Hunter Industries Hydrawise HC 12-Station Indoor Irrigation Controller

Die Installation war sehr einfach und hat direkt ohne Probleme funktioniert. Einfach nur Top!

Easy install & to program

Go with rainmachine. This was uterly useless. Bad integration with smart hubs and they require extra money to pick a water station close to you. Also, no way to know which sprinkler is on and when the scheduled watering schedule is coming or being cancelled. There is just no data which is key for anything that is labelled "smart". Hunter basically bought out a smart sprinkler company and stiffled their growth.

I will attempt to give this product as complete a review as I can. This is the first truly web-based watering solution I have used. It attempts to merge the best of the traditional irrigation timer with the best of the web-based timer. It does a good job bringing traditional and web based timers together. It is not perfect. It still needs some improvement, but it is evolving quickly thanks to a super responsive support group. I've contacted them four times via email. The first time was to ask about a feature I needed that wasn't available. Their response was within hours and told me how to work around what I wanted to do, and that they were releasing a feature that achieved what I wanted in the next 10 days. My second contact was right after the new release to ask why it wasn't working from my browser, turns out the cache needed to be cleared. No problem. Again, quick response. The third and fourth interactions were about 'bugs' in the software. Fields that were re-setting to default when an option page was opened. Again, their response was within hours and the response was that it was 'fixed'. Bug fixes within hours of reporting them, that's pretty darn good. They listen and they respond. Feel confident in purchasing this product for that service alone. By the way, don't let my use of the word 'bug' scare you. Overall the software on this unit is very stable. I've had no problems with this except for what I mentioned and they fixed it quickly.Now for the review:The GOOD:1) On-device touch screen for disconnected programming and use. This is an important feature. Sometimes, you need to work with the device directly. I'd stay away from devices with no manual interface. When things go wrong, like an WiFi outage, and you need to change something, this is a must.2) Sensitive WiFi. I was initially worried that my placement of the controller was in an area where my WiFi signal was going to be too weak. My unit is mounted outdoors on the side of the house in a weather proof enclosure. It is about 70' away from the WiFi source and across the entire house. The signal must travel through six walls, one of which is concrete stucco. Still connects just fine.3) Heat resistant. I live in Phoenix, AZ. It get HOT here. I was worried that it would be unreliable in the heat. For the last month it has been over 105degF with two weeks regularly over 111degF and the hottest day over 115degF. Unit is enclosed in a weather proof box on the east side of the house (i.e. in the sun in the morning). Works fine so far. We'll see how long the electronics last in this environment, but so far so good. I'll update the review if I see any instability issues.3) Nice user interface. Once you understand their concept of zones, schedules, triggers, and the such its very easy to program. Web interface and iOS interface are identical. No separate learning curve.4) Nice looking, easy to hook up. I like neat looking installations. Installed it in an weather proof enclosure, the wiring is neat and tidy. Looks good on the side of the house.5) Lots of stations. I have the 12 station version.6) Reliable. Nice and reliable. The bugs caused me to reset some settings unwittingly, but they fixed that right away.7) Top notch support. Fast response. Fast fixes. This is worth the price of the unit.8) Lots of sensors options available. Flow sensors, etc.9) Supports master valves.10) Easy to setup for world wide access. No port forwarding or firewall issues. No 'security' issues with people hacking directly into the device. The device is not visible to the internet. Their cloud base approach isolates direct access to the hardware from the internet. A direct local WiFi connection is supported if needed. Choose a strong password and security shouldn't be an issue.11) Lots of reports: Actual watering schedule, proposed watering schedule, rainfall trends, water usage, water savings, temperature trends, etc.The BAD:1) Station expansion is expensive. They offer a 6 zone and 12 zone model with 12 zone expansion modules. They really need an 8 zone offering. I'd replace the 6 zone with an 8 zone. I have 22 zones total grouped into a 7 zone area and a 15zone area. I have to have two timer because of this. I was forced to purchase a 12 zone controller to cover 7 zones, It would have been nice to have an 8zone option. I know, this is a personal problem, but I thought worth mentioning.2) Its not weather proof. Had to purchase an additional outdoor enclosure to mount the controller outdoors. I really don't mind that so much but it would be nice if Hydrowise offered a custom designed outdoor enclosure that fit it better, or offered an outdoor version. The multi-purpose enclosures are a little kludgy. I know, another personal problem, but what can I say, there aren't a lot of BAD's for this controller3) No 'custom' dashboard or reports. No ability to layout my own custom dashboard or to build my own custom reports. It would be nice future addition.4) No home automation integration. This may be possible and I just don't know about it. It would be nice if they published an API to allow for interaction between home automation systems and this controller.5) No multi-controller striping. This may sound strange but it would be nice to be able to virtualize the controllers in the dashboard. Right now, you choose which controller you are working with from a drop-down menu at the top of the page. It would be nice to virtualize the zones from multiple controllers into a single 'virtual' dashboard so that schedules could span controllers. This would be an awesome feature.6) Expansion units must be wired and need to be within a few feet of the main unit without purchasing additional hardware. The suggestion above in #5 would remove that restriction.7) In summery, very little bad about this device, and when there is an issue they fix it very quickly.The UGLY:1) The price. Its about 3x the price of a comparable traditional 12 station controller. Expansion is also expensive.2) Managing multiple controllers in a single 'schedule' is a little difficult. Easier than doing so with a traditional controller though. This is an area where they could evolve to make a 'mesh network' of controllers. Useful for larger properties like mine, ranches, gold courses, parks, etc.3) As you can see, there really isn't anything ugly about this controller. The price is what you pay for innovation. These guys have done a nice job, and I'm willing to pay extra for it.

