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.

I like it. One of the few outdoor WIFI capable sprinkler controllers. Easy to install, although I didn't care for the limitations of the cable entrance on the bottom. Of course I left the WIFI interface and programming to my daughter so that my age didn't screw things up. I was hesitant in that it was unclear if this could be controlled manually without the WIFI. Yes, it has tactile buttons and display on the face that allow for limited manual control.

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?

Absolutely love this! Mainly for the phone interface - I make manual adjustments all the time. It does have smart mode that I use on my lawn circuits - I'm not really sure when it will be running and for how long but I don't really care - it seems to adapt on weather conditions and the lawn looks great. So much better than the old style with buttons and the dial and you spend a ton of time in the garage pressing buttons and changing the dial. Highly recommend this unit.

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.