears whenever a zone is runningwhich is useful when you want to take a shower and you need more water pressure, for example, or when youre dining al fresco and you definitely dont want a shower. If every home in the US that had a sprinkler system followed suit, that could save 120 billion gallons each year, not to mention $435 million in water costs. We selected the best smart-home devices to work with your Alexa speaker, based on our extensive testing and real-world use. 2022 Wirecutter, Inc., A New York Times Company, Better coverage for bigger yards with smaller budgets, Orbit B-hyve Smart Indoor Irrigation Controller, Who should buy a smart sprinkler or irrigation controller, Security, privacy, and smart sprinkler controllers, Also great for large yards: Orbit B-hyve XR, Budget pick: Orbit B-hyve Smart Indoor Irrigation Controller, Other smart sprinkler controllers we like, testing and researching weather-based irrigation controllers for over a decade, expected to face a water shortage in the next decade, personal weather station, such as a Netatmo, Orbit 57095 Outdoor-Mounted Controller Timer Box Cover, Orbit also sells a model that comes with an enclosure, testing and researching weather-based irrigation controllers for more than a decade, The Best Smart Garage Door Opener Controller, Orbit B-hyve Smart Indoor/Outdoor Irrigation Controller, WaterSense Labeled Irrigation Controllers (PDF), Soil MoistureBased Irrigation Controllers, Evaluating the Operation of Residential WIFI Based Irrigation Controllers (PDF), The Best Alexa-Compatible Smart-Home Devices for Amazon Echo, How to Build an Apple-Based Smart Home System With the Best HomeKit Devices, accurately predicts and responds to weather in your immediate area (hyperlocal weather), provides clear weather data sources, with the option to modify them, offers water-use reports and a log of activity, has some on-device controls so that you or your landscaper can still operate the system without a smartphone, can continue to function if the internet connection goes down, integrates with smart-home systems to extend value. Wireless soil-moisture sensors weve tested previously have been unreliable and expensiveoften dropping off the network, rendering them useless. The devices we recommend here dont work with battery-operated controllers or hose timers (although there are smart hose timers you can buy; we review one in our roundup of smart garden gadgets).

Netros Spark smart sprinkler controller offers a touchscreen with basic on-device controls and support for 16 zones. We also tested the BlueSpray BSC24i, which might suit specific needs, such as if someone has a golf course in their backyard; compared with competing models, its far too complex, yet it lacks smart-home integrations. If your town or city has a similar program, it could be an option over a smart controllerassuming that the only reason you want a smart controller is for water savings, not also for the added convenience and smart-home integrations these devices offer. RainMachine also sells a less expensive Pro model that covers eight or 16 zones and offers all the same features, though it lacks the touchscreen with full on-device controls.

Do smart controllers actually work?

In addition, you can share access through the app, with or without time restrictions, so a landscaper can maintain the system via their smartphone without your having to be there. The Yard Map feature allows you to draw virtual boundaries for each zone in your yard and to specify how many sprinkler heads are in it and where, which Rachio says improves water-usage reporting.

Anyone who has a sprinkler system operated by a mechanical or electronic timer (clock) should consider upgrading to a smart controller, also known as a weather-based controller. Some water utilities offer rebates if you install WaterSense irrigation controllers; rebates can cover a large portion of the cost of the device. At the expense of predictability, this choice offers the highest potential water savings. Ultimately, the Rachio 3 and the RainMachine Touch HD end up applying a similar amount of waterthey just use different methods to get there. It has no on-device controls, and you cant choose a weather station. The Rachio 3 used less water than we would have with our old system (which was set to run every other day, for a total of 180 minutes a week, regardless of weather).

Its also missing a few features found on most other devices we tested, and it wasnt that easy to set up or use in the slightly cumbersome Wyze app.

WIP is available only on the Rachio 3. If your smart speaker is a Google Home, here are the best devices that work with it. As for smart-home integrations, you can control your sprinklers using your voice with Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant.

Their software algorithms use this data, combined with predicted and actual rainfall and information you input about your yard (soil type, vegetation type, slope, shade, types of sprinkler heads), to create and adjust watering schedules tailored to your gardens needs.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $199.

Aeon Matrixs Yardian Pro (eight or 12 zones) is an indoor-only, WaterSense-certified controller with the option of Ethernet or 4G connectivityits the only model in this guide to offer both.

Keeping that concern in mind, we evaluated how each controller responded to changes in weather during testing and whether it allowed us to select a weather station versus a data source chosen by the controller. And an excellent web portal lets you tinker with your systems settings from the comfort of a larger screen. The jury is still out on that, and its an area we are actively monitoring. But its watering method and forecasting are less precise than those of the Rachio 3. Wirecutter takes security and privacy issues seriously.

You can also set an optional delay between zones (say, to allow a well to refill), select a different weather station, or connect to a personal weather station, such as a Netatmo.

The three small LED screens are a disappointment: Although they do show extra information such as the next start time, the days weather, and useful info like which zone the unit is controlling and the length of time itll run, the honeycomb layout of the screens just isnt easy to read and feels gimmicky.

Theres less of a learning curve when youre setting up the RainMachine than there is with the Rachio 3, as on this model you create a schedule just as you would with a standard irrigation clock. After four seasons of testing more than a dozen models, we continue to recommend the Rachio 3 for most people. Basic onboard controlsto trigger each zone for three minutesare accessible on the outside of the device, and a magnetic cover provides easy access to the wiring.

Weve confirmed and continue to recommend our existing picks, and added What to know when buying. We independently review everything we recommend.

On days when the Rachio 3 scheduled a watering, the system ran anywhere from 43 minutes to nearly four hours in the early morning hours, stopping as requested before sunrise. Then the B-hyve XR automatically creates a smart watering schedule where you choose your start time and add any watering restrictions you have, and youre done. We had the most fun with the IFTTT integration: We set up an applet that turned on the sprinklers for five minutes in the zone we named chickens whenever the temperature exceeded 90 degrees Fahrenheit. This provided a nice, cooling shower for the chickens in our coop.

Another issue with accurate ET calculation regards how much specific data the controller has about your yard. We like the option to use the basic (if not comprehensive) onboard controls for a quick watering, and we appreciate that the controller works with Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, and Google Assistant, among other smart-home platforms. A smart lock lets you go key-free and control your door from afar. However, it doesnt offer 5 GHz Wi-Fi (as all our other picks do), and it works with the same, not-so-easy-to-use app as the Orbit B-hyve XR. A smart controller intelligently optimizes your in-ground irrigation system by automatically adjusting to weather conditions, making it easier for you to maintain a healthy landscape while cutting water use. Here are the results, to help you determine whether youre comfortable with purchasing these devices.

If you need to install it outside, the company recommends the Orbit 57095 Outdoor-Mounted Controller Timer Box Cover.

You get the option to choose your own weather station and to view basic watering history, but the app has no water-use reports. We tested the NxEco Pro, which was too much like a standard clock and too complicated to use for us to recommend. The B-hyve smart watering feature worked reliably in our testing, skipping watering when rain was forecast and intelligently watering our yard using a split watering systemsoaking each zone twice for 15 minutes and leaving a gap of an hour and 30 minutes between each wateringin early spring. (If you have water restrictions in your area, you can force the RainMachine controller not to run, but that messes with the devices plans for optimally watering your garden.).