Rachio Reviews

by Be Kind1

Looks cool, seems like it will work great when you program it, and easy to program. However so many inconsistencies and errors, if program to run in morning for short time, instead it’s running in evening for hours. Or program is set to run at 6:30 am, and it runs at 11:45 pm. Or we have it set to run every day but Monday when it will getting mowed, and instead it says next scheduled run is two weeks from now. Often I’m shocked to find it running at various times when it’s not meant too. Often I find that it tries to conserve so much that instead if running for 15 minutes it runs for a minute or two and new plants are dying. One zone we can’t get to run, we have had a sprinkler company come out and verify, it’s getting power and water and it’s set up and programmed right, and was working on our previous system just before switched over. It is either so convoluted and too smart for its own good, with all the skips and conservations, or even when you program it to not be, it’s doesn’t run when it should. Takes way too much time to continually manage and override after you get it all set up and programmed, setting it up was the easy straight forward part. We have two computer science engineers at our house and neither of them like it. I do not recommend, needs major software improvements.

by Tkboss

My number one complaint that totally weights my review is the lack of notification BEFORE the sprinklers come on thereby giving you some time to either move stuff off your lawn like laundry or to skip the water cycle. This functionality is available in $70 smart watering systems.

Also, unfortunately, the smart watering doesn’t work that well for my location in the SF Bay Area. The system is currently over watering by maybe 2x what it should given the weather and how soaked some things are like the lawn. I’ve tried resetting the schedule with the same results. I’d be nice if it gave me a quick survey or way to give feedback after a watering cycle so that it could use machine learning or some form of logic to adjust dynamically as needed when there are discrepancies between what Rachio thinks and reality.

I hope they get there because everything else is quite nice.

by BeamerDude

Rachio is pretty decent, but the developers have made a big oversight. Absent, is the ability to ”skip” specific dates and times. From an app that is supposed to provide freedom and flexibility to users, this is a huge miss! There are times, like today, where I need to skip both watering sessions for 24 hours. I am not able to do so. Rachio only lets the user skip the current day’s watering schedule and the first of the following day. There are countless other scenarios whereby a user may want to skip only specific waterings. The developers need to stop trying to get into the user’s head so much that they prevent basic functionality that may be useful to people on an individual basis. This needs to be fixed! The suggestion was made in the this app forums several times by many people over the past two years, yet the capability is still missing. The developers need to fix this oversight!!

by Wsicjtidbduvt

System is so “smart” that it deprives you of control and easy adjustment. If you aren’t a farmer, the advanced settings on Rachio require an advanced understanding of soil composition / water retention that is not explained and is utterly impossible to understand. Meantime, it is watering lightly (<30m/zone, every 4-5 days), contrary to everything my local cooperative extension has taught me about deep watering to have grass roots grow deep ... and this in mid-August on eastern Long Island. Guess what? Grass is brown, plantings, dying for weeks, are now dead. I’ve implored this app for assistance, got a robo-reply saying I’d hear from them in 3-5 days. Now more than a week later: Nothing. Now I’m just using a hose-end sprinkler (love it!) and setting the irrigation to go on manually every day or two for at least an hour/zone. Hoping at least that I get my lawn back through artificial resuscitation. The hydrangeas and Rosa rugosa look like lost causes. Hey, thanks this app. (And this app, don’t send me to your freaking website to spend half a day trying to find solutions in your community. Either give me a manual with detailed instructions, or give me a freakin human being to walk me thru set-up. Otherwise, just send me back my old irrigation controller!!!)

