Hunter Industries Hydrawise HC 12-Station Indoor Irrigation Controller

I will attempt to give this product as complete a review as I can. This is the first truly web-based watering solution I have used. It attempts to merge the best of the traditional irrigation timer with the best of the web-based timer. It does a good job bringing traditional and web based timers together. It is not perfect. It still needs some improvement, but it is evolving quickly thanks to a super responsive support group. I’ve contacted them four times via email. The first time was to ask about a feature I needed that wasn’t available. Their response was within hours and told me how to work around what I wanted to do, and that they were releasing a feature that achieved what I wanted in the next 10 days. My second contact was right after the new release to ask why it wasn’t working from my browser, turns out the cache needed to be cleared. No problem. Again, quick response. The third and fourth interactions were about ‘bugs’ in the software. Fields that were re-setting to default when an option page was opened. Again, their response was within hours and the response was that it was ‘fixed’. Bug fixes within hours of reporting them, that’s pretty darn good. They listen and they respond. Feel confident in purchasing this product for that service alone. By the way, don’t let my use of the word ‘bug’ scare you. Overall the software on this unit is very stable. I’ve had no problems with this except for what I mentioned and they fixed it quickly.Now for the review:The GOOD:1) On-device touch screen for disconnected programming and use. This is an important feature. Sometimes, you need to work with the device directly. I’d stay away from devices with no manual interface. When things go wrong, like an WiFi outage, and you need to change something, this is a must.2) Sensitive WiFi. I was initially worried that my placement of the controller was in an area where my WiFi signal was going to be too weak. My unit is mounted outdoors on the side of the house in a weather proof enclosure. It is about 70′ away from the WiFi source and across the entire house. The signal must travel through six walls, one of which is concrete stucco. Still connects just fine.3) Heat resistant. I live in Phoenix, AZ. It get HOT here. I was worried that it would be unreliable in the heat. For the last month it has been over 105degF with two weeks regularly over 111degF and the hottest day over 115degF. Unit is enclosed in a weather proof box on the east side of the house (i.e. in the sun in the morning). Works fine so far. We’ll see how long the electronics last in this environment, but so far so good. I’ll update the review if I see any instability issues.3) Nice user interface. