RACHIOSmart Sprinkler Controller, 8 Zone 2nd Generation, Works with Amazon Alexa

I did not expect to like these controllers as much as I do. We have several smart home gadgets, including a Google Home, Alexa, Ring doorbell, Nest thermostat and cameras, Abode home security, Hue lights, Wemo plugs, and others. Here's why:1. The app! The Rachio's app is among the very best we've seen among ALL the smart home vendors - it's intuitive, easy-yet-complete, and looks great (unlike, say, Hue or Wemo). It never crashes, doesn't require constant reinstallation (I'm glaring at you, Abode), and does what it needs to do with minimal fuss. I wish the other smart home manufacturers would study this app and imitate what it does right. They even thought of small things, like allowing you to snap a photo of an area to tag which zone you're watering.2. Installation. You MUST have a plug nearby, but if you do, it's ridiculously easy to install. We had to have an electrician come to run a wire for us since our old system was low voltage, but that was the only hard part. If you've installed a thermostat (like the Nest), you should be fine with this.3. Level of control. The app gives you a fantastic level of control, so you can indicate soil type, amount of sunlight, type of plants, etc. See below for a caveat on that, though.4. Scheduling, water budgeting, and management. Basically, it does everything it claims, and it does it very well. My husband hates fidgeting with our smart home apps, but he seems to enjoy messing with the settings on the Rachios to optimize our watering schedules. He also appreciates the notifications when the sprinklers have run, or when they're on pause from rain.5. Integration with Alexa and Google Home. For those that care, you're able to turn the sprinklers on and off with your voice. We've got ours scheduled, so I've never bothered doing this, personally. We did test it out, though, and it's flawless and the commands are logical.What I'd like improved:1. Help links are broken. Even in the "welcome" email they sent when I registered, the "click here to learn more" links were all broken. If you try to follow a link to learn about pretty much anything anywhere in the app, you get a "not found" page. Fortunately, the help section is easily accessible from a question mark icon at the bottom of the screen. I also assume they'll fix this fairly soon.2. Needs more help on setting up zones and schedules. Since we inherited our irrigation system from the previous owners, we didn't have control over the sprinkler placement - some guidance from Rachio would have been nice to help us determine the best watering schedules. The help section talks about the basic mechanics of the apps, but they don't have answers to questions like, "Should each type of plant (grass, trees, roses, citrus, shrubs, etc.) be on its own schedule, or will Rachio water each based on its profile, even if they're all scheduled together?" Or "When Rachio says "watering for 123 minutes," does that mean the water is really running for 123 minutes, or is it watering for a few minutes, pausing, etc.?" There is a very handy article on figuring out your soil type, although of course I couldn't get to it from the link when setting up my zones (got the "not found" error). It's worth hunting for it, though.3. Water budgeting could use some improvement. I love that the Rachio reads the local weather station, but I'm disappointed that it seems to consider a 25% chance of rain a reason not to water. I'd prefer that it only actually not water when there's actual rain, since that 25% means there's a 75% chance it'll be dry. This happened yesterday, when a thunderstorm moved through our area a few miles away. It's the only rain our area has seen in months (and it wasn't even near us or the weather station), so having the Rachio decide not to water was just annoying.Overall, I'm very happy we invested in our two Rachios, and hope to see them continue to improve on an already-great product. Oh, and our local water utility gave us a substantial rebate, so be sure to look up what's available in your area.