by IPad Mini User 75000

Rachio has an annoying habit of going to a completely blank screen (on iPad Pro using iOS 12.4) at least once a day whenever I switch from a screen (for example, changing a watering duration in a given zone) back to another screen (like ‘home’). There is only a white screen with a smallblack line across the bottom center of the screen. Nothing works to get Rachio to respond except to delete Rachio and load it anew from Rachio Store, which gets old very quickly. Additionally, its ability to postpone scheduled waterings based on upcoming weather forecasts of rain is too dependent (100%) on a weather service, which historically is nowhere near that perfect; while it is relatively easy to override such a “rain skip” of a scheduled watering by clicking on a “run” button, that has become the antithesis of automated watering for me in five months of usage in the DFW Metroplex. It is actually proving to be easier and more efficient to turn OFF all of the apps vaunted watering aids and do a manual shut-off when experience shows heavy rain, saturated ground or high winds

by Katjbell

this app removed the feature to water all zones on the fly! I used to be able to select all zones and immediately run them consecutively based on a time allotment. Also, I don’t understand why it keeps pushing this new product Thrive on me. Thrive shows up on my home page and even has its own tab. I’m not sure but it looks like a grass or fertilizer product and I’m a xeriscape native garden, like most smart people are converting too; esp., if you’re in SoCal. I’m also an app designer, this UI isn’t as great as it used to be. I’d prefer more infographs on the home relevant to my garden water usage and local weather forecast, not ads and Thrive info. I don’t even know if my plants have been watered unless I go out there and physically check because it’s a few steps to find history on Rachio . I’ve got thousands of dollars of rare plants I’ve grew on 8 acres tied into this controller and this system is now stressing me out, so I’m looking into better system. There should also be an active overlay modal of the current progress during a fly run.

by Flyin_hooch

Good as a manual controller but the “intelligent” part is aweful and unreliable. I’ve had it with this setting. Yesterday we were deluged with rain. The controller sent a notification for today’s schedule watering to be skipped. I thought this was a great idea. When I woke this morning, I read a notification that today’s watering schedule was complete! But wait, the this app unit notified me today’s would be skipped. Looking at more notifications, the unit changed its mind saying, “Due to a change in the weather, today’s watering will occur.” When did I get this notification? At 3:30 in the morning! Thanks I’m always up at 3:30 to check my watering notifications. To make matters worse, we are forecast to get storms and possible heavy rain all weekend.

Additionally, I can only manually skip the next scheduled watering. Why? If I know what’s coming, how my lawn looks, knows what it needs, why can I not skip two watering?

Th nicest feature about the unit is being able to control it remotely.

by No_2u

Horrendous terms of use that must be agreed to. Convenient but unsettling how Rachio somehow got my WiFi password from my iphone and passed it to the this app hardware automatically. I wish Rachio showed when my Rain sensor was wet. I wish I could change the type of a schedule without deleting it and creating a new one. I wish Rachio didn't hang when I was creating a new schedule, but it works most of the time. App schedule display also had several inconsistencies (e.g., saying it WILL and WON'T water tomorrow on the same home screen, and Zones screen mismatch with home screen regarding next watering date). Flex Daily schedule said it's going to water but then it skipped watering for no apparent reason when lawn was dry. To prevent the grass dying I ran a manual schedule but the Flex Daily schedule now says it's going to water regardless that the grass is now saturated. Home screen optionally shows monthly water usage which is useful. The this app unit itself only works if their cloud service is up, so it may become a brick if this app's server or internet is down (can only run 3 minute manual cycles on the unit itself). Customer service did get back to me (submitted requests through app).

by Threxx

Their “flex daily” schedule is their smartest and most dynamic scheduling option, but it was one glaring flaw. If you tell it to be done by sunrise (the default/recommended choice), when it determines what time to START watering, so that it will be done by sunrise, it completely neglects to check the schedule it intelligently creates, and instead assumes all zones will be watering for their maximum normal duration. For somebody like me with 10 zones, that means even though it’s only planning on watering for 4 hours, it decides it needs to start watering at 8pm.
Irrigation 101 dictates you should not start watering early in the evening, because by letting the soil and plant surface sit damp and dark all night unnecessarily, you’re going to promote disease.
This is clearly a bug in this app’s algorithm... hopefully one they fix soon, as I already struggle with preventing brown spot in my zoysia and that was before I replaced my old school controller with this “smart” one.
Otherwise, even though I just set my system up yesterday, I’m very impressed by the controller, app and potential!

