X-Core Irrigation Controller hàng hóa Guide
A smart sprinkler controller is like a smart thermostat for your garden or yard—it controls your watering schedule automatically so you don’t have to lift a finger.
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A smart controller intelligently optimizes your in-ground irrigation system by automatically adjusting khổng lồ weather conditions, making it easier for you lớn maintain a healthy landscape while cutting water use.
After four seasons of testing more than a dozen models, we continue to recommend the Rachio 3 for most people. It adjusts khổng lồ real-time weather conditions the most accurately and integrates with the most smart devices, yet it remains simple lớn use.
These devices require internet access to get weather forecasts, & some won’t function, or only in a limited way, if your service fails.
Ensure the mã sản phẩm you buy supports the right number of zones for your irrigation system, typically 8, 12 or 16.
To optimize watering, these devices rely on weather forecasts but also may use the types of plants, flowers, and veggies around your garden.
Only buy if you have or will install a wired, underground irrigation system. Hose timers or battery-powered systems won’t work.
Rachio 3
Set it & forget it
This is the most flexible & easy-to-use smart controller for your yard or garden irrigation system.
Compatible with: Amazon Alexa, táo bị cắn Home
Kit, Google Assistant, IFTTT, Samsung Smart
Things
The Rachio 3 (available in versions for four, eight, or 16 zones, plus a 12-zone version exclusive khổng lồ Costco) provides straightforward plug-and-play functionality for a beginner gardener, but it also offers enough fine-tuning và advanced settings to lớn satisfy a master horticulturist. Its Weather Intelligence Plus feature allows for hyperlocal forecasting, which makes watering more efficient. We like the option lớn use the basic (if not comprehensive) onboard controls for a quick watering, và we appreciate that the controller works with Amazon Alexa, táo apple Home
Kit, and Google Assistant, among other smart-home platforms.
Orbit B-hyve XR
Better coverage for bigger yards with smaller budgets
A rugged device with on-device và local control, the B-hyve XR can handle larger yards for less money than our picks, but its app isn’t as easy to use as others.
Compatible with: Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant
Designed to lớn be mounted outside without a separate case, the Orbit B-hyve XR uses its smart Weather
Sense algorithms to lớn maintain your yard effectively và has three small, full-color displays for extensive (though not comprehensive) on-device control. Its bluetooth radio is long range và able to connect to, & act as a hub for, other B-hyve devices (such as hose timers & flood sensors); it also allows for control of the system with your phone, even if the internet is down. The B-hyve XR is Water
Sense-certified and lets you choose your weather station, too, but it lacks some features we like, and its app isn’t as good as that of our pick, the Rachio 3.
Orbit B-hyve Smart Indoor Irrigation Controller
Style và simplicity for less
The B-hyve indoor controller is small, effective, and inexpensive, but it lacks some key features.
Compatible with: Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant
The Orbit B-hyve Smart Indoor Irrigation Controller (available for four and eight zones) is the least expensive smart sprinkler controller you can buy, yet it offers many of the same features as our vị trí cao nhất picks do, including smart tự động scheduling, a decent app, & an innovative, slim design. It’s also Water
Sense-certified, và it has basic controls on the device and lets you choose your weather station. However, it doesn’t offer 5 GHz Wi-Fi (as all our other picks do), và it works with the same, not-so-easy-to-use tiện ích as the Orbit B-hyve XR.
Rachio 3
Set it & forget it
This is the most flexible & easy-to-use smart controller for your yard or garden irrigation system.
Orbit B-hyve XR
Better coverage for bigger yards with smaller budgets
A rugged device with on-device and local control, the B-hyve XR can handle larger yards for less money than our picks, but its tiện ích isn’t as easy to lớn use as others.
Orbit B-hyve Smart Indoor Irrigation Controller
Style và simplicity for less
The B-hyve indoor controller is small, effective, & inexpensive, but it lacks some key features.
Jennifer Pattison Tuohy has been a writer và editor for more than đôi mươi years and has spent the past decade trying khổng lồ live a greener lifestyle (while writing about it). Along the way, she has turned her trang chủ into a smart home to explore more ways to save energy, water, & other resources. Also, it’s super fun.
Jennifer writes about smart-home technology & sustainable living for Dwell Magazine, US News & World Report, Wired, & The Ambient, among others. She has spent countless hours testing smart-home devices—including smart thermostats, smart garage-door controllers, and smart smoke alarms—for Wirecutter. & she has lived in homes with underground sprinkler systems for 17 years, experience that has provided plenty of hands-on time with electronic controllers.
