Save garden water? | Orbit B-HYVE Timer Review

[@ImNotMC]

I've been using my Orbit B-hyve timers for nearly 3 years and they've worked great. As @gartenfee mentioned in his comment, this isn't a multi-station control all at once but serves my needs and I like being able to control them individually. I also don't experience the lag that I saw in your video. Also as @Charles Richardson mentioned, it makes sense to have the timers battery compartment facing downwards but for two of mine out of convenience and easy of changing batteries, they are pointed up and haven't had any issues. You def decrease the chances of a leak by positioning them down. As for rain, there is an auto-delay feature where if there is a significant amount of rain in the forecast, you can set it to auto-delay for you. Once you figure out the app, I think it's quite useful and informative. I highly recommend!

[@gartenfee]

Hi Pat, these are single station tap timers and not a multi-station controller hence are all separate entities. Typically, you would run each for a different zone with different watering needs which means you want to be able to individually program them and not apply all changes you make to all controllers the same.

[@martericardo]

Good point but Orbit should just give the user the option to rename the unit by the zone name. I can envision folks setting up 2 units for the "back yard" zone and two for the "front yard" zone. The way it is implemented now, the zone is not useful. I am also not able to see a zones at once on the app as one user shows their video (16 seconds in): kzbin.info/www/bejne/imrXk6OLh75qpas Anyway, thank you both for clarifying this.

[@OzByDrone]

Put an extra one before the splitter that will be master water flow on for an hour. That will limit failure time instead of 10 hours to a much smaller window

[@whatsdergo]

Ive been using Linktap for 3 years i have 4 units they are easy to use and work great and have had no problems with them

[@charlesrichardson8635]

So far I am loving mine! Support is great and their website works well!

[@kathrynmiles8911]

I have several of these faucet t timers and four have failed on me by the "valve" sticking and not closing which left the water on wasting lots of water. Also, nothing has told me how to program several timers at once. What is zone? Still don't know that. My app does not work correctly either. My question is...how does one repair the stuck valve?

[@TechManPat]

These things are pretty bad, I would say built to not be fixed, they sell you into the ecosystem and then they make you buy the same stuff over again every season. Best you can try is a hammer and see if that helps.

[@charlesrichardson8635]

You definitely have to leave it online in the battery pack DOWN position. I have two out of four with battery pack UP fail due to water. of the six I now have for over a year used in battery down position, no failures. UNFORTUNATELY the button for use in a multiple head configuration can't really be used. So, I have to the the app all the time.

[@shanew7361]

How do you position in battery pack down? I just ordered this and am concerned about it breaking and flooding my garden.

[@charlesrichardson8635]

@@shanew7361 It depends. My hydrants were horizontal because I had 4 units hanging off it. In that case, I just tighten it up so the battery holder is down. I have also put plumbers grease, very nice to rubber seals, and hydrophobic. If you are using a normal hose big with a 22 degree hydrant you just tighten it on with the battery bay on the downward most side. Another has just taken to putting a large sandwich bag with a ziplock seal to shield it from water and he says it works great.

[@shanew7361]

@@charlesrichardson8635 I was looking at the LinkTap G2 but it's almost $140, plus have to plug into your router which is tacky.

[@charlesrichardson8635]

@@shanew7361 I am not sure why having your G2S on your network is tacky. I had Orbit Faucet controller and you had to buy one unit with a BT/Wifi bridge, too. I would rather have a wireless connection, but I do require a good interface so connection is required. So yes, $140 for G2S w/bridge and $99 for individual controllers pretty comparable to everything else I found that met my requirements. I LOVE Link-Tap sending me email when my controller doesn't shut!!! I lost over $800 is lost water because the controller KNEW it was still flowing but could do anything useful. I sent Orbit a suggestion to use the flow meter in it's systems and give some back up! The other thing is I would say the Link-tap, after taking about both Orbit and Link-tap seems more robust to me, but I liked the Orbit right up to the point it flooded my backyard without telling me. BTW, I use 5 controllers and now I put a sixth controller on my main line. It opens and closes 5 minutes before and after each of the other 5 controllers to stop any controller failures. I can also have it close during the failed controller and open during the working controllers because of the email on failure mode. My line controllers snitch on my master controller if it fails to open! It's pretty cool and I can add and subtract controllers as necessary. Did you find a faucet controller that is cheaper?

[@shanew7361]

@@charlesrichardson8635 Debating on canceling my Orbit order and ordering the LinkTap lol just $140 plus plugging bridge into router isn't visually appealing lol

[@davidscott4318]

Pat you need to use the 4 zone or 8 zone version!

[@AZTechLabs]

i've never had the orbits last very long no matter what model. Not like the older models. Must be where they are made. Cheapnesium

[@Coffeemessaging]

Points for Doggo!