RainMachine Pro-8

I purchased this Wi-Fi enabled controller over others for the simple reason that you do not have to be connected to the cloud to operate it. Plus, I loved the simplicity of it on how you connect your irrigation wires, it looks great and the display is very bright, easy to read, touch enabled and easy to use.For me, this was a replacement of an old manual Toro irrigation controller. So, before I dismantled it, I labeled all the wires with zone 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc. as well as the COM wire. (Sorry, I am not sure what COM stands for but that's what it said on the Toro and it corresponded to the first "C" on the RainMachine.) Labeling them made it extremely easy to attach the wires to the RainMachine. That literally took 60 seconds to do when I got to that step.Once your zones were plug in as well as the power, you are ready to go. The app was a little odd, IMO, in setting up at first. But after just literally a few minutes, I got it up and running and set up my first program.I have had this unit up and running for just 3 days so far. Now, if I am wrong about my assessment and it breaks down on me, I will happily update this review. But I love it so far!I have this unit installed outside in an Orbit weather proof box and the actual controller along with the bulky power plug fits great inside of it.

What a sham of a business. The pro8 todo an hour to setup initially because I had to reboot the unit, network and phone multiple times. Finally it worked. Super easy to program and worked well for 2 months. It disconnected from the WiFi and was totally useless. Contacted support and a new one was ordered but delayed due to Covid. Finally came beginning of August. Of course, cannot get through the setup to connect to the WiFi. Told by support it’s an Apple problem. Tried the pc/web interface and still no connection. HomeKit doesn’t work either as advertised.Take my advice and stay away from this completely useless product and even more useless product support.

I bought this thing to replace an old timer which came with the house and costing me a ton in water bills. Installing the irrigation wires took less than a minute. It took longer to find a spot on the wall that has an outlet to power it up. My WiFi signal isn't that good due to router being located upstairs living room, but I do have a network switch in my garage that my security camera's run through. So I plugged in the ethernet cable to my RainMachine Pro and fixed that problem. Touch screen is awesome, tells me everything I'll need, works like a garage clock that tells you today's temperature.Best thing about this particular device is if your internet goes down, it will still work. Of course you can start and stop the watering remotely via phone or from anywhere in the world.Really a great device, simpler to install than I imagined.

I absolutely LOVE this device (Pro-8)! It installed easily and does everything it says it will. From the time the box arrived to having it on the garage wall and working took exactly 9 minutes (I’d already removed the old unit). Have had it running for a while now and it does a great job of cutting back on watering when it’s not needed. Just this morning, on its own, it skipped watering altogether due to the forecast for rain and, sure enough, as I write this it’s midafternoon and it’s pouring. Running it manually is a snap from phone, tablet or PC. This is going to make life easier AND pay for itself in less than a year. Smartest purchase I’ve made in a long time. Go RainMachine!!! (I have no relationship with the company and I paid full price for the product after having previously purchased and returned a competitor’s product.)

This product replaced an old, heavy RainBird controller. Nothing wrong with the Rainbird, just that it was very manual and we had to remember to turn it off when it was raining and turn it back on after. This product is very lightweight and easy to install and very nice to look at on the wall in our garage. The plastic is a bit thin, but don't care all that much for something that is going to sit in the garage. Installation is very easy. Took a picture of the existing wiring and moved it over.Haven't had it long, but the day rain was forecasted, it actually did rain and the sprinklers did not go off!I like the app as I can turn sprinklers on or off at will from my phone and not have to open the garage and monkey with a dial switch. This was very useful in showing the gardener an issue with one of our valves. The app has loads of features, much more than I need. You can take a picture of various parts of your garden (zones) and this shows on the app along with the name of the zone. It is a nice touch.I like that this communicates directly with free weather services and does not require any subscription fees.This does have built in Google Home integration, but it is a bit unwieldy- you have to tell Google Home to tell the Rain Machine to turn on/off the sprinklers. Native Google Assistant integration would bump this to 5 stars.I used IFTTT app on my iphone to better integrate with Google Home. Now I can say "Start the sprinklers" or "Stop the sprinklers" and Google Home will comply. I could go further with individual zones, but I'll save that for a later day.

A bit tricky to set up (need to link phone to the device's WiFi address - which turns out to be temporary but this is poorly documented. Also poorly documented was the wiring method, which wasn't difficult once decoded.) A simple joy to use - easy to tag zones with your own photos, and very easy to invoke watering from the phone app (Android for me). Monitors weather reports accurately. Also, not to be overlooked, is the privacy issue. Using this from the phone is a private affair (I did not set up Alexa integration or anything web-based.) Recommended.