Buggy software
Hardware is good. Software is terrible with bugs that don’t get addressed by the developer.
Works just but with alot of bugs
Only thing that works well is it starts and stops the pump at the right level. Upgraded model to be able to use the time function making it run at night, this doesn’t work, the usage is only daily why can’t it show hourly , says it forced stopped when it running and so on. Spoke to someone about this very un help full and always made it out like it my fault, have given up and looking at other options.
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Unreliable
Unreliable. Randomly resets water tank level history which is pretty annoying, the wifi display still has history but app doesn’t. Also, app would be better if the average daily usage doesn’t take into account when tank is filling when it rains i.e. calculates usage from amount of water being taken from tank and not include when it fills.
Don’t waste your money on the subscription either, unless you have multiple transmitters, where i believe you do need the subscription. I purchased the subscription for the forecast feature, however this is useless as it just tells you what the weather forecast is and does nothing towards estimating water tank levels.
Time for version 2.0 i think
Don’t waste your money on the subscription either, unless you have multiple transmitters, where i believe you do need the subscription. I purchased the subscription for the forecast feature, however this is useless as it just tells you what the weather forecast is and does nothing towards estimating water tank levels.
Time for version 2.0 i think
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Just Ok
Randomly resets water tank level history which is pretty annoying, the wifi display still has history but app doesn’t. Also, app would be better if the average daily usage doesn’t take into account when tank is filling when it rains i.e. calculates usage from amount of water being taken from tank and not include when it fills.
Don’t waste your money on the subscription either, unless you have multiple transmitters, where i believe you do need the subscription. I purchased the subscription for the forecast feature, however this is useless as it just tells you what the weather forecast is and does nothing towards estimating water tank levels.
Time for version 2.0 i think
Don’t waste your money on the subscription either, unless you have multiple transmitters, where i believe you do need the subscription. I purchased the subscription for the forecast feature, however this is useless as it just tells you what the weather forecast is and does nothing towards estimating water tank levels.
Time for version 2.0 i think
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Works Ok then hiccups and loses history
App loses all historical data; has done this 3-4 times in 2 1/2 years since installing. Very frustrating :(
Sources disappeared
Every few days all our sources need to be re added as they drop off the app… it’s a paid app so please fix asap
Ok but needs more development
I’ve been using this system to monitor 4 sets of tanks for about three years. As a general monitor to check level it is fine, but has some very frustrating issues. 1. The amount of false alerts saying the tanks are either empty, need maintenance, or other. These happen all the time and are very annoying. 2. The system averages your daily usage (but not sure over what period - it appears to be a very long period) and only provides an overview which means you can’t actually track daily usage at all. If you have a one off big use day then it impacts reporting for months. Quite flawed reporting. Please improve the granularity of daily reporting!
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Bugs with smart LCD
The app has some serious bugs. The LCD loses connectivity to wifi and upon reconnecting, it loses all stored site info. After which all devices have to be brought back within bluetooth range to reconnect. The app needs to be updated so that wifi configuration is easy and straightforward. The range of tank monitor and pump controller is good. This unit is not at a professional level for pump control. There is no way to know if the pump is running. If the wifi issue is fixed and made easy to configure, it may be worth investing in. I have already purchased the hardware so I will continue testing.
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Buyer Beware
I bought a tank-level monitor and pump controller from SmartWater New Zealand [SM] via a local reseller in VIC, Australia. The initial purchase was the first step in a broader plan to buy more of these units to manage better and automate water and water transfers across our rural property.
Unfortunately, we only have the basic manual pump controller functions working after many months of emails and phone calls with the NZ head office and the local reseller.
According to the SM website, the pump controller has various automated features, such as Start When, Stop When, and Run for x hrs operations … none of which work. Activating ‘Automatic pump operation’ is problematic as it doesn’t do what is requested, but this setting seems to initialise unwanted information in the user interface and a number of unintended features.
