Orbit B-hyve XR Smart Sprinkler Timer - 16-Zone - WiFi-Enabled Indoor/Outdoor Irrigation Controller - App Control - Weatherproof Watering System - Multi Zone - Custom Programs - 57995

We have a lot of sprinkler valves. We had an older Orbit controller that would do 5 stations in our front yard and another controller for 8 stations in our backyard. Both controllers were in my garage/workshop but mounted on opposite walls. The one for the backyard was always blocked by my woodworking equipment so it was a hassle to get to when we wanted to run a station manually or test a station for whatever reason. Additionally, if we were in either yard working on a sprinkler or planting new plants and wanted to test it, we'd have to go all the over to the controller, push through the buttons and run it. I know, i know, first world problems. We've been considering this B-Hyve unit for a while and now that we finally pulled the trigger I can't believe we waited so long! Wiring the sprinklers into the unit was easy. I recommend having a small flathead screwdriver and needle nose pliers handy as these might make it easier to get the skinny wires into their slots. Programming the unit was very straightforward and our phones were connected to the app in no time. It's so nice to be able to name the stations AND associate a photo with each station. The most helpful thing on the planet is to be able to be working at the far corner of the yard and be able to just run a specific sprinkler within about 8 seconds. Just open the app, click "water manually", select the station, the duration, start! This B-Hyve makes it so easy to run the sprinks. Inside the panel cover you can find instructions for running the stations in old school manual mode in the event that you may be having wi-fi problems at the moment. The print is very small though, so keep that in mind. *ONE CONCERN* After the first week of using the B-Hyve we noticed the button lit up RED and said we had a fault at station 5. We did a quick search online and came to the conclusion that it could be our solenoid at that station was bad. After testing the solenoid we found that to be the culprit. We replaced it with a spare we already had and we were back in business. About a week and a half later we had another RED fault, this time for station 7. I thought okay, i'll take care of that this weekend. A couple days later I noticed the RED fault for station 8 as well. So now I e got faults on 7 and 8 at the same time. One day later I noticed the fault for station 8 simply disappeared. So I replaced the solenoid on station 7 and it was all good. It's been a couple weeks now and no new faults have shown up. I was concerned that the B-Hyve was perhaps sending too much electricity to the valves and blowing the solenoids but I also realize solenoids go bad and maybe it was just coincidence. Time will tell. I don't use the water saving feature...i don't really care about "saving the planet" and I have my program set to run on a schedule that works best for the beauty of our landscape. The B-Hyve supposedly shows your local weather info but even after entering my 92026 code during setup, i've noticed the weather it tells me is FAR from accurate. No big deal because I have eyes and an actual weather app. *MY ONLY COMPLAINT* While this B-Hyve can do 16 stations, it still can ONLY have 4 programs (A,B,C,D) which has caused me to adjust the schedule of a couple of my stations and I have to run them at time when I wasn't running them before with my old system. ORBIT...if you read this, PLEASE do a software update that allows us to add more programs....like at least A,B,C,D,E,F,G. That would be SO SO SO HELPFUL!!🙌🏻 All in all, very happy with the B-Hyve. Wish we would've gotten this thing a few years ago!

The controller itself was easy to install, and the layout is clean and seamless. The little wire terminals have the push button clamps in them, so if you don't have the solid copper wire to insert into the individual wire ports, I bet it will be a pain with soft threaded wire. The real draw here is the app. It's got a ton of functionality I didn't have with my old sprinkler controller. It takes into consideration the soil type, the sun level, the slope of your yard, and number of sprinklers when doing the smart watering program. And I can take a pic of each zone and save it on the app, to remind myself which sprinklers are controlled by which zones.

B-hyve XR controller was easily installed and the setup was straight forward. Android application allowed me to easily bluetooth pairing and Wifi connection.

