Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsOne of the best smart home products in our house
Reviewed in the United States on August 2, 2017
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.
