Hi,
Will be going away for 2 months. Just planted a lot of trees, wanted to install an Automatic Tap Timer.
I checked Bunnings website , most of them have bad ratings.
Requirement:
- Set to water automatically at least once a day
- Single output ..preferred
- Good battery life
- OPTIONAL: Bluetooth / Wifi compatible
Any Recommendations ?
Thanks.
I have one of these too and it has worked fine for a year. The only issue of note is that after a year of full afternoon sun, the UV has crazed both the screw off plastic cover and the printed plastic with the button names on it.
I have to remove both to be able to read the LCD, but I don't believe this has impacted the waterproofing of the cover and the buttons names are still fully legible, it just seems to affect the clear plastic bits.
+1, have two of these and they're very good.
Does this come with a connector for the tap ? Cant see them in products pictures..
The link doesn work.. it's a 403
Reviews aren’t kind
yeah, common consensus are the flaky wifi and almost impossible to reset.
My vote is for Orbit brand.
I have a Orbit 2-Outlet Hose Timer that I bought 3 or 4 years ago and all I do is replace the batteries every year or so.
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/303780731703?hash=item46babe1b37…
For the ultimate better than regular consumer gear solution, check out the Rain Bird WPX. I’m sure there are similar products. No wiring required for this, but you would want to screw it onto the tap at the very least, and will need some other bits and bobs to do so. Don’t really want a clip on hose fitting popping off while you’re away.
It’s more or less a trade solution, designed as a battery powered irrigation controller for plantings where there’s no power available to run a controller from mains.
My wife and I have spent a lot on plants. I went through the same thing as you a few years ago when we went away and didn’t have anybody to look after our place. I did quite a bit of reading and eventually settled on these. They take two 9v batteries for redundancy. We now have three, and they work flawlessly. Very happy with them, and we use less water then previously (with drippers on pretty much everything).
Sorry, that’s not really an automatic tap timer though…don’t know if I’d trust one for anything but temporary use like a sprinkler on the lawn.
I bought the non WIFI version of this 10 years ago https://www.bunnings.com.au/orbit-b-hyve-6-station-indoor-ou…
One of the best things I ever bought. However they will lock on if your settings are wrong. Only 1 station at a time can operate otherwise the valve locks on. Say you have station 1 on @ 4.45pm for 15 mins and station 2 set for 4.50pm for 15 mins station 1 will lock on as the other is trying to take over and it sends it into a loop until you fix the settings so that station 2 starts at 5.01pm or latter.
For $200 plus solenoids. 9 stations you'll soon find other places to use each station. Equivalent of buying 9 battery operated ones but on 240v power with battery backup for settings memory
Looks good.. but that's too expensive for me
How much are your plants worth?
I have 2 of these that are still going strong after 3 or more years of use, one is on an animal waterhole and it switches every day, the other I just use over summer to water the vegie garden …
https://www.bunnings.com.au/aqua-systems-electronic-digital-…
I've gone through a few different ones over the years and these are by far the best I've used, really good battery life…
Edit: Reading the bad reviews it sounds like a lot of the issues are due to water hammering, they do shut off quite fast so that makes sense… I don't have my taps fully open which may be why I haven't had any of these issues…