[jemiester]

We are upgrading our irrigation system to a smart irrigation system, but wondering what everyone’s experiences has been with with the orbit B-Hyde six zone (even though only have 3 zones) or the Hunter Hydrowise or Rachio 3?
I want to be able to control from anywhere, but I also wanted to be able to detect if I have a water leak. It looks like the Hunter Hydrowise has that option to alert you, but you have to buy a special flow meter for $133.
Do the other systems have a flow meter to detect a leak? Has anyone use another Wi-Fi flow meter for to detect an early leak?
I’ve looked at a lot of videos and not sure which one to order!

[Summerhouse]

We have had the Hydrawise System for 4 years and are very happy with it. We are part-time and I totally can adjust the amount of time our different zones run, along with number of time/week. It has a pause feature you can ultilize, allowing the irrigation zone to run for a set amount of time then ‘pause’ for a designated amount of time, then resume for however many minutes programmed. This helps to eliminate or at least minimize the amount of water run off. We have a villa and I love this option.
You can check the amount of water used on your phone and see a monthly report on usage.
Ours was installed by AGI and their service has been top notch.

[Bill14564]

Originally Posted by Summerhouse

We have had the Hydrawise System for 4 years and are very happy with it. We are part-time and I totally can adjust the amount of time our different zones run, along with number of time/week. It has a pause feature you can ultilize, allowing the irrigation zone to run for a set amount of time then ‘pause’ for a designated amount of time, then resume for however many minutes programmed. This helps to eliminate or at least minimize the amount of water run off. We have a villa and I love this option.
You can check the amount of water used on your phone and see a monthly report on usage.
Ours was installed by AGI and their service has been top notch.

We have the Hydrawise also and are happy with it. A few things to note:

1. The wifi capability comes as a plugin module you need to purchase separately. Don't forget to get one.
2. I watched the installation and now wish I had done it myself - it was quite simple
3. Mine does not have a true flow meter. It will tell me how many minutes it told the solenoid to open but it doesn't know how much water went through it.
4. I needed to install a wifi extender in my garage. My unit is behind a metal door and the signal was not quite strong enough. YMMV

[Papa_lecki]

I have the Hydrawise. I like it.
i have comcast, router in my family room, I put a pod extender in the garage.

Only thing you can’t catch remotely was a bad sprinkler head - water shoots in the air. My neighbor told me about it. Although if you have home watch, give them access, have them run all zones once every month.

[Boffin]

Flume 2 Smart Home Water Monitor & Water Leak Detector.

[Paulz]

We installed the Rachio 3 a few months ago…great piece of equipment, will pay for itself quickly in water savings. Just attend the Tempest weather station. The next project is the flow meter, going with the wired version.

[dewilson58]

Originally Posted by Boffin

Flume 2 Smart Home Water Monitor & Water Leak Detector.

We had one up North.
Great Unit.
Jus make sure it works with your meter.

[laboutj]

I have a Rachio 3 as well and it paid for itself in the first six months. Uses local weather to determine whether to water. I told several other people about it and they all converted and are extremely pleased.

[jemiester]

Originally Posted by Paulz

We installed the Rachio 3 a few months ago…great piece of equipment, will pay for itself quickly in water savings. Just attend the Tempest weather station. The next project is the flow meter, going with the wired version.

Wondering if you have researched what flow meter works with the Rachio 3?

[MrChip72]

We had the Hunter Hydrawise and hated it. Had it replaced with the Rainbird controller. The app for the Hunter was just terrible.

[Summerhouse]

AGI gets communication from our system. (We signed up for it) They are instantly notified if there is a spike in usage (flow meter equipped) and have called us to tell us they are on site same day replacing a sprinkler head.

[MatchPoint]

Originally Posted by jemiester

We are upgrading our irrigation system to a smart irrigation system, but wondering what everyone’s experiences has been with with the orbit B-Hyde six zone (even though only have 3 zones) or the Hunter Hydrowise or Rachio 3?
I want to be able to control from anywhere, but I also wanted to be able to detect if I have a water leak. It looks like the Hunter Hydrowise has that option to alert you, but you have to buy a special flow meter for $133.
Do the other systems have a flow meter to detect a leak? Has anyone use another Wi-Fi flow meter for to detect an early leak?
I’ve looked at a lot of videos and not sure which one to order!

Rachio installs in 10 minutes and everything is run with your phone. Uses weather station info for skip days. Works great $100 on sale sometime in Amazon.

[Lyarham]

Originally Posted by jemiester

We are upgrading our irrigation system to a smart irrigation system, but wondering what everyone’s experiences has been with with the orbit B-Hyde six zone (even though only have 3 zones) or the Hunter Hydrowise or Rachio 3?
I want to be able to control from anywhere, but I also wanted to be able to detect if I have a water leak. It looks like the Hunter Hydrowise has that option to alert you, but you have to buy a special flow meter for $133.
Do the other systems have a flow meter to detect a leak? Has anyone use another Wi-Fi flow meter for to detect an early leak?
I’ve looked at a lot of videos and not sure which one to order!

I have the b-hyve, like it a lot

[BobGraves]

I have the b-hyve for about a year now. Works great. Inexpensive. Good app. Not really noticing savings but I think that has to do with the prior Hunter one being set too low. I like the remote access control I have now especially when we're gone for the summer. I don't think any sprinkler controller alone will let you know of a broken head. I think you need a separate flow monitor.

[huge-pigeons]

I’ve used the b-hyve in my last 3 homes. I have also switched 6 friends homes over to it. 5 mins to physically switch over and then another 30 mins on setting up the phone to configure it.

Don’t get a unit that you have to buy a wifi module to get it to work with your phone. The “wand” wifi module for the hunter unit sucked and it cost almost $150 just for the module. When you buy a wifi module, you are putting lipstick on a pig, meaning you are trying to convert a manual controller to an automated 1, the b-hyve is a smart controller from the start.

As for saving money, the b-hyve will save you a lot of money ONLY if you use a personal weather station near you or you get a PWS in your backyard that uploads your data to weather underground.

Most all users of these smarter controllers hook their system to the closest county weather station which could be 10 miles away, maybe 5. If that’s the case, it might as well be 1000 miles away. The PWS or county weather station that’s closest to me is 1.5 miles away and during a few storms, they got rain and we didn’t, or vise versa. So when your controller goes into weather delay due to weather station prediction of 1” rain coming, you might not get a drop, or you just got a downpour but the weather station didn’t get any rain, your sprinkler will go off as planned. Buy a nice weather station for your backyard for around $150 and then you will truly start savings $$$$