B-hyve Indoor Timer

There’s a part of me that resists giving this unit a 5 star review, but I honestly don’t know why. So far my B-hyve controller has performed flawlessly. I replaced an old unit that I had installed in my laundry room. So I already had 24v power and wiring (to solenoids) in place. I’m using all 4 Zones. I love being able to control the zones or change the programming remotely. Examples: 1) I switched from my summer to winter schedule while on travel - 2000 miles away. 2) I can put the system in rain delay mode whether I’m at home or not. 3) We have a hose bib that is controlled by this unit which I can now activate “manually” without running back to the control unit. Etc. Our unit has had no problem maintaining WiFi signal. I found the programming to be intuitive. Installation was straightforward. My only concern was the reports of inconsistent “smart watering” - where the unit can decide to skip watering if there is rain in the forecast. Being that our house is in Phoenix, we can’t afford any poor decisions to halt watering when our specific property doesn’t get the rain that was forecast. So I chose to defeat that feature (a programming option). But for those who are interested, you can change/program the threshold that the unit uses to self-activate a watering delay. Bottom line: I’m quite satisfied with the unit and I recommend it - assuming you have an indoor location for it (or an appropriate outdoor protection box).

This is my third B-Hyve unit. The products are easy to install and have a good application, making it easy to set up and control the unit. I have two units being used for sprinkler control. I particularly like how the units adjust for the weather. If it rains, they will not water. If it is very hot and dry, they will water more. This third unit I am using to add water to the pool. With the dry heat of summer, water needs to be added to the pool 2-3 times per week. It’s working well and it’s priced reasonably considering that it connects with your home Wi-Fi so that you can connect and check on your irrigation from anywhere.

I was skeptical at first. I can’t lie. I’ve had horrible experiences with WiFi related home use products. I normally shy away for the pure hatred that has instilled in me, but this isn’t one of those items. First off, set up was a breeze. The app and included instructions walk you through it step-by-step. I set it up in my kitchen, because I was afraid my wifi signal was going to be too weak in the garage. Not sure why I was so worried, because it picks up signal just fine! Swapping wires was just as easy, especially if you take a picture on your phone of how they were in the junk controller. By far my favorite feature of this is the fact that I can be sitting at work, an hour away from my home, and turn on my sprinklers. It helps put my mind at ease when the winds are starting up and the red flag warnings are starting to be talked about. I also like the weather feature on this controller. It picks up when the forecast is calling for wind, rain, or freezes, and automatically puts on a hold on the watering schedules. I am using the smart watering feature, and it’s amazing how well my yard has responded to the changes this unit has made. I set up what type of soil and grass I have, what grade the yard is at, how much sun and rain each section sees and the controller takes care of the rest. It really couldn’t be any simpler. Overall, if you’re looking for a replacement sprinkler controller, this unit is a major win. It’s got ease of use, features that make sense, and doesn’t require any sensors on the house to know if rain or other weather is coming in. I can’t recommend this product enough!

First, never buy the used units. I ordered used to save some money but a brick came in the mail; it would not pair with my phone nor could I reset it at all, it was completely inoperable. So obviously Amazon is not testing these in any way before reselling them. I replaced it with a new unit (which wasted a week of my time.) However the new unit setup was easy and programming was also easy. There are a few issues in the app. First the on/off toggle switches on programs are buggy. The button visibly toggles with finger taps but then sporadically immediately flips back to the first state which is extremely frustrating. An application should never presume to revert my direct input to it without a message explaining why. I discovered the switches work more reliably with tiny swipes instead of taps which is difficult to do with buttons are are smaller than a finger pad. Second issue is that the precipitation forecast in the app is completely unreliable. I compare it to my local weather app and they frequently disagree. One says sunny while the other says rainy, and so far my weather app seems to be more accurate. The Hyve app does NOT show the source of the data and the source cannot be changed. The app could be better by allowing an option for a more accurate forecast source. Third issue is that the smart watering is unusable at least by me. I entered all my information about my system and soil and the programs it made were much longer than I would ever want and it would break my water budget quick. Hyve wanted to run two cycles per each zone upwards of 15 minutes to 30 minutes. Previously I never ran any of my zones more than 8 or 10 minutes each.

The controller was super easy to set up. I purchased 2 to replace my manual controllers that were getting old. Having a smart controller with all the cool features makes a huge difference. Very glad i replaced my old ones with these.

