Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsAlmost awesome
Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on August 3, 2018
I've been using this for nearly three months now.
Pros:
-Small.
-Fairly durable.
-Hasn't had any trouble with rain.
-Very intuitive user interface; i.e. easy to program and use.
-Nice big display.
-Still on the first set of batteries, so that is good.
Cons:
-Programmable scheduler is limited.
-Plastic hose fittings haven't broken, but I have very easily cross-threaded one when screwing a hose to it; hose fittings would be better in brass, methinks.
-Bug!!! I could be wrong, but this looks like a software bug. I can water gardens with a hand sprayer any time, so I'd like to turn on the water for 20 minutes, go spray the gardens down, and when the time's up the water shuts off. Seems simple enough, right? So I press the Manual button, and see the default time of 10 minutes, then use the +/- buttons to set the time to 20 minutes, wait a few seconds and the water comes on... perfect! Except, about one out of every four times I do this, after 20 minutes, the timer resets to 20 minutes and starts counting down again without shutting the water off. If this isn't a bug, could someone explain why it's doing this? More importantly, how to prevent this?
Wishes:
Watering restrictions in my area are as follows: lawns may be watered from 4AM-9AM on Wednesdays and Saturdays. OK, that's two five hour blocks of time. The scheduler allows up to four hour blocks at a frequency of once per 1/2/3/4/7 days, or more frequently, like every 12 hours or every 6 hours. I would like to set a five hour block of time on Wednesdays & Saturdays. What I end up doing is letting the water come on at 4AM, and every 45 minutes or so I move the sprinkler. At some point I manually override the timer to get that extra hour. I do this by pressing the manual button and setting the time to what's left of the five-hour block. It would be nice to not have to do this. Since watering is only allowed two days per week I must remember to adjust the programming each night before the permitted watering day, and afterwards make sure I disable the timer until the next watering day. On my wish list: A fully arbitrary schedule with 7 day programs of up to two watering periods per day. I know I'm not asking for much, but if ya don't ask, ya don't get. Can't this be more like an electronic thermostat with 7-day program?
The above scheduling issue and software glitch aside, this thing is awesome. If it weren't for the software glitch I'd give it 5 stars, even with the limited scheduler.