by Sjake072

Device works fine. Best feature is being able to operate system remotely or when trying to repair sprinklers. So nice to not have to go to controller each time. As far as intelligent not that great. There still needs to be some human intelligence when properly watering a yard if you want your yard to look decent. For example today it skipped watering due to high wind. The closest weather station is probably 10 miles away and they do tend to get higher winds There is very little wind at my home but it’s going to be 90 plus today. So what’s the plan? Wait two more days. Not good, not intelligent.
Rachio itself is ok but not very intuitive. Typical you can access useless stuff but not the thing you are looking for.
Also rate this down because does not help save water and water districts should not be subsidizing. Only saves water if you want a dead lawn.
So great as a controller but not intelligent and not a water saver.

by Browell27

My experience with Rachio and this app 3 has been pretty much flawless. A few glitches but nothing a restart of Rachio didn’t resolve. I think some issues people are having is internet connectivity. If you have mediocre WiFi in your home it’s probably pretty bad in your garage if the this app is located there. I have a access point in my garage and the this app shows strong connectivity in the client list. Maybe that’s why it always works. I would totally give it 5 stars if it had a RJ45 jack on the back to possibly run it PoE (power over ethernet) over a CAT 6. This would give it rock solid connectivity and may resolve a lot of people’s issues. Sometimes when I pull my truck in the garage a certain way it will reduce the signal to 60% (metal barrier). With a hard wired connection none of these changes in everyday life would effect the connectivity and cause people to post un researched problems and immediately blame the device. Oh, and on a previous post on how the this app got his WiFi password. This is a HomeKit device, that’s why you bought it right? You said you had a iPhone so you are prob a iOS and AppleTV guy. HomeKit passed on the credentials and set up protocols. You can disable this.

by Covert Rain

Hooking up the unit was easy enough and programming was easy as well. Love the smart features and notification. This system runs like a charm.

I would like to see a couple enhancements. On iOS the Unit sends you notifications like on saturation of soil. However, when you go into Rachio you can’t see that same information. You can only see that it skipped. It would be nice to see those notifications in history on Rachio to understand why it skipped. Also on the saturation skip it would be nice to have a choice to reduce water verses skipping all together. I live in a very dry place and the ground doesn’t stay saturated for long. My only choices are on or off. Having a “reduce” option would be great.

The Alexa integration needs some work (recognize more commands) but it’s pretty cool to be able to kick off the watering cycles. I have had no issues with this unit and happy that smart tech is here for controlling watering. You don’t have to be an electrician to hook this up and programming is pretty intuitive. Highly recommend this product.

by Lalau64

I got this device to handle 11 zones of sprinklers. It’s goes above and beyond anything a rain sensor can do. Rain sensors only control sprinklers while raining. This gem gets weather, both current and future , and adjusts the smart schedule based on your lawn and gardens watering needs. I’m using so much less water.
My only pet peeve is when setting up the needs of the zones for smart watering. It basically gives you two options: lawn & garden, and within those two categories you set soil types and shade or sun That’s fine. It’s very helpful. However, it should also include specialty beds for specific watering needs, such as vegetable beds. To compensate for that lack, I use programmed settings to water, or manually turn on “quick watering “ to supplement. Not a huge deal. I just think the developer can go a little further with Rachio . Still love this thing. And the garage wall mount panel was a snap to install too. ❤️

by Dr. Combo

I can’t describe what a monumental effort and change Rachio went through over this winter! It really went from crap to wow. From a below average app to an intelligent informative UI and overall functional. Hat’s off to your dev team. I’m truly impressed. I see that now you give a notification for flex daily why a weather skip didn’t happen; love it! I’m a lawn lover and Rachio makes me do it so seamlessly.
I didn’t give 5 stars because I don’t want you to think there isn’t room for improvement :) I think a more concise graph report that shows yearly use like a combo graph where I can show galons of usage as well as weather implication on that; compare year to year or same
Month last year. Reminders to potentially fertilize my lawn as well as aerate it that can be baked within Rachio . Rachio has a lot of potential but you’ve done an amazing job! Kudos.
I do feel bummed out though that I bought the 2nd gen this app right before the 3rd gen came out

by Rad99004

First I have to say I just only swapped out an existing Controller. The SetUp and Install was way easier than I expected. I only had one problem. The wi-Fi signal in the yard is marginal in places so I shut off the Wi-Fi and went to cell service. When I did that the program exited from the set up program and I had to manually go in and set up everything. I found no option to get the setup program going again, so possible I missed something? Please add this option. I manually went into each zone and setup those then added a schedule. Hopefully I didn’t miss anything. I will eventually update the review on how well it works.

