Orbit 57915 B-hyve 4-Zone Indoor Smart Sprinkler Controller

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).

Pros- 1. Easiest timer to program I've ever used. 2. Easy to install- less than 5 minutes 3.Turns scheduled program off when its raining Overall best sprinkler timer I've purchased Cons- None

This controller is my go to for DIY to my irrigation installations. Very user friendly and durable. I stress user friendly for my clients. I simply set the controller on my end then send a code to the clients phone, after entering it into their app all the settings automatically down load.

We own a 10 acre blueberry farm. I wanted to convert my sprinkler system to a smart system, that would use the weather map, current soil conditions as well as remote access via my phone. This was the perfect unit for our farm. It has probably paid for itself this week, as our weather has changed many times from Hot to hard rain. The unit put the farm on water hold for the last 3 days, which is exactly what I would have done manually. It is easy to program and run. One thing to mention is the unit is too far from our house to pick up any WIFI. I located an old cell phone that we no longer use. I purchased a SIM card for data only for $5 per month. The B Hyve picks up the wifi from the cell phone while on Wifi share mode. The only thing I wish the unit had is a battery backup system. I use solar panels to power the B Hyve, but sometimes we don't get enough light in the PNW to charge the backup battery system for this unit.

The B-hyve 4 Channel Water Sprinkler replaced a 20 year old rainbird. It's about 1/3 the size of the Rainbird by volume (good). I admit I had some trepidation, based on the few bad reviews, but figured I'd take a leap of faith. A wifi sprinkler system that I could monitor and control while travelling sounded very attractive, esp when "home" was hit with a heatwave! The eventual garage destination for the unit is about 45' from my home TPLink AX50 Wifi-6 router, and crosses through two walls, one floor, and a garage shelf stacked with paint cans. My phone gets 1-2 wifi bars from that location, so I had some connectivity concerns. In the end wifi signal strength was not a problem. Before Amazon delivered the B-hyve, I downloaded the Android app, but stopped when it reached the point where it tried to initiate contact with the (B-hyve) device. Lesson for others, it's not worth downloading the app until the unit is in-hand and powered on. When the B-hyve was delivered, I connected the unit to the 24VAC adapter and powered it up in my living room. I started the Android phone app and continued through the process of setup.. initially through Bluetooth. As mentioned in another review there is RISK involved in connecting the unit to Wifi because you enter your wifi SID and password into the phone app that is transmitted to the B-hyve unit. The B-hyve license agreement (aka terms) appears to follow strong European Union GDPR Personal Info (PI) regulations. I've contacted Orbit and asked if they collect or retain my router password. if Orbit doesn’t reply or replies affirmatively, I’ll have to think about whether the risk is worth keeping the unit. There’s NO reason why the router password needs to leave my home network and collecting it on Orbit servers would be an absolute breach of trust. I spent at least a couple of hours trying to program the B-hyve the first time. I was interested in watering my lawn (2 circuits/channels) using the "smart watering" feature, which uses inputs like soil, plant type, location info, and weather data to determine when and how to water. I was willing to abandon my wired outdoor Toro rain sensor that I used with my Rainbird controller. However my hanging plants and planters need every day, 2-3 times daily watering, once at 3p at the hottest part of the day. After over an hour of dicking around with "smart watering", I set up a manual program for the planters. Oh, btw, I had to go online to find out that you set up manual programming from the app Home screen, which is an Industrial Engineering FAIL since the app starts you on the Zone screen on first time startup (as in WTF Home screen? Oh That Home screen!) The thing about Smart Watering is that it forced the start time for my lawn watering at 6am. Apparently it's not smart enough to work around my planter manual program, and after much effort trying to change the Smart Watering start time, moved my manual program start time instead. That took about 30mins of dicking around. The Smart Watering system broke up my lawn watering into 3 cycles, repeated back to back. I guess that's to help the water sink in and reduces run off. Ok. I can deal with that, even though my yard is relatively flat. When I moved my control wires from my Rainbird to the B-hyve, I screwed up the order. But when connected for the first time, only #3 controller worked. And then when I cycled through the zones, only #3 turned on a circuit. After some trial error, it seems like the B-hyve gets confused if you power it off and on and DON'T close and restart the app. That said, I was more careful to insert the control wires fully and tighten it down with the (included! thx!) mini screwdriver. The cavity behind the cover was able to accommodate all the extra wire (power and control), so the finished installation is very neat (excellent!) I will say, the wifi convenience is nice. I can test/check the sprinkler system from anywhere in the yard, whereas in the past I would be running back and forth like a chicken with his head cut off. And I can monkey with the settings while relaxing in my living room. I also run a copy of the Android app in a Windows Bluestacks emulator session, for the rare instances I'm on my laptop and am too lazy to reach for my phone. And I resurrected my Toro rain sensor for one of my manual, backyard circuits, where all plants receive rain. (Update 5/1/21) Email reply extract from Orbit, regarding the B-hyve app's use of the router password: The password is not saved at all. It is only used to access the router, and it is never seen on our end by a person. That information is not stored. S****** D. B-hyve Project Manager

Would recommend. Easy setup. Longest point was allowing unit to update to most current software on initial setup. App was easy to use and also provided videos if you needed extra support. Easy to program. Get this if you are wanting something simple....you won't be disappointed.

Great device. For me this is a replacement unit for a Netro unit that became unstable. What impresses me most is how easy it is to use after the initial set up. It offeres all the features you want and need with a straight forward interface.

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.

It's an excellent product. Easy to program and no need for a rain sensor. It receives notifications to shut down unit if rain is coming.

War eine Ersatzbeschaffung. Das Gerät hat eine leicht einzurichtende Software. Ich nutze Sie auf dem Handy. Die Bewässerungssteuerung läuft sehr gut mittels Wetterbericht.

El equipo es auténtico y totalmente nuevo, el precio fenomenal, se instala muy fácil y su programación es muy completa, rápida y sencilla.

My old controller died from being outside in the weather, so it was the perfect time to update to something more “smart”. Found this unit, and it’s been awesome. Easy to setup with the app, adding zones is a breeze, and the smart watering feature is great. Set how many heads per zone, soil type, grass type, and how much sun the zone gets and it sets the watering times for you. Obviously you can manually set the run times for each zone instead, if that’s what you want. Automatic rain delay is a cool as well, it monitors the weather and will pause the programs if it rains. No separate rain sensor required. Simple integration with Alexa, we can tell her to water zones and for how long and it works flawlessly. Love the watering history feature in the app, it tells you exactly how long each zone has watered by the day, week, month, etc. Super happy with it, highly recommend.

Works Good. Easy to use