Orbit 90204Z B-hyve Gen 2 Smart Hose Watering Timer with Wi-Fi Hub

At this point I have two of the Orbit 24634 B-hyve XD 4-Port Smart Hose Watering Timers and one of the Orbit 21027 B-hyve Gen 2 Wi-Fi Hubs.I only recommend this if you plan to use your phone (I have an iPhone) to control things. It can be hand programmed, but I would not suggest doing it that way except to initially set the clock (that must be done at the unit).A good place to understand how to set things up and see how it functions can be found here on YouTube. Unfortunately, links are not allowed, but try googling “Orbit B-Hyve XD Smart WiFi Water (Hose) Timer - Unboxing, Configuring, and Review”You do not need to buy the hub to control the watering timers. They will work fine with Bluetooth. However, Bluetooth has a limited range. If you want to be able to control the watering timers wherever your local WIFI network exists or even remotely when you are on WIFI (like on vacation) you will want the Gen 2 hub – you only need one. It was nice getting watering notices when I was recently out of town.The hub should be located where it can reach all your water timers with Bluetooth (I would say 10-20 feet – 10 ft if you are going thru brick façade, etc.). It only works at 2.4 GHz.Start with programing each of the Zones (see you tube video above). Since I have two water timers I gave them different names so I can tell which is which. When you have things programmed (I have a program for each Zone on each watering timer) then play with the app. There are a lot of options and the easiest way to figure things out is to try all the options.Store this thing inside where it is warm for the winter (before the first freeze). Getting all the water out is hard and things can freeze in the garage. If it freezes most likely will stop working due to damage.Big plus is the unit seems to be water tight. In particular, the battery pack has an O-ring to seal water out. The water timers run on only 2 AA batteries. The WIFI hub plugs into the wall. If things are powered down, you will need to add them back to your phone app (for example moving the WIFI hub location).I have only had this equipment for about two weeks so I am not sure what happens when you pull the batteries. Hopefully there is static memory so when you put new batteries in you don’t need to reprogram it, but I would suspect it needs to be reconnected to the phone app.

You have three options when you start adding new plants to a yard: you can water manually all the time, you can do a ton of digging to add zones to your sprinkler system, or you can do one of these. I moved into the B-hyve ecosystem a few years ago when my old Rainmachine died and it was obvious that the company wasn't coming back. I've very glad that I did.- Easy to set up. Attach to your faucet, attach your hose, turn on the water, and use the app to set and forget. Each of the four valves can be controlled separately, but not at the same time (not enough water pressure).- The Bluetooth-WiFi bridge is a must if you don't yet have one. Otherwise it can only be programmed and monitored when your phone is in range. It also means no persistent data access. You can easily set this up standalone with the controls on the device should you so choose.- When the instructions say "don't leave this outside in freezing weather", it's serious. I had one valve crack because of this. When you have a freeze warning, turn off the faucet and disconnect it to prevent damage.- A pair of AA batteries lasts the entire season. It's nice to not burn through a ton of them.- The application has improved with time. It used to be a lot less intiutive. Even so, the software has some learning curve if you need to make manual adjustments. It's also frustrating that each device is managed completely separately rather than from a unified console. The web interface has been quite broken for some time and is basically unusable, but the mobile app is good enough that this is an annoyance rather than a barrier to use.

I picked up two of these four port timers to set up irrigation in my backyard for over 40 trees. I live in Arizona so not only is irrigation important, but one day without can do serious damage to a young tree if something happens to the system. For the most part I have been very happy with these timers. I access them most often using the Bluetooth option from just inside my home. I do not have or use the hub, I don't find it necessary.Here's where their customer service comes into play. The only issue I've had with these timers is that they have occasionally frozen up. The one on my east faucet has frozen four times, the one on my west faucet has frozen once. When I say Frozen I mean stuck on the same screen, the timer is not activating when it's programmed, I cannot connect to it with my phone via Bluetooth. After the first occurrence of this, which I didn't notice for 3 days so my new row of fig trees took a major hit, I realized that I would be able to tell it was frozen because I could not connect via Bluetooth. If I slip the batteries out, wait 5 seconds then slip them back in the unit will work fine again for the most part. This was a real drag but it seemed like something I could work with since I have the Bluetooth application.The problem is that with Arizona's 100° plus temperatures if it freezes up for the day then I have one zone on the east side that really gets hit hard because it's all young rooted cuttings. While the rest of my yard looks fantastic, that one zone looks like it was just planted because it's been hit by system freezes four times and keeps being set back. So I reached out to their customer service using the chat option on their website.Orbits customer service was fantastic! (To be clear, I reached out to the manufacturer not to Amazon.) The agent was very friendly and for the most part knew what I was saying. He continued to come back to questions about the app, like that was the cause of the problem, but I believe that's because they have to ask a bunch of very specific questions before they can honor the warranty. I was on chat with them for about 20 minutes. I did not give them the model number because it was still in use and I didn't want to take my system apart and read it from the bottom of the unit. This was not an issue. He just asked me to hop on Amazon and send them a screenshot of my purchase 4 months ago. Which was easy enough. I did not ask for a refund. I did not ask for a replacement. I was simply reaching out to them to let them know that there is an issue with their timers. Especially since I never let either of my timers get below 80% battery life. I'm pretty neurotic about that.After a pleasant 20 minute conversation with their customer service I ended the chat with a warranty code for the orbit websites so that I could go on and order two replacement units ( under warranty replacement ) at no charge to myself. No shipping charge, no cheap little hidden charges like that, just 2 valid replacements at no cost.This has been an overall positive experience and I wouldn't hesitate to pick up their products again. As far as issues go, this is something I can work with if it happens on a new issues as long as I stay on top of checking everyday. Which is a little annoying but not the end of the world. I have otherwise had no issues. They're constructed well and for the most part function great. Other than that one issue.(I did attach several pictures to show the difference between the zones. All of these were planted in May and they were all rooted cuttings that were about 8 in tall. The first two pictures are of fig bushes on the west side that have not had as many issues. They have multiple canes and stand close to 5ft tall already. The next two pictures of the smaller trees are from the zone that got hit from the timer freezing up. Obviously, they should be much bigger going into this time of year. They stand at about 1.5ft tall currently. But, I didn't actually lose any and they should make up for lost time next spring.)