Rachio 3rd Gen: Smart 4-Zone Sprinkler Controller, App Enabled Automated Water Scheduling, Alexa Compatible, DIY Simple & Fast Install

Purchased the Rachio November 2024 which is 5 months ago. Rain and snow moved in about the time the unit arrived and temps were below freezing. So I had an excuse to put off installation. Instructions say easy install, just swap wires from your old controller to the Rachio, connect with wifi and you're ready to go. Well - I've purchased products in the past that said "easy", and it turned out to be a beach! So - it's March 2025 and haven't had moisture for a couple of months.Time to give installtion a go. I took pics of how the wires on the old box connected. Swapping the wires only took 15 minutes or so. Just be sure to take some pics of how the wires connected in the old box; VERY IMPORTANT! The hardest part was getting wifi to connect. I tried it about a dozen times with no luck! Thought this is going to be a mess! I kept trying, no luck. So I unistalled the app, then reinstalled it, putting in new information that's required, and it finally connected. Tested all the zones and everything works as it should.The app is an amazing piece of equipment. A lot of thought went into designing it. There's many options you can do while kicking back in your Lazyboy. Except for a little trouble getting the Rachio to connect to wifi, it really was an easy swap. I give it 5 stars and highly recommend it.

I've had two homes with irrigation systems and they inevitably come with a Rain Bird controller. OK, let's upgrade to a wifi unit so I have a less clunky user interface and don't have to go outside to fidget with the controls. That's what I did at the first home. That simply enables you use your phone to look at your schedule, change it etc. At my next home, I went to replace the rain bird controller and realized: "hey, there are other sprinkler controllers" and did some research. Rachio seems to rate highly or the best and I can see why.The price of a Rachio system is consistently better than a Rain Bird. Both systems add cost the more watering stations there are in your system, but as far as I could tell the Rachio3 is about half the cost of an analogous Rain Bird per station. This actually made me nervous about buying it, since I don't like to skimp on things that you install in your home, and I worried that it was going to be a lower quality product. Well, that was wrong.Install is, as others have said, about a 15 minute job if you have a drill, hammmer, and a screwdriver. Wiring is very very simple for controllers. You have a common wire (which provides power) and then you have station/zone wires that get power from that common wire when the controller decides it's time to water. You take a photo of your old wiring for reference, remove the old controller, mount the Rachio 3, and then insert the wires into the analogous locations. This is not scary electrical work where you might get shocked, since you don't plug the unit in until you've inserted the common wire and the station wires. When you're done with that you plug the unit in and move on to the software part of the install on your phone.Software install also went smoothly for me. You need to start by creating a Rachio account on the app. The app does a good job of getting your wifi credentials into the system and I didn't seem to have to do that thing where you first log into the wifi network of the device and pass the credentials for your wifi network to it that way. Instead, I just had to be logged into my wifi on my phone, scan a bar code with it, be near the unit, and...it just kinda figured things out.After that, you tell the system about your zones/watering stations, the type of soil you're managing in each zone, etc. There are minimal controls on the unit itself. Controlling is done from your phone. I find the UI more intelligent than the Rain Bird system and easier to manage and understand. But the real coolness starts with the smartness of the system. The app gets your location and shares it with the system and gives you micro targeted forecasting for your location. It plugs into its proprietary weather network and understands how much water your yard is seeing from local weather, pretty much obviating the need for a water sensor. It will guide you through creating a smart watering program for your home, or, you can choose to simply replicate the schedule that you had in place before the install.All this means you can create a water saving program with minimal thinking on your part. It's pretty neat.Some minor gripes:1. The unit is a bit bigger than you imagine it might be. 9.1” x 5.5” x 1.4” It took up a bit of space on my garage wall2. The unit has a big bright blue LED that illuminates even when it's idle. You can turn it off or lower the intensity. This would be improved if you could put it in Cylon mode where a pulse moves from side to side across the LED and then it rebels against humanity.

Should have bought this years earlier. I will never go back to a manual dial. The weather feature has saved me a lot of money on unnecessary watering.

Love this thing. Made my life so much easier. Super easy install and all the features simplify my life. Smart features like the weather tracking make this a no brainer. Installed built my zones in the software and tested in about an hour. Couldn’t be happier. Put it in hibernation mode for the winter I literally a couple of seconds. Huge leap forward.

I have installed several of these controllers for customer's and they love them. I'm a big fan of them as well. Very easy setup for customer's. And the Rachio app is also good.

I replaced my Hunter Pro C with the 4 zone Rachio Sprinkler Controller. Very very easy to install even for thosei of us who are not DIY types. The hardest part was figuring out how to install my rain sensor i did not have a S1 and S2 terminal. Solution - 1 wire to the S1 terminal and 1 wire to a 24VAC terminal. I appreciate how my controller sends me messages such as the scheduled run has been completed or cancelled due to weather.

Go get it now!! Best choice ever, my husband loves it. Works perfect and seems good quality. Thanks

Best internet controller I have ever owned. iPhone app is excellent!