Hydrawise Irrigation

Second season I have been using it and I do like the app a lot, but there are a couple things that drive me nuts. I use the reports section quite a bit and it defaults to the last week. So the first thing I have to do is change it to today and it does not retain the end user changes from session to session. Also the total water usage totals don’t always jive with the flow meter totals. Would be really nice if the app let you download the data into your own spreadsheet for further analysis. Don’t pay for the 5 weather stations service. For me it’s proven highly inaccurate. The only modification trigger that has helped me is the % chance of rain to abort watering. There is much room for improvement here to have it interface with your own weather observations at your exact location. All in all I like the app and hope they continue to enhance it. User defaults would be a huge plus.

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The performance is not very consistent- right now I can’t edit the zones - the pages won’t load. Every time I interact with the app there is always some different performance issue. Other things: I constantly have to log in with my email address (no “remember me” option). This is a real pain if my hands are wet or I’m wearing gloves. I agree with the other reviewer about the default report to week and need to always switch to day. The overall intersections of options are really not intuitive- setting a time on a zone is required, then you put it on a program schedule that overrides that, so the zone schedule time is no longer used or relevant. It’s not clear what zone settings vs program schedules are driving at any point in time. Overall insight into my set up is lacking. My water usage grew dramatically last month (based on my water bill) - I didn’t have insight into that. Perhaps I’ll add a flow meter, but out of the box I’m not seeing something like “total minutes programmed per day” or something that would give me a sense of what I’ve programmed over time and to make sure I did not cross my wires among all the levels of set up. Finally, the help pages are well documented but aren’t consistent with what I see in the app. Thanks. Ps if this gets posted note that every nickname I was required to enter to post was taken.

The app and controller have a lot of features I like and opening the app and the app connecting to the controller is by far faster and app tuns smoother than the rainbird app and their ESP-TM2 that I had before purchasing and installing the hunter hydrawise pro hc. But theres still is a delay with loading when first opening the app that could be improved more. I’m not sure if it’s possible because havn’t figured it out if it is possible, being able to have the option to set each zone at multiple different watering run lengths for each program start time’s instead of only being able to set each zone at only one run length each for all the programmed start times it is set to run on. Also would be nice to be able to see which exact zone the Reports chart is referring to under the Water Usage Flow Rates measurements when you click on one of the measurements instead of it only saying “There were 1 zones active at this time” without indicating what zone it was. Besides those things I have no actual complaints.

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The design and usability on the app is challenging. Very 90s feel to the views, navigation and controls. I am ready to go back to an inferior controller (RainMachine) because it was easy to use and see what was going on. I think that the Hunter system is more scalable and Enterprise/Industrial ready but the average homeowner is going to care more about how to configure and rely on the weather forecasting rather than learn about the solenoid levels on the sprinkler heads. No matter what I do, I can’t get the sprinkler system not to bypass a cycle when either a) it just poured b) it is pouring or c) it is predicted to (and then does!) pour. The forecast data is not being used in a digestible way. If you are a contractor or installer, this thing is awesome. You can see all of your customers and diagnose many problems without coming on site. If you are the average homeowner looking for a smart sprinkler system to save some money on water and do what is right for the environment, skip this and get a Rachio or a RainMachine.

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The app is very complex and difficult to use. I think I have it mostly figured out after two years. I still hate the circles you move with your finger to adjust the watering time. Just give me a box to enter the time numerically. Also, why not have a “basic” mode? The problem with this app is it has advanced scheduling features that most people don’t care about or use. Just give me the basic, old school view so I can easily set my sprinklers to run on certain days for certain time periods. A nice toggle on/off button Basic Mode vs Advanced Mode. Make it happen please!! Until then, 1 star. App is just too cumbersome and hard to use.