After a year, I’m disappointed
Bought this system to replace an Orbit B-hyve smart water system. After using it a year, I’m not sure I’m any better off.
The devices like the WiFi Hub and irrigation timer work as expected. Once I had it setup, I have not had any connectivity issues. So, those components are okay.
The app is one of the worst I’ve seen. The interface is bizarrely confusing with a lot of odd features to connect to other home network devices. The navigation is not intuitive. It’s easy to get lost or unable to find your way back to a screen.
The app automations based on weather don’t work properly because the app weather forecast is not accurate. For example, I set up a rain delay if it starts to rain. It’s cloudy and raining right now, the app says it’s sunny outside. Not even close. The app “help” page just tells me to wait for the weather to update, which should happen every ten minutes. For the record, it does NOT update regularly and it’s certainly longer than 10 minutes. This shortcoming is a dealbreaker for me.
The watering schedule works well enough for when you finally figure out how to use it. It’s full of components that don’t even seem usable or functional. As if the developers intended to build it one way, changed the plan midway, and left all the disabled components from the original plan. Very sloppy.
Overall, I guess I prefer it to my old Orbit system, but just barely.
The devices like the WiFi Hub and irrigation timer work as expected. Once I had it setup, I have not had any connectivity issues. So, those components are okay.
The app is one of the worst I’ve seen. The interface is bizarrely confusing with a lot of odd features to connect to other home network devices. The navigation is not intuitive. It’s easy to get lost or unable to find your way back to a screen.
The app automations based on weather don’t work properly because the app weather forecast is not accurate. For example, I set up a rain delay if it starts to rain. It’s cloudy and raining right now, the app says it’s sunny outside. Not even close. The app “help” page just tells me to wait for the weather to update, which should happen every ten minutes. For the record, it does NOT update regularly and it’s certainly longer than 10 minutes. This shortcoming is a dealbreaker for me.
The watering schedule works well enough for when you finally figure out how to use it. It’s full of components that don’t even seem usable or functional. As if the developers intended to build it one way, changed the plan midway, and left all the disabled components from the original plan. Very sloppy.
Overall, I guess I prefer it to my old Orbit system, but just barely.
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It’s just ok
I wanted to love this app but it really is pretty basic. I would like for the functionality to work with weather planning to delay based on rainy days. The notifications were so bad I had to turn them off. Also if you have the added sensor, it doesn’t tell you how it works, and the graphs should be hourly not daily.
The hardware works great, but RainPoint needs a dedicated developer to redesign this app like bHyve or SmartLife.
The hardware works great, but RainPoint needs a dedicated developer to redesign this app like bHyve or SmartLife.
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Buggy
Randomly and regularly glitches to say it finished an irrigation at 3am, despite having no schedule for this. Has time and date incorrect. When you click on an irrigation day to read what happened during a session, it doesn’t take you to that instance, it just shows you the details of the very last irrigation session. I never would have bought these tools had I realized how
1. The manufacturers don’t keep the apps updated, don’t listen to feedback, and don’t check for software bugs.
2. How when your power goes out during a storm you have to reconfigure the entire system which is challenging as the instructions aren’t accurate or proofread.
3. You can’t put batteries in or take them out without taking apart the whole thing because the hose blocks the battery chamber.
Absolute garbage, but yeah it waters my garden. Truly the bare minimum.
1. The manufacturers don’t keep the apps updated, don’t listen to feedback, and don’t check for software bugs.
2. How when your power goes out during a storm you have to reconfigure the entire system which is challenging as the instructions aren’t accurate or proofread.
3. You can’t put batteries in or take them out without taking apart the whole thing because the hose blocks the battery chamber.
Absolute garbage, but yeah it waters my garden. Truly the bare minimum.
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Good product but can improve
The app in general works and has a reliable planner than can set three different schedules and offers and manual control.
But, the ON/OFF control for both the manual and scheduled planner is often delayed and/or non-responsive.
Please update the app so that the ON/OFF control is a simple button and not a slider (since it doesn’t respond to sliding, but will respond to a tap/click)
But, the ON/OFF control for both the manual and scheduled planner is often delayed and/or non-responsive.
