Rachio Discontinued WiFi Smart Lawn Sprinkler Controller, 8-Zone 2nd Generation, Alexa Compatible with Rain, Freeze and Wind Skip (8ZULW-B)

Being able to run individual zones by telling Alexa (Amazon Echo) to do so seemed like just a novelty at first, but after spending several hours repairing drippers and replacing a few old sprinkler heads, I was happy to be able to manually run single zones for 3 to 5 minutes just by using my voice."Alexa, start Rachio.""Rachio is ready. What would you like me to do?""Run Zone 7 for 4 minutes.""Ok, running Zone 7 for 4 minutes."Although the Rachio has a super sophisticated watering system that automatically checks weather maps and soil conditions for our area via Wifi, it's nice that it's so easy to run single zones just by talking to Alexa. After using an old timer for 14 years and having to do this by pushing buttons on the actual timer, (and then sometimes it wouldn't work right) it's a breath of fresh air to have the whole system so automated. When was the last time I felt pampered by a sprinkler timer?Just prior to purchasing this 8 zone Rachio, I bought an Orbitz B-hyve timer. It was great when it worked, but after their servers were down for an hour one night, the whole thing stopped working for a couple days (without telling me) and it took almost an hour on the phone with with Tech Support and having to reboot the whole system, including removing the battery and reinstalling to get it going again. And then it failed again. I returned it and purchased this one instead.The Rachio was simple to set up. First, I disconnected the wires from my old timer and connected them to the Rachio. That was simple and straightforward, going from the old to the new. I plugged it into the electrical outlet and I downloaded the app for my iPhone and iPad (It says iPhone only, but works perfectly on my iPad) and set it up using the iPad. The Rachio searched for my Wifi network, found it, and asked me to type in my network password. It connected right away. That was the last thing I had to do with the timer itself. The app walked me through the rest. No punching buttons or turning dials on a timer. I sat on my familyroom sofa and did the set-up. The more info you enter about your soil type, incline of the terrain, types of sprinklers or drippers and different planting areas, the more accurate it will be about watering times. You can do fixed days or let the app figure out how often and how long to water. I started off just telling it to water every other day on odd numbered days and specifying the amount of time for each zone. Their system recently sent me an email telling me they made a seasonal adjustment, upping the watering time by several minutes. It's been super hot and dry here. How cool is that? I love that it lets me know, by email, what it's doing and any changes it makes. It lets me know when a watering cycle has started, when it's complete and the total watering time across all zones. I still can override it if I want, but even being the control freak that I am, I'm coming to trust this thing.The app interface is pretty easy to use. I wouldn't say it's super intuitive, and I did have to ask a few things on their community forum, but now that I know where everything is, it's easy to use. There's even a place to take photos of your different watering zones and it automatically uploads them to the app without you having to upload them yourself. Since my descriptions of each zone aren't always that clear, it's nice to see a photo of the zone I'm checking. I haven't had to call Tech Support yet because the questions I had were answered on the forum. (It's moderated and there always seems to be someone hanging around there.) We're watering 6 zones with 1 more still to be set up. There was one zone that we weren't using just because turning it on and off to check sprinklers to fix the broken ones with the old system was such a pain. It was easier to procrastinate and hand water that zone. With this system and Alexa, I had the sprinklers replaced and everything up and running in about 15 minutes, not counting the trip to the hardware store to buy the new sprinkler heads. (I know, not a lot of logic in spending hours over the last few years hand watering to avoid fighting with a crotchety old timer.)So I love this thing. It's more like a cool technology toy than a piece of necessary equipment to keep our yard looking nice. I like that everything can be done in the cloud once I tell it what we're dealing with, and I don't have to do a thing unless I want to. And it gets points for playing nice with Alexa! I do have to admit that the ability to use the Echo was a factor in my purchasing decision.

Amazingly functional with almost too much information. So many options for programming zones. I don't have grass. Half acre of trees, perennials an annuals all on a multi level slope with as much as a 200' rise. I use various styles of emitters (drip, spray, low volume spinners, etc.). Over time things disconnect, clog and break. These must be discovered and repaired. All of the emitters in all of the zones are remote from the Rachio controller. There's at least 600' of half inch poly serving the zones. The beauty of this situation is that I can be in the field turning zones on and off for testing from my cell phone and making repairs as needed without slogging up and down, in and out to operate zones from the controller.Extremely easy install and a short learning curve for basic operation. Now I will study up on yhe advanced control features to see ow and which ones apply.I had thought to add a flow meter to the main irrigation line but they appear quite pricey and seems there's a limited number of supported meter for thr Rachio. Still looking

I've only had this a few days (watering cycles) but I'm very impressed with everything so far. It does seem that you get what you pay for. The installation was easy. I had absolutely not problems connecting the app to the controller and then to my home network. The signal strength to my router was average.I would say that the functionality of the controller is so-so, you can setup and run zones from the controller but all the good stuff in in the app and it makes setup and configuration very easy. I've had other hardware that depended on an app to configure it and been disappointed with the app (I'm looking at you Linksys) but the Rachio app is outstanding. You can set schedules, start/stop zones, and even check the current weather. If you use the automatic scheduling feature you can look several months into the future to get an idea of when and how often watering will occur. It's smart enough to know that here in Florida I don't need to water as often in Winter but forecasts that I will during Summer.The app allows you to configure each zone based on vegetation, soil type, amount of sun it receives, the type of sprinkler heads used, and the slope. There are advanced parameters to allow you to set much more in-depth configurations.The app provides information about the last time it watered a zone and the next time it is planned to be watered.It also provides information about how much water, in gallons, that have been used and saved but without a flow meter or being very precise in the advanced configurations I don't see how this can be very accurate, but it is a nice touch and does provide at least some knowledge of your water use. You could probably read your water meter before and after to get an idea of how accurate it is and then make some tweaks to the app to get it closer.I think the thing I like most is that when I'm working on sprinkler heads I can start/stop the zone I'm working on standing next to the head that I testing. No more starting a zone and then having to run thru the sprinklers to get to the head I'm working on. Very convenient.I cannot speak (yet) to it's ability to monitor rainfall in the area and shift watering schedules but I will know better once warmer weather returns and I'll re-post to my review.Anyway, I feel comfortable recommending it and I don't think you'll be disappointed.

I have been using a Rain Bird controller for over 16 years and recently converted to Rachio. The setup is very simple, although I connected a couple of wires incorrectly, it was easily resolved with a call to Rachio's support which is amazing. They are very helpful and responsive via email and phone. In fact, based on support alone, I would recommend the product.My Rachio is in the garage and connecting to wifi was also very easy (I am using a wifi range extender).The Rachio app is very intuitive, thus easy to setup and use. Zones are easy to reference as the app allows pictures and description. It is now so much easier controlling the sprinklers with my phone from any place and at any time instead of being restricted to when I am in the garage.

The Rachio sprinkler controller is working exactly as I hoped it would. I replaced an old difficult to use sprinkler controller and this was easy to install (exact same difficulty as a nest thermostat, though the Rachio doesn't come with as nice of tools), and was setup and working as needed in 30 min. It skips watering when it rains, and it is trivially easy to turn on sprinklers for an additional manual watering if desired. My big hope is that going forward I can just stop thinking about when/how much to water the lawn, and let it just go - so far, I assume this will be true.