This works great, easily connected to the Wi-Fi, and makes it super easy to program the zones. Best of all, I don't need to go out to the garage to adjust a zone or test it.

It's true I got the first one several years ago, with a rebate from my utility company. In the time since they have made significant improvements to the app. The controller you are buying takes the instructions from the associated smartphone app (or web interface) and turns them into signals for your irrigation controllers. Of course, your wifi needs to reach your controller. It installs as easily as any controller--you plug it in, and connect up to 8 circuits, usually using a common ground and a single wire for each circuit. You could use two five strand wires and connect 4 ciruits using each 5-wire cable, assuming you have your irrigation valves in one or two boxes. Best reason for buying this--while you work on the irrigation circuits you pull your phone out of your pocket, select the circuit, hit test to turn it on, and stop to turn it off. No shouting to the person in the basement or garage, or using two smart phones and trying to tell them what you want. Next best reason for buying this--it turns off the circuits when rain is in the forecast. This doesn't work so well in the desert, as we often only get 1/10" of rain, but at least I know to check the weather before I override it. Also it does freeze delays. The smart watering features are cool, but I do a combination of smart and manually programmed because it's all drips, did I mention the desert? My son likes to say, "Hey, Google, water the lawn." This is just dumb. Hopefully he'll get over it before too long. At least his wife can say, "Hey, Google, stop watering the lawn." just as easily. This could be used with door to door salespeople, though, with a little customization....hmmmm. Don't tell anyone you got this from me. The B-hyve app has a very useful feature, you can adjust your program (up to 4 programs plus the smart watering, actually) so that it goes from 50% to 200% using a single setting. In the high mountain desert, we have highly variable temperatures through our short season, so there is a big difference between May, July, and September. Also, my son might not need this, but I find it very helpful to have a picture and a descriptive title for each circuit in the app on my phone. Before I always had to look up whether 3 was flowers in front or trees in the meridian, etc. Now the title and the picture make it clear (or clearer, depending on how I labeled it in the first place.) B-Hyve by Orbit is not the only smart controller, but it's the only one I've used, and it's worked great. It does not require that you use other components from the same label--the output on the two wires to each valve is quite standard, and the app works on both android and apple, with alexis and google as well, but you don't need any of these to use the controller, so long as you have a way of accessing the internet. You do need a wifi signal that reaches the controller. If your phone can reach the wifi from where your controller is, the controller can probably reach the wifi too.

I called the company before purchasing this timer to verify that I could program all 8 zones separately and they assured me that was the case. That was a lie. This lets you program 8 zones, but only within 4 programs, which means that multiple zones have to fall within one program. What's worse, is that you can't know when one particular zone will get watered, because they will have to run one after another, regardless of what time you programmed them to start. My citrus trees might get watered at 9 pm one night and maybe at 10 pm another night based on what other trees might need watering that night. I have called the company and they don't have a solution. The timer only has 4 programs. It really isn't a true 8 zone programmer. It really isn't a smart timer at all. I tried to test each zone, and it let me test the first one, and then it locked up on the second one, and won't let me test any of the other zones. It really isn't a smart timer at all. I have two other GREAT old timers that I can program each zone individually, and I have to make sure that none of the zones run at the same time with 3 timers running, and now I can't know exactly what time each zone will run on this "SMART" timer. If you only have 4 zones, or if you don't really care about these issues, you might not care, but this is absolutely ridiculous. An 8 zone timer should let you program each zone for exactly when you want it to run. This timer does not have those features, because the APP won't allow you do that. It gets worse, if you buy the 12 zone timer, it runs on the same APP, meaning you are still stuck with 4 programs, so you'll have to piggyback 3 zones in each program, in the best case scenario. Because they have to share certain characteristics, you might end up with 4 or 5 programs in a program. Good luck figuring out when each zone will actually get watered. I like to check on things in my yard and see what's happening, and I can't do that with this "smart" timer. This piece of crap is going back, and I hopefully I can get my peace back as well, because this thing has stolen far too much of my time and serenity. On a positive note, tech support did call me, and they admitted to having a lot of complaints about these issues. It would probably take a programmer about 20 minutes to solve this problem in the APP. Whoever designed the APP has never had trees or a yard, I can guarantee you that. They just got paid to create a fancy app, a one size fits all. The app is perfect for the 4 zone timer, but that's about it. They have to take calls from people like me and waste countless hours instead of having someone fix the app.