In most ways this sprinkler controller is pretty nice. The app works well, when it works. The controller is well built and looks like it should survive years of use. However, it frequently fails at the most basic task a smart sprinkler controller should be able to manage — maintaining a connection to the WiFi network. Problems start from the very beginning, when you’re trying to connect it. Somehow, the controller gets completely confused by networks that cover both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. This is basic stuff any WiFi chipset built in the last 20 years should be able to manage, but it’s only the beginning of the problems. Even if you create a 2.4GHz only network for the controller (DO NOT follow the company’s advice of simply disabling the 5GHz band entirely, since that will cripple your WiFi performance), it still just disconnects. Randomly. I have dozens of devices on my WiFi network, and the signal strength is nearly perfect at the location where I placed the controller. It’s literally 8 feet from the WiFi access point. No other device has any trouble maintaining a connection anywhere in my house. This makes the B-hyve unreliable at best as a controller, despite the many other great choices made in its design and construction. Why do all that and cheap out on the one thing any smart WiFi device really needs — a reliable WiFi chipset with stable, solidly built software behind it?

I purchased this to replace a Lawn Mate controller installed in the 90’s before I owned the house. Once in, it works pretty well. I had zero problems setting up the app and getting connected to WiFi. It doesn’t allow very good pictures for your zones, but no big deal. I did have some headache with installation of the wires. The individual wire terminals wouldn’t accept the wires at first. After taking it back off the wall and looking with a flashlight, I could see the plastic holes that the wires go in had extra bits of plastic blocking some of them (likely overflow from the injection molding process). It was easy to clean them up with the same mini screwdriver I was using to push in the terminals. I put all the wires in before I put it back up on the wall and it was done. Another note on those wire terminals is that once you push them open to accept the wire, some of them have to be nudged back to the closed position; they didn’t all spring shut on their own. I high recommend wearing a headlamp for this part, especially if you’re mounting inside.

Worth every penny. So easy to use with the app. Very easy to set up. Find an instruction video or watch on the website on how to set it up. It was easy to install but if you don’t know about electric I would have someone do it for you.

I was able to program, move wires and connect them all with ease. It took me a total of 30 min to set it on the wall and program it. Was a breeze right?...not exactly.. I have 10 zones and when I manually tested the zones. They all came on live but the valves were not opening. I called tech support and here came Francine (spelling?) 1) patiently watched me rewire stuff, As they were all labled, ot wasn't hard. 2) as you seeing the hunter picture.. there is no Com wire. There are only White wires for the zones Two sensor wires Three wires from the Hunter Adapter ONE RED GROUND WIRE. Connected to the Ground bolt on Hunter. 3) Since there was no Ground nut in the BHYVE, I ignored that. 4) Since the adapter is already wired into the transformer of BHYVE. I did not worry about connecting that. 5) Sensor wires were connected back.. 6) only thing left hanging was the thick red Ground wire. Then again Ground was needed...as there was no nut to connect it to. 7) when we restarted the unit noting working. It was not turing the Valve open. Since it was an old Hunter, and they may have rigged it for a work around we tried every permutation of the sensor wire, as it actually Green lit the BHYVE, yet the valves did not open. Manually went and opened each Valve and they all worked. Oh. The hunter was working before I moved it to BHYVE... throwing out there. 😀 So she figured that We need to have a COM connection, and asked me to look around to see if anything is connected to a relay.. etc. Nope these were the wires..and only thing that was a lone ranger was the Red Ground wire that was connected to the Ground nut in hunter.. Then she came up with a suggestion to put the Labled Red GROUND WIRE, to the first CoM in BHYVE unit...well. that did it.. works like a charm now. Thank you Francine...

Love the fact that I can program from my phone. Dynamic updating based on local weather reports help save money. Now if it can just mow my lawn this will be perfect.

120 voltios. Enchufe americano. No debería estar a la venta en la Unión Europea.

The best sprinkler timer I’ve had. It was simple to install and the programming was child’s play. There are so many different options and the smart watering is genius. I now get notifications that my grass is being watered and when it’s done. My lawn hasn’t looked so good.

So far I love this timer, (only have it installed for a week) ….the app is so user friendly and monitors the weather and tells you when it’s initiated a rain delay based on the weather forecast….which is easily canceled or extended. Love that you can take a picture of each zone and it attaches to that zone for easy recall.

Great Product, works as described. We bought a second unit for our lawn watering.