For this guide she reached out to experts in the irrigation field, and she spoke with Guy Fipps and Charles Swanson of the Texas A&M Agri
Life Extension Service (who have been testing and researching weather-based irrigation controllers for over a decade). She also combed through Environmental Protection Agency research và reports on weather-based sprinkler controllers and their impact on water conservation.
Anyone who has a sprinkler system operated by a mechanical or electronic timer (clock) should consider upgrading lớn a smart controller, also known as a weather-based controller. Thanks to smartphone control, they are much easier to lớn program—some vì it all for you—and can reduce water use by employing real-time weather data lớn decide if and when lớn water your yard. A smart controller also automatically adjusts watering based on the season, so once you mix it up, you don’t have lớn reprogram it.
Controlling your sprinklers from your phone also turns out to be really handy & much easier than setting up a typical sprinkler controller. For example, you can turn the sprinklers off when you send the dog out for a break, or when you arrive trang chủ early and they’re spraying your driveway, or if you want khổng lồ pop out to vì yard work on a Sunday morning.
In order to lớn use a smart controller, you need to lớn have the right kind of irrigation system installed, specifically an underground sprinkler system with wired controllers. The devices we recommend here don’t work with battery-operated controllers or hose timers (although there are smart hose timers you can buy; we nhận xét one in our roundup of smart garden gadgets). These devices also rely on an mạng internet connection to lớn get the latest weather data & to tư vấn remote control, so you need lớn have a good Wi-Fi signal wherever you choose to install your device. (Don’t worry: If your Wi-Fi goes down, they will continue khổng lồ operate based on a preprogrammed schedule.) & you can program any smart controller to lớn work with local water restrictions, which helps you avoid potential fines.
If you find the dials và buttons or the tiny LCD screen on your existing irrigation clock frustrating to lớn use, you’ll love the ease of setting your sprinkler schedules in a smartphone app or on your computer. You can even mix different schedules for each of your system’s zones. Through an app, you can turn your sprinklers on và off remotely, mix rain delays, & program new watering times from wherever you are—on your couch or in another country. One important thing khổng lồ know: Many sprinkler controllers aren’t waterproof, so you need lớn install them either indoors or in a protected space such as a covered porch or garage, or you need khổng lồ buy a compatible weatherproof enclosure.
Smart controllers are for use only with underground sprinkler systems that have wired controllers. They don’t work with battery-operated controllers or hose timers.
Most smart controllers connect to lớn smart-home systems such as Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, and a few also work with táo khuyết Home
Kit, as well as Smart
Things và Wink hubs. These connections let you turn your sprinklers on with a voice command, say, or instruct them khổng lồ turn off when you open your front door so you don’t get wet on the way to collect the mail.
From a conservation perspective—and that of saving money on your water bills—smart controllers are critical. All of the models we tested are Water
Sense certified; similar to lớn the Energy Star program for home appliances, the Water
Sense program involves testing products lớn the EPA’s specifications for water efficiency và performance. Some water utilities offer rebates if you install Water
Sense irrigation controllers; rebates can cover a large portion of the cost of the device.
The EPA says that a Water
Sense controller could save the average trang chủ 7,600 gallons of water a year (PDF). If every home in the US that had a sprinkler system followed suit, that could save 120 billion gallons each year, not khổng lồ mention $435 million in water costs. If you live in an area that has high water prices or water shortages.
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Based on our research và testing, we determined that the best smart sprinkler controller is one that is easy khổng lồ install, offers an intuitive user interface, và sets intelligent schedules for you—but also one that allows you to lớn adapt and tailor schedules & evapotranspiration settings khổng lồ your specific needs. Và even though it’s important to keep an eye on your landscape to lớn make sure it’s getting the water it needs, we’ve concluded that the smartest smart sprinkler controller is one that lets you phối it và forget it, independently doing the work of supplying just the right amount of water lớn your yard.
accurately predicts & responds lớn weather in your immediate area (hyperlocal weather)provides clear weather data sources, with the option khổng lồ modify themoffers water-use reports & a log of activitysends timely alerts and notificationshas some on-device controls so that you or your landscaper can still operate the system without a smartphonecan continue lớn function if the internet connection goes downintegrates with smart-home systems khổng lồ extend value