Orbit B-Hyve 8-Zone Sprinkler Controller

Update #3: love the timer, but the customer support is non-existent. I don't like giving a poor review for a product I love, but sorry Orbit. You deserve it. Smart devices sometimes require smart answers. I've contacted Orbit twice in the last month about a couple of issues, mostly minor stuff. Both times, I got an initial reply indicating they were looking into the matter. Nothing since, despite repeated followups. I even had to threaten that my five star review was at stake here. I don't think that they care. Again, I love the product. But if they can't respond to basic - and I mean BASIC - questions, they have lost me as a customer. Update #2: The wows just keep on coming. I just discovered a new feature to fine-tune the weather settings. Well, I didn't discover it - Troy at Orbit helped me find it. This setting in the smart phone app allows you to connect to personal weather stations that people near you have set up - instead of a larger weather station which might be miles away from you. Now, if you live in the middle of Kansas and the weather 20 miles away is pretty much the same weather you will enjoy, no big deal - let Orbit's app pick the closest government or commercial weather station and you're done. But I live in the foothills of the Sierra in California at about 800 feet elevation. I have three nearby (17 miles) weather stations, none of which are ideal. Two of them are quite a bit higher in elevation and the other is quite a bit lower. The solution? Check off the Personal Weather Stations toggle in settings (steps listed below) and select a private PWS that is close to you. In my case, a nearby neighbor has one in his back yard and my Orbits are getting their weather information from a few hundred yards away rather than several miles. Assuming the PWS is getting quality information, my Orbits will be much more localized than before. And I didn't even know this Orbit system could do this! Thanks to Troy for pointing this out. Steps to set up Orbit to pull weather info from a Personal Weather Station (PWS): - Open the app - Select settings - bottom right - Select Device - under B-hyve account (I have two Orbits, so you may or may not see the exact same thing) - Click on the device for which you want to change settings - I did both of mine - Select Weather Adjustments - near bottom of the screen - Select Weather Station - it is the first thing listed - before rain delay and rain depth - At the bottom of the next screen, toggle the Personal Weather Stations (PWS) to on This will then add to the display of weather stations all the personal weather stations that are nearby. Select one that more closely matches the type of weather you will get. Update: This system gets better and better the more I use it and understand it. The simplicity of the app does a good job of allowing me to plumb the depths of how customizable this smart irrigation system is. My lawn and shrubs look better than I would expect at this time of the very hot summer. I recently read an updated review on TheWireCutter. com about smart irrigation control systems and would have liked to had the money to purchase the highly recommended Rachio. But .... alas ... I have two systems - front and back yard - with a total of 13 zones. So, when the Orbit B-hyve went on a quick sale, I jumped and purchased two Eight Zone units. I'm happy with my choice. Installation - was easy, as I was replacing a 'dumb' RainBird system that was already in place. All I had to do was physically mount the new unit and put the wires back in the same order as before. Now, for the app install. App - is simple. The old Rainbird was somewhat simplistic. Setting up the new Orbit B-hyve meant installing the app on my OnePlus Android phone (iPhone app also available) and connecting each B-hyve to my wi-fi network. I chose to connect the new sprinkler controllers to my guest network - just because I'm paranoid about home security. The first Orbit unit failed to "see" my home network, but adding it was simple. I then proceeded to add each zone - or sprinkler station and here's where B-hyve impressed me.... it allowed me to tailor each zone name and to take a photo of it, which ends up on the user-friendly app. Then, I selected whether I wanted "smart" or programmed timing. Smart means that you can describe each zone in terms of soil, slope and type of vegetation you are watering and then Orbit decides how much water to apply to your zone. You can set the time that you want the zone to start, but weather patterns and climate will drive most of the decision making. Programming means that you can emulate a basic irrigation system timer and tell it what days of the week, what times you want the system to water and for how long you want the water to run.... it's not smart in that it runs on those days, regardless of whether it rained the day before. I have a gardner who cuts my lawn every Friday and he gripes if I have wet grass, so I had to select the programming method for my lawn areas. But for my landscaping, I selected the Smart watering system. So far so good, but if the Orbit system doesn't keep my landscaping green, I'll repost. I was impressed how quick this system was to setup and how flexible it is. I called Orbit's Salt Lake support center a couple of times with dumb questions and each time, the phone was answered quickly and the customer support was friendly and helpful. The feedback from the Orbit app on my phone is great - it tells me when it has completed it's work and I can view the next month of irrigation events. I would like it even better if it showed more than one day of history, but the app is colorful and smart.