Hunter Soil-Clik Soil Moisture Sensor

Works like a charm. Cut our water bill from $160/month to $35 and the grass is still green. If you have a Rain-Click you can use both by wiring the Soil-Clik in series with the zone stations common. I didn’t. Installation is a snap and you can tell at a glance the on/off status and moisture level at the probe.

This device in principle, is a good idea. It doesn't work very well in our dense silty soil. It's difficult to get it located in such a way to represent the majority of the yard due to such differences as sun vs shade and slope vs flat. But... that said... the sensor itself works as tested. I'm not sure it's worth relying on this though to control watering. There needs to be a better way to achieve this same goal - maybe a small network of similar sensors that can be placed throughout the lawn - ie tied to sprinkler heads etc (brainstorm, hello?? - this is a sprinkler company)... and then the controller could take an average or even associate those sensors with specific zones and modify watering in those areas. That would be "smart"... right now, it's just a dumb sensor that doesn't dry out at an equal rate as my soil and cuts off watering when it shouldn't and allows watering sometimes when it shouldn't. The gutter rain/freeze sensor is a lot more reliable.

When power fails watering is ON. For my irrigation system with a battery, power failure means it waters constantly. A backup battery for this 24VAC sensor is expensive. I wish I could set it so that when power fails watering is OFF. (I eventually fixed this problem with an external relay.)

I waited until I had completed a spring and summer to review this device. I have to say that it is a really useful way to understand what is going on under my soil. After you use it for a full summer you will start to under stand how much your soil drys out under different conditions. Then you can get a reading of the current status so that you know for sure whether or not you need to water. I live in North Texas and have the black clay dirt and I put the sensor 6" deep like the instructions say to do. I would see the level drop about 4 bars after two hot sunny summer days. Now in the other seasons I can tell that I don't need to water until the level drops 4 bars. This is much better than a rain gauge in my opinion because it is not exposed to wind and direct sun heat. I am really impressed with the accuracy and usefulness. It sends On/Off signals to my iPhone but it can't send the actual readings so you may find yourself needing to go to the device to read it until you get a good idea of how it is working with your soil and location. Then you can set it to inhibit watering via your controller so that everything is automatic.

To soon to tell. Ask me again in September

When the sensor is placed 6" below the surface in clay it will never dry out enough before next watering cycle (4 days later). NEVER seen the display to show no less than 9 bars. Moved the sensor to just below the sod line (2") and made no difference. The soil has to dry out and become like a brick before it will enable the controller. And yes, I have set the upper limit threshold to the max just to get it to turn on....

In dry the Colorado plains this is wonderful product! I added the SMS to my digital Rain Machine controller which modulates the irrigation output by tracking the weather forecast. By observing my neighbor's irrigation pattern I can see I am conserving water and the lawn is being fed. The graphics show you right where your soil moisture content is.

maybe this is worth 5 stars, but it took more work then I thought it would take. Depending on the soil, the wide lag -lead measurement is overkill for many people. Works good for me because of the wide range of rainfall in Florida

Ho integrato soil clik al programmatore Hydrawise pro-hc. L'installazione è semplice, il controller Soil clik è alimentato direttamente dagli appositi ingressi presenti sul programmatore così come i cavi del sensore collegandoli agli appositi terminali sen1+com. La sonda va interrata a circa 15 cm di profondità e collocata nell'ultima zona che viene irrigata in una parte del giardino molto soleggiata. Il livello di umidità desiderato oltre il quale verrà abilitata/inibita l'irrigazione con ogni probabilità richiederà alcuni aggiustamenti da effettuare direttamente sul controller del soil click dovuti principalmente alla composizione del terreno e dalla preferenze personali. Il sistema almeno nel mio caso ha cominciato a funzionare bene dopo circa 10 giorni di assestamento. Vantaggi: -Una volta settato correttamente l'irrigazione avrà luogo solo quando il soil clik darà il consenso e l'inibirà non appena raggiunto il grado di umidità prescelto. Fine dei pensieri ! -Facile installazione. -In caso di pioggia arresta l'irrigazione comportandosi come una sorta di sensore pioggia (più lento). -Tramite interfaccia/app Hydrawise esiste la possibilità di personalizzare il sensore usufruendo di ulteriori opzioni: ritardare lo spegnimento della zona che sta irrigando o impostare per quanti giorni il soil click debba rimanere inattivo. - Possibilità di metter in pausa il soil clik (esclusione) Svantaggi: -In caso di terreno piuttosto sabbioso il sensore è poco reattivo così come le eventuali variazioni di stato. -E' necessario un cavo da interramento diretto, che in caso di grandi lunghezze (max100mt) può comportare problematiche di livello logistico (scavi) -Il controller del Soil clik di default è settato su 5 barre che fanno riferimento all'umidità, in alcuni casi le prove per trovare il giusto equilibrio richiedono del tempo determinato principalmente dal tipo di terreno, dalla essenze che lo compongono e dalle preferenze personali. Personalmente mi sono trovato divinamente con il Soil clik se escludo i primi 10 giorni di assestamento (la Hunter ottimisticamente ne prevede 2/3).