Leave a Review RainMachine
New update forces us to pay for features which were free in previous firmware
This is ridiculous, and as another customer’s one-star review stated, “shady” at the least. I get that the developer is always looking for new ways to increase revenue. But come on… do you really need to disable the connectivity features like remote access that were already in the product (and the reason many of us bought it), and now only restore those features when the owner purchases a “premium subscription”? Very lame. Exceptionally poor attitude to your customers. What will be next, a firmware update that disables the little LED display unless a monthly fee is paid? If you are considering buying one of these from Rainmachine, you might want to read the countless negative reviews first. Besides the bait and switch tactics, the iOS app remains seriously flawed, the app often fails to connect to the Rainmachine unit and just endlessly shows a spinning process indicator. Have to force the app to stop and reload. A waste of time.Show lessTonetest
Getting worse
Was great for years. Now terrible. Slow, unreliable, and now unable connect more often than not.Gards101
Buy a Rachio or Other Smart Irrigation Controller instead
When I bought the RainMachine irrigation controller, local and remote access control was included in the purchase price. Since then the company has begun to charge fees to access the app and control your irrigation system remotely from outside of the house. I would’ve recommended this company previously, but now I would urge any smart irrigation control part or to shop elsewhere. Additionally they have not been significant improvements to the application or the service provided. The cost of the RainMachine irrigation controller and the ongoing cost for remote access makes this a product/service whose value is no longer worth the cost. There are better and more cost effective option on the market. Many product reviewers no longer have RainMachine even in their top 10 of smart irrigation controllers.Show lessMichaelCarson
Difficult to access remotely
We’ve had this for two years and it is becoming more and more difficult to access. The zones keep buffering and now, we are completely locked out. We keep getting a screen asking us to pay for an annual service. If you ask for more information, it says you do not need to pay for the subscription to use Rain Machine, however whenever we try to use the device it won’t let us use the app. We just keep getting the screen asking us to start our subscription. It’s a vicious cycle and we are beyond frustrated with this right now and seen nothing anywhere that can help us figure this out. Edit: can’t even post a review because all of the “nicknames” are already in use.Show lessShaver987
Unreliable company
I’ve had the device for several years and there was control from both local and remote networks. That was one of the main selling points. Later they just changed the terms… just like that. One has to pay annual fees for the remote access now. And they also broke the local network access for quite some time. Even when you change the business model - respect the terms that you offered to previous customers.
Local access works now but it takes a long time to connect. Still, they are not respecting the terms of time of sale.
The watering predictive algorithms are still very pitiful. Weather information and local rainfall gauges are not utilized efficiently. Weather and watering schedules are not promptly updated leaving you to wander what will this device do the next day, and if you need manual intervention.
A very useful product ruined by poor algorithms, insufficient controls, and unethical change of service conditions.Show lessaz837183
Developer Response
Thank you for your feedback. This is not related to the iOS app. You can ask for help and see how others are using the RainMachine smart irrigation controllers by joining our forum (https://support.rainmachine.com/hc/en-us/community/topics). Nevertheless, the RainMachine device periodically checks the weather services you are using. Note that our algorithm it's autocorrecting watering times with the measurements taken the previous day.Horrible
Used to be amazing now they went subscription and even local use is hit or miss which is still supposed to work free.Prince&Emb
Charging for Remote connection
I purchased RainMachine as it offered all features without any additional subscriptions. But greed kicked in recently and now I can no longer use RainMachine with purchasing monthly subscription.
What a ripoff and shady mentality behind this business.enjoy life while you can
Absolutely horrible
I used to love my rain machines. Then they went subscription based and everything turned to complete crap. I no longer have local access when I’m on the same WiFi network. The other day it poured down rain and the sprinklers were on for hours at the same time. Meanwhile I had to get out of bed, go out in the rain, crawl under my house and try to get any kind of connection to the stupid devices. No joy. I pulled the plugs out to stop it from running all night, but basically they have all been $&@! since they went to a fee based system. Save your money for something better. I’m totally disappointed with this product, which is sad, because I used to recommend them to everyone. I’ll be changing all mine out to those from a company that doesn’t screw their customers.Show lessNoGiveADaName
Shady company
They don’t respond to emails to support and other emails addresses for the company bounce back. I expect they are about to go under. I bought their system for 2 houses so I could remotely control them. They now charge a monthly fee to use that service. Port forwarding is not an option for me and I bought this based on the fact there were no monthly fees but a few years later they figured they had enough units sold that they could just gouge their customers. Also with the recent update they released the weather link is broken so the units no longer accommodate for rain and thus are useless.
That is what I consider shady and I would not recommend buying their units and if you did recently I would return it as quickly as possible.Show lessamhas
Unreliable company
I’ve had the device for several years and there was control from both local and remote networks. That was one of the main selling points of the device. This year they changed the terms… just like that. One has to pay annual fees for the remote access.
And they also broke the local network access for quite some time.
Even when you change the business model - respect the terms that you offered to previous customers.
If this is not resolved I do not myself see getting any products or services from them in the future.Show less
