Orbit 62001 Lawn and Garden Digital Watering Timer

I live in Arizona where water is scarce and lawns are not very common. Most lawns have elaborate sprinkler systems, but I have two small patches of grass that grow to a point on their own and they are not large enough to justify the expense of installing a sprinkler system. I want the grass to look good since it grows anyway so obviously that means water. One patch is in the front yard with a tree in the middle (watering the tree probably contributed to the grass growing initially). The other is in the backyard in a low part of the yard where rain gathers, which obviously contributed to the grass there.Since I'm in Arizona, it's not efficient to water just any time. In the summer, the water would evaborate before it made it an inch into the ground. I'm not a morning person so watering at the most efficient time of the day (between 4:00 and 5:00 here) is before I'm functional. It's also important to water deeply and infrequently during monsoon season. A timer was the obvious answer. I bought this timer after doing lots of research and reading several reviews. I wanted something I could set and forget or change whenever I wanted and I wanted something that would just work and not cost as much as installing a sprinkler system. And it had to hold up to the arizona sun so a cover for the display was a must.When it arrived, I had to "play" with it right away of course. It didn't take long to figure it out so soon I was playing with the water pressure to ensure all of the grass was getting water (still not 100%, but that's a placement issue not related to the timer). You don't have to worry about forgetting how to set it either because directions are inside the cover.You can set it to run on specific days and multiple times and durations for each day. You can also set it to run every 2nd or 3rd day. There is also a manual feature, which I use to verify the spray pattern is correct so I'm not watering the road.The only issue I have with it is really just an annoyance so I didn't deduct for it. When you are using the manual feature, the minutes are not minutes from when you press the enter button. They are minutes based on the clock time. So if you want to run it for two minutes so you can adjust the location of your sprinklers, you press two minutes. If the internal clock time is half way through a minute (like 5:01 and 30 seconds), the water will only run for one minute and 30 seconds. Of course you can't see the seconds so you don't know that until it turns off. There is also a short lag time for it to reset. So when it turns off early, you have to wait about 3-5 seconds for it to be ready to try again. There is an audible click though so you know when it's ready if you are near it. I usually just set it for slightly longer than I think I need and if it turns off too early, I just wait for the click and try again. That's the only issue I have had with this timer and since the purpose is to have it automatically water the grass early in the morning, it isn't much of an issue for me. I am only mentioning it so others are aware.All in all, I absolutely love this timer. I've had cheap ones (well, they weren't that cheap) before and they were not as easy to use nor as reliable. They also did not have covers for the display and after about a month, it was useless unless you looked at it just right.Oh, and being able to take off the programming part so you aren't bending over while setting it is amazing. I leave it on when I use the manual feature, but that only takes a couple of seconds so it's not a big deal.I will be buying another one for the backyard. Heck, I might even buy a spare just in case these aren't available anymore when I need a replacement. I'm that impressed with it so far. Granted I've only had it for a couple of months, but so far it's great.

I received this timer on July 3rd (20 days ago from the time of this review). It was easy to program and was seemingly working great. I had it set to water 4 times a day and had a drip hose attached to it and laid through out a bed of Elephant Ears because they are incredibly demanding on water. Stepped outside yesterday morning to first find water around my pool equipment. I was originally worried I had a leak somewhere within, but as I continued to look at the evidence and walk around the pool I started to see that several areas were holding lots of water. Walked over to a grassy portion of the yard and it was soft and squishy and super saturated. Stepped out into the alley to see water running all the way down the alley and onto an adjacent street going into a sewer inlet. Water was also coming out of the discharge line that is connected to my area drains as well and dumping into the alley. At this point I rushed to shut off my irrigation because clearly I had to have had a leak. Before doing so though, I noticed that the drip irrigation hose was dripping a steady amount of water out. Looked at my watch (7:40am, so at the very least it had been running from 6pm the day before)and it was not time for it to be running. Took a few steps over to the Orbit and saw that it was on. It was then that I learned that the valve had stuck open and had been stuck open for who knows how long. 50' of drip hose that had been running long enough to flood portions of the yard, street and even got some under our pier and beam house. I know water shouldn't get under a pier and beam house like that, but that is a whole other story about how the sellers of the house we bought last year didn't disclose everything to us. Don't get me started. Bottom line, 20 days into using this thing and the valve already got hung open. Incredibly unfortunate as it was saving me a lot of time and mosquito bites by managing the watering for the only bed that I don't have underground irrigation to. Guess it is time for me to finish that little project and do away with battery timers all together as they can't be trusted. This WILL be returned and I might even send in a copy of my water bill with it.