All these experiences [which could be described as bugs or significant pieces of logic that don’t work] were shared in writing with the reseller and SmartWater’s head office.
It is disheartening to learn that SmartWater does not even maintain a bug registry; it lacks an in-house team to address software issues and has no formal support or ticket management processes.
In my case the SW leadership couldn’t even be bothered to run an internal test to verify my concerns which further highlights their poor attitude and limited internal skills. The only advice I received was to uninstall and re-pair the hardware elements in the app, which proved ineffective.
SW was not able to share any planned release program or updates that might address these bugs. I have no idea if or when a software release is pending. What is more disappointing is how poorly the SM leadership seems comfortable leaving these issues hanging with their reseller and the customer.
They are not proactive in any way. Pathetic is the best descriptor that jumps to my mind.
Unfortunately, we only have the basic manual pump controller functions working after many months of emails and phone calls with the NZ head office and the local reseller.
According to the SM website, the pump controller has various automated features, such as Start When, Stop When, and Run for x hrs operations … none of which work. Activating ‘Automatic pump operation’ is problematic as it doesn’t do what is requested, but this setting seems to initialise unwanted information in the user interface and a number of unintended features.
All these experiences [which could be described as bugs or significant pieces of logic that don’t work] were shared in writing with the reseller and SmartWater’s head office.
It is disheartening to learn that SmartWater does not even maintain a bug registry; it lacks an in-house team to address software issues and has no formal support or ticket management processes.
In my case the SW leadership couldn’t even be bothered to run an internal test to verify my concerns which further highlights their poor attitude and limited internal skills. The only advice I received was to uninstall and re-pair the hardware elements in the app, which proved ineffective.
SW was not able to share any planned release program or updates that might address these bugs. I have no idea if or when a software release is pending. What is more disappointing is how poorly the SM leadership seems comfortable leaving these issues hanging with their reseller and the customer.
They are not proactive in any way. Pathetic is the best descriptor that jumps to my mind.
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Needs more detail.
Wish there was more detail available. Have found the avg daily use is misleading and also can give you an alarming amount of days remaining that is way out. I would like the ability to see the actual usage for a day and see individual measurements. Also an option to convert to view litres instead of percentage. Ability to export data for further analysis would also help.
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Nearly does what we need.
Works well for triggering the pump remotely!
Good communication with tech support.
Some errors still persist unfortunately within App:
• Paywall error randomly - notification saying out of subscription although your not, then tries to remove your timers and extra pumps / tanks.
• Timezone for timers was from phone not local to pump - not great if your phone moves Timezone and your pump doesn’t. Causes pump to overflow for hours basically.
• Unfortunately you can’t have the pump fill the tank automatically AND turn on at a set time.
- We use a NC solenoid to divert water from tank to retic at set times from Rainbird and use the timer function in Smart Water to set the pump off at certain times.
“Turn on IF tank is less than 70% OR time = 8am - run for 90 minutes”
“Turn off IF tank is more than 90% AND schedule run timer is inactive.”
This is the holy grail of all I’d like this system to do personally.
Good communication with tech support.
Some errors still persist unfortunately within App:
• Paywall error randomly - notification saying out of subscription although your not, then tries to remove your timers and extra pumps / tanks.
• Timezone for timers was from phone not local to pump - not great if your phone moves Timezone and your pump doesn’t. Causes pump to overflow for hours basically.
• Unfortunately you can’t have the pump fill the tank automatically AND turn on at a set time.
- We use a NC solenoid to divert water from tank to retic at set times from Rainbird and use the timer function in Smart Water to set the pump off at certain times.
“Turn on IF tank is less than 70% OR time = 8am - run for 90 minutes”
“Turn off IF tank is more than 90% AND schedule run timer is inactive.”
This is the holy grail of all I’d like this system to do personally.
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Tank Configuration
Would be awesome for developer to allow you to define tank diameter etc so usage can be measured as either % or litres..
