Rain Bird ST8O-2.0 Smart Indoor/Outdoor WiFi Sprinkler/Irrigation System Timer/Controller, WaterSense Certified, 8-Zone/Station, Compatible with Amazon Alexa

I purchased this to replace a manual Rainbird controller. The wifi feature and phone app allow for the program of the unit without any physical contact. The unit will also monitor the weather by using your zip code to modify the watering schedule. It is very easy to adjust watering time by the day and zone, as well as run a manual watering. Before ordering, insure you have at least two bars in a wifi signal, where you plan to mount the device. This is to make sure the device has good contact with your router. The installation instructions are very clear and easy to follow.

Great controller! Quick & easy to install to replace an old model that stopped working. Easy to program, by either the controller or the app. App easy to install, program and adjust as needed. Has worked great since installed. Our irrigation pros were impressed by this model.

Great unit, easy to install easy to connect to wifi and easy to use. Most of the issues I read about with the app seemed to be fixed, there are a few drop-down screens in the settings that overlap each other and make it difficult to set. The only other things I can think of is I wish I didn’t have to keep entering my password everytime I want to get into settings. Also make sure you have 3 wifi bars at unit or your wifi will not work, just walk over to were you are going to install the unit with your cell phone and if you get a constant 3 bars your good to go.

This is an excellent WIFI enabled irrigation timer controller. It was very easy to install and use. Think through the ordering of your zones. Our current zone map was strange bouncing from front to backyard areas. You can take pictures of each area of your yard and link it to the specific irrigation zone. For instance left front yard picture with zone 1, Center island front yard - zone 2. Downloading the Rainbird app was easy. Setting up watering schedule was easy. The only problem we encountered was accepting invitation to have access to the RB controller on Apple devices. It turns out that you need to use the Mail App on Apple devices (blue icon with white envelope) to open up the attached RBCF file. At that point, it is easy to add access to the RB controller. Remember to close the RB app on other devices before adding a new one. The only disappointing limitation is that you will have to add all the yard pictures of the zones on each new device. I am especially excited as this timer checks the local weather forecast and stops irrigation if it is likely to rain in your zip code (you can set sensitivity to 50%, 75% or 100% change of rain). We also added a Rainbird rain sensor (additional device) to our RB controller

GOOD: Rain Bird did a good job overall. The mechanical install of the unit was easy and I was replacing an older Hunter system that was terrible. BAD: This company uses a red/green indicator light, which is the worst thing they could do for about 10% of us colorblind people. But my wife helped out in that department. UGLY: The WiFi setup was terrible for me and may be for others. If not for spectacular personal technical support by Mehgan at RainBird, this could easily have been a one-star rating. She took the time to troubleshoot the bugs. It turned out the Android App needed to have permissions manually approved and set for both Storage and Location … your phone settings for the App itself. Also make sure your cache and data are cleared out if you had previous failed attempts to connect like I did. At first the device, only 20 ft from my wireless 2.4GHz router was saying weak signal … but then after clearing data and cache it suddenly was a strong signal. Then it connected just fine AFTER saying it didn't have internet, then it really did have internet. I think the software is immature and Rain Bird is having to work through it BOTTOM LINE: It is a good product, but the WiFi settings may be hit or miss for you. Fortunately Rain Bird is backing their product with excellent tech support. I can honestly rate it five stars.

The PERFECT companion to any dedicated gardener! I love that I can add multiple times to my watering schedule or even a quick watering directly from my phone wherever I am. It was super easy to install and program - I would highly recommend this unit to anyone!

Absolute trash. App is horrible. Cant tell you how many minutes of my life I won’t get back waiting for it Sync/connect to the controller. If you want WiFi control this is not it! Everything is an afterthought. After a year I threw it away and bought a B-Hyve and it blows the Rainbird out of the water. Not only is it less but the app works instantly with zero delay or start up/sync.

It took about 15 actual minutes to set up, I caused a few of my own issue during install. Wiring was super easy, take a pic of the current wire set up to assist. And when using the app to install, remember to make sure you’re not using a VPN on your phone at that time (that cost me some time and frustration). If you don’t know what a VPN is, you’re not using one, so don’t sweat it. The only feature I wish it had would be setting percentages based on time of year, so it would swap automatically. It has its own seasonal setting, so hopefully that will be sufficient. It also monitors your zip code weather to keep from watering on rainy days.You can also take a pic of each zone if you want to, for easy reference. It also uses batteries to keep settings memorized, that way it doesn’t reset during a power outage-one of the main reasons I upgraded.