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 have a smart home and now smart landscape. This controller has to connect to the internet, which in my home was not easy not the fault of the controller. I will break the review down to install, ease of use and quality of the unit.The basic install is easy my case 6 zones ten wires two not used, and two of the ten black wires for return circuit connected to the c. Then there is one wire for each zone. First you drill 4 holes and mount the unit. Plug in the power cord to the unit, connect the wires push in and lock then finally plug the unit into the wall and you are done.Next you download the app and wait for the blue lights to turn on first solid second blinks, follow the setup and to configure the controller. After which you configure each zone which you have to know what kind of plants need to be watered, the type of lighting, ground slope, soil type, and finally the type of sprinklers you are using. This setup repeats for each zone. Type of plants means grass, trees shrubs etc. Light means shade, partial shade or full shade. The slope is just is the ground flat, slightly sloped for steep slope. The sprinklers is do you have underground emitters, spray heads or a few other types fairly easy.You will then set a schedule this is also easy just pick the zones, days, time etc. It then sets the time based on the information you gave it for each zone automatically and you can change the time to what you prefer and save. Advanced features include delays based on rain, or temperature etc. You are done.Easy of use I think the unit follows a logical path and is fairly easy to setup. Install is easy. If I can do it almost anyone can install this unit.The Quality of the unit, I think the unit is fairly well built my only real grip is the push in clips for the wires and no on unit menu. There is an override for manual watering and a place to attach sensors which are not required to be installed.Pros, you can set any zone to water anytime without impacting other zones. App is great even tells you based on selections how much water you used. You can set multiple watering times even on the same day to prevent water run off which the unit will also do if you have set it up correctly with ground slopes.Cons: No on board menu and the push connections for the wires.First time I watered I was amazed that I had almost no water run off even though I live on a hill.

I am an Australian customer. I purchased my Rachio Gen 2 approximately one year ago. I am going to outline my experience with the product and also my service experience:The Product.The Rachio Gen2 (8 Station) is a wonderful product. It is very easy to install and it is truly Smart. It configures itself for optimal performance, based on the inputs one provides - soil type, plant type, sun, shade, etc. I could have bought a locally supplied controller however some of those brands wanted an annual subscription fee in order to incorporate weather data, which enables to controller to skip watering when it rains, when it's too windy or the ground is saturated, etc. With those local brands, I was ostensibly getting a "Dumb" controller, unless I coughed up an additional $60 p.a. Basically, they wanted me to pay for data which is freely provided by the Bureau of Meteorology and other weather sources. No way! With Weather Intelligence Plus®, Rachio can aggregate 270,000 personal and commercial weather stations worldwide, for extreme accuracy. If you prefer, you can also choose the weather station you want. If it were to go down, Rachio will automatically find and connect to the next nearest and available weather station; that's very cool!The other thing that I liked when researching Rachio, was that the company appeared to genuinely "love" its product. It had a significant knowledge base and an online forum, with very active and supportive customers. People really like their gardens and they really Rachio!So I bought a Gen 2 and fired it up. It was fantastic. It has a great phone App, which offers numerous Smart watering features that I can easily control, override. My Rachio Gen 2 is happy to either do everything for me or allow me full manual control over my watering, and every shade in between.Being a Smart controller, it can be accessed anywhere in the world where there is either a wifi connection or cellular phone access. In February this year, during our hot Australian summer, we travelled to Northern India and then Vietnam. we were away for approximately one month. I had left the garden watering, to Rachio. As it hit 44 C. in Melbourne, while we were away, I has able to allay my paranoia by running some additional, non-scheduled watering from India and Vietnam. It was comforting to get an SMS back from my controller once they started and had completed. Please see the images of the pumpkin plant blocking our gate, on our return home! The Rachio is everything the company claims it to be; it's excellent and it's fun! My brother subsequently bought a Gen 2 as well for his farm and he is delighted with it.After-sales Service.Rachio provides first-class service!My background: I am a Director of an agricultural machinery company. Our point of differentiation is our exceptional pre-sales and after-sales service. We don't just play lip-service to this: we are fully committed to providing great service and building long relationships with our customers. Similarly, Rachio doesn't just talk the talk: it walks the walk. My experience with Rachio customer service follows:I recently attempted to activate terminals 7 & 8 of my Gen 2 controller. These hadn't been used before and I had some new vegetable beds to water. They did not work. The App indicated that they should be working but the weren't. Having a background in IT, I had experience in fault finding and went about A-B testing by connecting different solenoids to different controller terminals. I was able to rule out faulty solenoids. I subsequently emailed Rachio Support, which responded *promptly and courteously*. There is a significant time difference between the USA and Australia however depending on what time I sent emails, there was either a response that day or first thing, the next morning. To summarize my experience:1. I was asked to try a potential but it failed.2. The Support person, Skyler, then advised that he would send me a new controller straight away.3. I advised Skyler that I wanted to do one more test, before he sent it. That subsequent test failed too.4. I advised Skyler of this failure and provided delivery details. He responded quickly and said the new unit was on the way.5. The replacement controller arrived in 4 DAYS!!!! That's from Colorado (I believe) to Melbourne, Australia in 4 days, free of charge! This was an unbelievably good turnaround.6. The problem with zones 7 & 8 persisted with the new controller. (The fault appeared to have been copied over).7. A senior technician, Jared, contacted me **without my having to ask**. He was very keen to sort out the problem.8. He suggested a factory reset and voila! The new unit worked and so did the original controller once it was reset.At no stage did I think I was a burden... indeed - I was "thanked" on numerous occasions for assisting them with the diagnosis. In the end, I believe the problem was a small glitch in an earlier version of the firmware. The company hadn't seen it before, hence its taking a few days to sort it out.I reiterate - from timely communication, diagnosis to delivery half way around the world in 4 days of a replacement controller, Rachio's customer service was exceptional. I thoroughly recommend this company and its products to everyone on the planet.Suggestions for improvement?Rachio may have attended to this already but if not, I would recommend that the required power supply, depending on your country, is nominated and supplied at the time of the order. I had to purchase a local 230V. power supply (AUD $20) as my original unit came with a 110V P/S. It would just make a great product a little bit better and besides, this product deserves to be sold worldwide, in large volumes because it's so good!Disclosure: I've written this superlative review for no other reason than those contained in it. Buy with confidence.