by Cellomania

I absolutely love having the ability fix a sprinkler head without having to run back and forth from the garage to the zone I’m working on. When doing sprinkler work it is important to bleed the line after the new riser or head is installed. Dirt that is in the pipe will clog up the filter inside the head. I bleed the line by pulling up the pop up part of the head and gently clamping the vice grips on the shaft so it doesn’t go down again. Then I unscrew the top and take out the plastic filter. I then step away and reach for Rachio to turn on that zone. About 5 seconds is all you need to flush out dirt. Finally, I insert the filter, screw the top back on and remove the vice grips. No more getting wet or running constantly back and forth to the garage!

by BigZepFan

This is the third auto sprinkler clock I have tried in the past 10 years because of incredibly disappointing results and other reasons. Compared to the other two which are not relevant because of technological advances and budget this this app is a dream come true! Even though their information on how much water my lawn should receive is based on their opinion of a proper watering schedule based on the weather is very much different than that of the water conservatory group which I belong to. I have watered according to local landscaping recommended schedule and my grass is the best it’s ever been in the 17 years that I’ve owned this home. Rachio is easy and I always know what’s going on and I can stop cycles at anytime I want, I can run manual schedules I can completely control the experience I have a super powerful Wi-Fi so it always stays connected and has not failed in three months so far. The reason I chose this brand was because if it’s in Costco, then it has usually passed a lot of consumer-protecting research and tests. I will totally back the opinion of Costco that you get your $$ worth on this system. Love my lawn!

by Windstormer

Very easy to install, setup, and connect up. I don't know what the past versions were like, but this one does an awesome job making the system do what it should. I'm very impressed by the weather connection. After installing, we had some rains. It held off from watering to the next day. Very easy to organize the schedule and spontaneous water as needed. The wifi connection couldn't have been easier.

Scheduling can be simple, create it and forget about it, or highly detailed in which you can micromanage every zone of your yard on a daily basis. Extremely versitile.

The support for this is tremendous. As I look at the reviews, whether good or bad, there seems to be always someone from this app giving supportive feedback. They have a comprehensive list of articles that help the user get the most of of their products. The only thing that I have found is that since they removed the "Scheduling" from the bottom menu and placed in the "Calendar" section. They needed to update that in there online info as well.

Someone else had mentioned this in a post as well, if Apple were to design a wireless sprinkler timer, this would be it. Quality packaging and product design.

by DIYRRR

This sprinkler controller is this easiest sprinkler controller I’ve ever used in the 40 years that I’ve used them. Easy to set up, easy to understand, and educational to boot! I have 2 homes and use them in both homes now. The only down side, is when your WiFi is out, so is the controller. An improvement might be to have dial up phone control as back up. This is only relevant to those with more than one home 100’s or 1000’s of miles apart! The device is extremely well made, intuitive, and durable. That’s hard to find these days. I like the flexibility of having an eight station unit in my smaller home, but a 16 station on my acreage. Both work the same and don’t take professionals to install or maintain. One can’t say that about most electronic devices!

by Mlt1953

I run two of these at two different homes. The convenience of being able to start and stop from a remote location is game changing. For those who realize that sprinklers need adjustment on occasions I have no more of adjusting a sprinkler, waking back to a controller to turn it on, then a walk back to check if it is adjusted right, then another walk back to turn it off. Now I adjust, turn the zone on with my phone, check the sprinkler head and then turn the zone off.... without taking a step. When you finally install one of these you will remember this review and will have wished you would have acted sooner. No problem with the controller or Rachio for going on 5 years. You will not make a mistake with a this app controller.

by Dlecompte21

In the beginning the manufactur website state HomeKit would be support on Gen 2. That was later removed. When Gen 2 owners asked about HomeKit support they where told it doesn’t support HomeKit at this time and was told to look at Apples WWDC 2017 Keynote where this app was listed as a HomeKit partner, leading you to believe it was still coming to the Gen 2.