Review
Get a lot of unnecessary alerts of tank levels dropping but once the app is opened there is no reason for these alerts, sometimes 20 to 30 a day for 13 tanks in total, alerts are now turned off and have to check manually, everything else works well.
Needs an update
Clean logical UI, but missing a lot of functionality. Currently will not allow me to set an accurate location so rainfall forecast is inaccurate. Wildly inaccurate usage statistics as well. Pump management in the app only allows for on and off (threshold and timer settings are ignored) and pump will only run for 3 minutes (it runs indefinitely from the on-site controller). This could be a really useful functional app addressing and increasing need for water management but it need a lot of work..
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Useful App
The app is useful for remote monitoring and was easy to set up. A couple of areas for improvement/thought: the Tank Level chart needs greater fidelity - it shows only one daily level and hence makes monitoring (especially during filling and looking at fill rate) trickier (as we use a non- Smart water pump controller and hence cannot yet automate). The upper level/limit also has not ‘auto adjusted’ after two fills and hence the first days use shows no fall (as water is above the set tank level).
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Hardware is good; app is pretty bad
Update six months after writing the review below: None of the bugs (serious or minor) have been addressed so I’m downgrading the app review. The hardware has been great. However, the app does not work as advertised and the developers are unresponsive. If you just want to know the tank level by checking manually, it works, but the other advertised features simply aren’t there. I don’t like saying this, but the in-app subscription supposedly enabling these features doesn’t do that, so the payment is a ripoff. Can’t recommend the subscription; unfortunately people buying the hardware may not find this out until too late.
Original review from November 29 2021 below.
The monitor is great; I no longer have to visit the water tanks in person to check. That said, the app looks okay but functionality and interface need improvement. I’ve helped a neighbor install one as well but I’d like to be able to give a stronger recommendation. (Normally I send feedback directly to the developer vs. posting a review, but I emailed them a few months ago, offering to help with logs or installing beta app versions and never heard back.) My biggest problem: The app lets you define some alert conditions, which is what I expected after reading the product description on the web, but the app doesn’t send push notifications when an alert is triggered: you must launch the app to discover whether an alert condition exists. I’ve gotten into the habit of checking the app daily, which is not the point: it should be “set and forget.” Another significant problem is that the usage stats have never appeared, even after several months of use. This means that the usage forecast is meaningless. Average daily use has always displayed as zero.
Other improvements that would benefit customers: Trending data lacks sufficient granularity. I want to see the day’s use since this would help me spot excess outflow caused by leaks in an irrigation line. A week view would also be helpful; just having a month view is interesting but not terribly useful. The ability to export the data to a spreadsheet would be helpful so I could have longer-term data. Ideally this would be automated somehow, but manually would be a good start.
Original review from November 29 2021 below.
The monitor is great; I no longer have to visit the water tanks in person to check. That said, the app looks okay but functionality and interface need improvement. I’ve helped a neighbor install one as well but I’d like to be able to give a stronger recommendation. (Normally I send feedback directly to the developer vs. posting a review, but I emailed them a few months ago, offering to help with logs or installing beta app versions and never heard back.) My biggest problem: The app lets you define some alert conditions, which is what I expected after reading the product description on the web, but the app doesn’t send push notifications when an alert is triggered: you must launch the app to discover whether an alert condition exists. I’ve gotten into the habit of checking the app daily, which is not the point: it should be “set and forget.” Another significant problem is that the usage stats have never appeared, even after several months of use. This means that the usage forecast is meaningless. Average daily use has always displayed as zero.
Other improvements that would benefit customers: Trending data lacks sufficient granularity. I want to see the day’s use since this would help me spot excess outflow caused by leaks in an irrigation line. A week view would also be helpful; just having a month view is interesting but not terribly useful. The ability to export the data to a spreadsheet would be helpful so I could have longer-term data. Ideally this would be automated somehow, but manually would be a good start.
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