I've been running my Hydrowise for a little over a week, and absolutely love it. This is really much more than a simple WiFi-enabled irrigation controller -- it's really a complete solution made up of the controller, cloud infrastructure, phone apps and accessory sensors (i.e., for now anyway their branded flow meters). If you are familiar with the Nest thermostat or Hue lighting systems, Hydrawise is a lot like those.I ruled out what at the time of writing this was Amazon's "best selling WiFi irrigation controller" because of that systems’ architecture. With that system (which lacked a cloud component to it) mobile/phone control could only be accomplished by setting up a port forward via your WiFi router. Being that I'm not an IT security expert, I'm really not into putting holes -- however safe they may or may not be -- into my home network. In addition, all of the programming in that architecture resides within the physical controller; so if the controller goes south so does your programming. With a cloud-based system your programming is independent of the physical controller… which is a small but nice benefit.Back to the Hydrawise… The first step I took before I purchased the controller was to set up a trial account on their site to see what the online component was like. It all looked pretty robust to me, so I ended up purchasing their 12-zone system. After getting the unit on my WiFi network I logged back into my "trial" account and entered the controller's serial number. This allowed the controller to download the irrigation zone and timing information that I had previously programmed (my "trial" account now turned into their free "home" account, once I entered in my controller's serial number).To use the weather forecasting features of the system the Hydrawise system allows you to "subscribe" to weather stations local to you. I had no problem finding several weather stations in my area to subscribe to. Once subscribed to a couple of stations you can set up triggers to have the system intelligently vary your watering (one can set a high temperature trigger that tells the system to water more on hot days, or a low temperature when not to water, or not water on days that it's going to rain, etc.).The best part of the system for me is that all of the programming, control and reporting can be accomplished via a mobile phone. You can turn systems on/off on demand, change water times/days, look at the past's weather condition reports (based on your previously subscribed to weather stations) and pretty much anything else you can imagine doing with a smart irrigation controller.Things get really cool when you purchase one of their accessory flow meters. Once installed in front of your valves it's a simple two wire connection to the controller to get it up and running. Once you have the flow meter installed a variety of water-usage reports are available such as: total water used, flow rates and water usage by zone. This is very handy for monitoring for potential leaks or broken emitters/sprinklers/pipes in your system. It really takes irrigation control to the next level.The 12-zone system also reports low-voltage situations which can result in your valves not operating correctly. I got several of these when I was setting up my system and had not made all of my valve wiring bomber (I’m planning on soldering these connections once I finalize everything). Good to know that this part of the reporting system works too.There's more stuff for professional landscapers with regards to alerts and multiple monitoring of irrigation controllers for clients. Check their site out if that sounds interesting to you.———BTW, this system is replacing my wireless Hunter WVP/WVC irrigation controllers. Although this system was good for the time (I originally purchased it back in the early 2000s) the hand-held controller is completely non-intuitive (which is understandable considering the now primitive display and old-school 4-way keypad). Every time I pick up the Hunter WVP hand-held controller I would have to dig for the manual to try and remember how everything worked. Not exactly user friendly.