Now this app claims they never said Gen 2 would have HomeKit support. Lead you on, then let you down.

I have been chatting with this app over this and they have no plans to make this right for Gen 2 owners. Chamberlain made the same mistake with its garage door opener but gave everyone a free HomeKit hub to make up for it. Nest also made the HomeKit mistake years ago and never made it right. I no longer have nest products in my home.

Reply to developer.

Yes you did state HomeKit would be on Gen 2 but now that you can’t do it, you are lying about it. That’s very sad way to do Business. What is also sad is that my $20 plug in has enough memory to run HomeKit, but my $250 sprinkler box that you claim has a MFi chip for Homekit and would support HomeKit doesn’t has the memory to support HomeKit. How cheap did you make these boxes? Looks like someone tried to save a couple of pennies and screw up really bad so you made a Gen 3 thinking you can go back on what was said and no one would notice. While I’m stuck with this Gen 2 for now, this app has lost me as a future customer along with many others I’m sure.

by Smokejumper99oz

When I originally got the this app controller and Rachio it was fantastic. Several month ago this app decided to update the entire app to a new version. Apparently because the “community” has ask for it. After that, I ran zone 1 and 2 and 3 ran as well. this app support staff told me because my valves are maybe dirty. So, I cleaned them and of course it didn’t fix it. Now, I know that the firmware on my controller with the new app caused the issue. Not only did I waste my time but it just proofs how rubbish Rachio update was. If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it. So, I was told by the this app tech support to update force my firmware because I have the old version and it was reported to have my issues. However, that update didn’t work and online it says the firmware update is done automatically. That is NOT the case. Now I am waiting for another email or call from this app to fix the issue.

by Emmgee53

I’ve used the old-fashioned Rainbird-type controllers for years. These are super-hard to use. So I was thrilled to buy a controller that used the iPhone. By that standard, the this app app is great.

As iPhone apps go, it has always frustrated me. Here’s an example. The other day I noticed that one of my sprinkler risers had broken and water was shooting in the air. For the life of me I couldn’t figure out how to stop it.

I don’t have to use Rachio very often. When I do use it I find myself having to think hard about how to do what I want to do. To me Rachio is not intuitive. The recent changes didn’t help as far as I’m concerned.

by Bpwicker

I am getting random quick start messages....saying it a quick start has started when I didn’t activate one but nothing is really running. I have run quick start and after it is done I get a message saying quick start was manually stopped when it was not. These random messages don’t match up to any action and it’s really annoying. Even the rain sensor/freeze sensor notification are dumb....it does not tell you that the rain sensor is activated or deactivated like the before. The message was very clear with what was going on....now it does not. I am hoping they fix some of these issues in future updates.

Will bump up to 3 stars. App has a long way to go. Recent updates have helped with my issues. Still some bugs and has a lot of design improvements that are needed.

by Sbyfjbgu

What a time saver! I love everything about this device and app. It works flawlessly and keeps my garden in ship shape. I have only two suggestions; I would like to be able to time the water flow in seconds. I have a vegetable garden and when I first seed it I need the water to just mist it for around 15 seconds hourly. 1 minute is too much. My other suggestion is that I’d love to be able to arrange the calendar list to my liking. As it is it keeps the list in the order that they’re programmed. To be able to move them around would make keeping track of the schedule much easier. Anyway, my trees and flowers thank you for doing such a great job. This device is one of the best purchases I’ve ever made!

by Emotycka

this app’s Flex Daily schedules are amazing! Using zone details and local weather data, this app monitors the water level in each zone of my lawn to automate my watering. Using a gas tank analogy, it knows if the zone’s water level is empty or full and refills it exactly at a half tank automagically on a zone by zone basis. Some zone water more frequently than others to meet the needs of the plants. There’s not uncommon for the system to skip watering for a week or two at a time, allowing my lawn to use every drop Mother Nature sends my way. Rachio also gives me control of my sprinklers at my fingertips when I need to fix a head or just want to spray the dog in the back yard! Great product. Highly recommend!