I have installed the Rachio Gen 2 controller a few months ago and since then I've had an opportunity to discover helpful features and missed opportunities. I have read numerous reviews on this product and decided to purchase through Amazon.ca since there was no retailer available here in Canada. The product was delivered in a timely manner and the price was comparable to other irrigation controllers. Upon receiving the product I was surprise and pleased with the small size of the controller. I ordered the 8 zone model but the size is no different from the 16 zone model. The manuals provided or the ones available for download were fairly helpful. Some of the language and terminology could be changed but basically they were helpful. This model, Rachio Gen 2, has replace a Rainbird Esp-ME (working) and is used for my 4 zone irrigation ( front yard, side yard, back yard and flower gardens). We don't experience the water restrictions that others in warmer clients do however we do have some restrictions occasionally. We are on city water and we pay a flat rate for the water service each year. Water savings is not critical however it is always a concern. It also rains here...a lot. Since I am a building contractor, installing the Rachio controller in my home was not a problem. The controller looks as though it is hardwired however it is not. A nice clean look is very important to me. I was able to modify the wall which accepts the controller. Installation of the controller was pretty straightforward. Here are a few of the pros and cons:Pros: The ability to control most aspects of the irrigation through my phone or computer is certainly beneficial. The Rachio Gen 2 controller uses local weather or PWS's for irrigation times. There are a couple of sensor options on the controller as well. (rain, flow) I can also manually water each zone, anytime, anywhere, if I want, thru my phone. I can also change schedules through my phone or computer. This is a very convenient feature for myself and potentially for my clients. I haven't had to use the one 800 number yet and the updates are relatively frequent. The engineers at Rachio seem to be making slight changes to the product with some improvements. So far...so good. (That's encouragement btw)Cons: since the Rachio product is reliant on local weather stations to preform at its best, availability of good local or personal weather stations in my area is critical. The Rachio app allows you to choose local weather stations however these are limited to a few. My closes pws is 4.5 km away and the reliability is questionable. Having the WU (weather underground) as an option could be benificial to me and to Rachio. Personal weather stations in my area afiliated with the weather underground appear to be more reliant. Rachio does provide a work-a-round to the WU, but you must have a Mac ($1000-$2000). There are other option too but the price just goes up. ( special router, your own PWS $$$).Power. An option to hardwire the product. I don't want to see the wires.Start/Stop. I see the option to start irrigation at a specific time within the app but...I don't see the option to stop irrigation at a specific time. I need to stop at 9am. C'mon!Generally the Rachio Gen 2 product is fairly good. The updates and improvements seem slow in coming but I hold out hope that they will eventually arrive. I'll use the Rachio and watch the updates but I will keep the Rainbird ESP-ME on hand just in case.Update; April 2017, I've been using the Gen2 Rachio for almost a year now. No glitches at all. Updates are regular and the controller preformed as advertised. Other irrigation controllers are late to the table (smart features) or too bulky. I would give this controller 4 1/2 to 5 stars (ability to hardwire and weather station).So far...very good.