Please update the app so that the ON/OFF control is a simple button and not a slider (since it doesn’t respond to sliding, but will respond to a tap/click)
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Buggy with poor UI
Review from an actual UX designer:
So I love the functionality of the system itself, but the app UI leaves much, much to be desired.
For one, there is no way to view history. So if I want to know when was the last few times the sprinkler turned on and for how long, I don’t have that data.
Also, I’ve often pressed buttons in the app and there has been no change in state. Recently I tried to enable a 24hr rain delay and i couldn’t. The button didn’t change. Now it might have been a connection issue but there was no way for me to know, the app didn’t tell me anything. It lets me press a button but then nothing changes. I also run into this quite frequently when trying to manually turn on a sprinkler. I’ll press a button and nothing will happen.
The way that irrigation plans are displayed is very confusing and forces me to scan too much info. I want to see a schedule or a calendar and see what’s coming up. I don’t want to have to parse everything myself.
There’s no way to change to a DD/MM/YYYY date format, which is very frustrating.
There doesn’t appear to be a way to reset or delete an irrigation plan, only a disable control. And you can only have three plans per spigot, which is frustrating.
The UI for creating “Scenes” is so inscrutable, I don’t even use it.
The general information architecture of the app is terrible.
So I love the functionality of the system itself, but the app UI leaves much, much to be desired.
For one, there is no way to view history. So if I want to know when was the last few times the sprinkler turned on and for how long, I don’t have that data.
Also, I’ve often pressed buttons in the app and there has been no change in state. Recently I tried to enable a 24hr rain delay and i couldn’t. The button didn’t change. Now it might have been a connection issue but there was no way for me to know, the app didn’t tell me anything. It lets me press a button but then nothing changes. I also run into this quite frequently when trying to manually turn on a sprinkler. I’ll press a button and nothing will happen.
The way that irrigation plans are displayed is very confusing and forces me to scan too much info. I want to see a schedule or a calendar and see what’s coming up. I don’t want to have to parse everything myself.
There’s no way to change to a DD/MM/YYYY date format, which is very frustrating.
There doesn’t appear to be a way to reset or delete an irrigation plan, only a disable control. And you can only have three plans per spigot, which is frustrating.
The UI for creating “Scenes” is so inscrutable, I don’t even use it.
The general information architecture of the app is terrible.
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No longer works
It worked for a season. Now the app connects to the smart sprinkler timer but won’t control it. The schedules aren’t running. I try to set the manual timer and nothing happens. When I click “my” on the bottom right for instructions or contact I get an error message “error loading page”
Sent emails, messages through the app, and called the customer service number and left a message but I haven’t been able to speak to anyone to troubleshoot the problem. Waste of both money and my time.
Sent emails, messages through the app, and called the customer service number and left a message but I haven’t been able to speak to anyone to troubleshoot the problem. Waste of both money and my time.
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Works well, wish it had more features
App is very similarly designed to Tuya and Smart Life. Rainpoint says and does what is advertised. It turns the smart water valve on and off like it should by the schedule, and measures how many gallons are given through each valve. There are notifications that alert you when the valve turn on and off. I asked the developer if they would consider adding a notification for when the valve does not function successfully (like some of my other SmartLife/Tuya devices do), and if there could be a notification for a valve dispensing more than “X” gallons. However Rainpoint’s response was instructions on how to turn on and off notifications. Looks like this app is what it is, and most likely will not be furthering its capabilities or smart functions.
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Works good but could be better
I wish there were more options on the app. My old timer was an old school digital timer that had more options. For instance, my town has rules about when you can water - even house numbers on even days and odd house numbers on odd days. For a “sophisticated” app there is no option for this. So my only options are to program the schedule every day (sorta defeats the purpose) or run my sprinklers so early in the morning nobody is outside to witness it.
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Glitchy buttons
I’m able to turn on & off remotely but often have to push buttons 3 & 4 times to get it to respond, even closing the App completely. I bought into the system to water my lawn while touring Europe for a few weeks, time will tell, so far just issues with theses darn buttons!?!
Works as intended
Does what I need but I would highly recommend reading the User Agreement and Privacy Policy because it involves the Pe0ples R3public 0f Ch!na. I would install the app on a spare phone you don’t use with a VPN just for extra measure.
