Orbit B-hyve 12-Zone Smart Indoor/Outdoor Sprinkler Controller

Received the item quickly. It was quite easy to set up, even to this elderly basic computer skilled person. It worked fine from phone to set & start zones. The only minor drawback for us is that since hose is set to a zone, it is necessary to start by phone. It can be done on the sprinkler screen, but for me that is way too cumbersome and it is actually why I wanted this controller. Setting zones, turning them off or on at will is very easy on the phone, but difficult on the controller screen. This controller has a rain delay feature, which while useful has not been entirely accurate in regard to weather. However it is simple to start the watering if there is no rain when it had been predicted. The last important thing to mention, and this is why I often wait to write reviews, is the controller stopped working after a year and some months. Orbit upheld the 2 year warranty and is sending a replacement.

I really like this product and found it to be a great value. My land scraper told me my old timer/computer was out, but I told him I thought the cables to the sprinkler valves go cut. He insisted and I bought this one. I ended up being right (did not need the product, need new valve wiring which requires digging up the yard!), but I lucked into this gem!I hard wired mine. My input feed did not have a ground wire so I just capped unit ground wire. I hard wired mine. Take the cable run it all the way to the right of the wiring box, snake it back to the left side and the add two inches and just cut the provided outlet plug. It’s scary to intentionally permanently change a new product but you gotta do it if you are hard wiring. This was better than adding an outdoor outlet in my opinion. Turn off the power at the breaker box (turn off the power before removing the old one if this is a retrofit) Once you cut the cable, strip the wires and use small wire nuts to connect hot to hot and neutral to neutral. (Typically white to white and black to black or red; consult electrician if you are unsure)The interface with the app is intuitive and easy. Photos And labels go with each Zone so no more remembering which zone does what. The app interface is so easy I haven’t even used the manual controls on the timer... I’m sure it’s great.I give it a 4 for Alexa integration. I have three programs 1) Grass, 2) Bushes, and 3)Trees. I’d guess that’s a typical basic yard set up. These are all labeled by name. For trees and bushes the zone names actually match the program. Seems logical to me that if I say “Alexa tell b-hyve to water the bushes” that it would water the bushes only. Unfortunately it decides to water all stations. If I say “Alexa water program B” it waters program B only. That’s not great because then you have to remember what is tied to each program (my wife and kids aren’t going to remember that for sure). I put Bushes to B so that is helping me remember. I live in AZ and the most typical command for wife/kids would be “water the grass” on really hot days or when the grass is drying out or if the kids want to play in the sprinkler; but they will need to remember “Alexa run program A” which is doubtful.“Alexa tell b hyve to set a rain delay” works great. The app is supposed to know the weather for my area and self imposed rain delays, but I haven’t tested that feature. I live in Arizona so I don’t have many opportunities for it. I’m hoping to avoid the need for buying a precipitation sensor.I am testing out the smart water feature. I like to have the programs set up for impromptu watering, but b-hyve warns that the smart watering ignores the fact that a custom program may have run. So, I set up the custom programs to run on days of the week, but then I actually do not select any days of the week. Then I let smart watering do the job, but I still have the option to say “run program A” and it runs for the specified zones and run times. I may add another review if smart watering kills my lawn!!! It is saying for my grass and soil and shade to water 2xweek for 15 min. Typically I water every day for 7 min. 15 min seems like it will pool the water and 2 per week seems like it will dry it out... more to come. One annoying feature is that in Arizona we have winter grass and summer grass. You have to remember to toggle the gras type for these zones twice a year. It would be cool if they had a “over seed date” feature.

6 stars!My trip got extended for a few days and I had my sprinkler system off. I lost some recently planted flowers. I thought that if the controller was only wi-fi capable I could have turned it on from afar. I searched for wi-fi sprinkler controllers and was presented both Orbit and Rainbird. Both had about the same number of reviews but with the Rainbird you had to also purchase the wi-fi module which cost another $100, which is about the price of the Orbit controller. I ordered the Orbit controller and boy I am glad I did.Swapping out my old controller was super easy, just moving the wires from old to new. The best part is the app that you have to download from your phones App Store. I followed the instructions and the app found my controller right away. I then searched for my wireless router and easily connected. Next was the setup of the timer. 4 programs are available for 4 different scenarios. I set my 5 zones to start at 6:00AM every odd day and I set a second scenario that started my flowerbed zone every day at 2:00PM. I live in Florida and it is HOT here in the summer. A little extra water in the afternoon is needed.The app makes customizing your watering schedule really, really easy. The development team did a fantastic job. It uses the local forecast to automatically postpone watering if you received or will receive rain in the near future. I can now test the zones from my phone and I don’t have to run to the garage to start and stop the zones. I control it right from the zone. I am still playing around with the app but good job to the developers! The app works like I wished all of wi-fi enabled devices worked.