Discontinued Rachio 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.