Smart Sprinkler Controller with 7 Zones - Gro

B-row: It controls the watering from a smartphone like a champ. Be nice if they just put a few zone buttons on it for when the internet is out or whatever. Just a push on push off for zones.... but apparently buttons are a thing of the past. Wired it through an old mechanical sprinkler controller for added functionality.
Is it smart? It promises smart watering. I can’t tell. It’s not like it asks what kind of soil or it’s condition, type of grass or anything. I’ve caught it watering as usual on the day after a big rain when set to smart... so...? I’m a renter or I’d pull up the lawn.
But I live in a sun baked desert that shouldn’t have lawns anyway so rain is seldom.
Nice to be able to hit test button from my phone to observe the sprinkler operation from any zone... not just from in my garage.
The server connection is free and you can see what it will do/doing/done. I got mine as a steeply discounted return so I consider it a good purchase.
The price of controllers is out of control. It’s a simple device. So it put a smart device into competitive pricing
Setup took about 10 minutes from taking down the old controller, wiring...

United States on May 01, 2021

muzzag50: Unable to get it work in Australia. Current App was not available from AU Playstore so needed to return item as useless to me. (old App did not work)

Australia on Nov 11, 2020

Derek Y: This product has some issues and Scott's customer support is not very responsive. It might be covid related.

So first some positives. Units are easy to install and look great. But that is about it.

Issue 1 You can ONLY connect 1 device to an account and have to have an account to run the device. I have two controllers so.... This is not really explained anywhere. Ok, i made a second account and shuffle back and forth. Annoying but not a huge deal.

Issue 2 both units are simply not reliable. There is a ridiculous amount of connectivity issues. It worked fine for a over a month May 9 to June 21(just long enough that I cant return) but since then almost every day I get a warning about connectivity issues and cannot tell from the app if water has been applied. Several days no water. Everything else on my network works fine, just not these two controllers. I have reconnected them, created a separate network for them specifically, no joy.
Maybe they work great if you only need 8 stations, Perhaps, I got a pair of lemons, either way Im just paying my stupid tax and getting the orbit.

United States on Jul 14, 2020

Jessie M: First, setup.

Setup might be easy for some, but if you have a complicated network setup, or don’t have a good grasp of how WiFi actually works, the setup can be a hassle. It took us about 4 hours for what should have been fifteen minutes. The switching over of the wires was no big deal. Very easy, actually. App for setup was easy to find in the App Store. Creating an account was a breeze. Then we tried to connect it to our WiFi. And it just would not connect.

The instructions in the box are over simplified. They never mention that you need to have it on a 2.47 GHz channel. Just that it needs to be a 2.4ghz network. When we had our router set to automatically pick a channel, it would connect then disconnect, if it connected at all. Once we found that channel, we had only one more issue, and that was with a secondary bridge broadcasting the same SSID. That also caused the controller to disconnect, as it saw both networks as individual ones. Each time this happened, the controller had to be reset. Scanning for WiFi networks was easy at first, and more difficult at other times.

Once we got connected and set up, zones were found automatically....

United States on Aug 23, 2018

T. K. W.: This unit has saved me so much time and headaches with my sprinkler system ... I can't give it enough praise. I've never lost connection and don't receive notifications like some others have complained about. Although I don't recall activating them. I have the unit in my basement and my router is upstairs. Fairly small house, so that may make a difference. The feature I like the best is the ability to stand in the front or back lawn and activate a zone to check that the heads are spraying correctly. Before GRO, I had to either dig out the box and manually turn on a zone, or go down to the basement and activate a zone and run up to the lawn and check the spray, then run back to the basement and turn it off. It also allows me to easily turn off all 7 zones (hibernate) if it's been raining, and do it from anywhere. I love it, and highly recommend it!!! Of course, a good wifi network helps.

United States on Aug 08, 2018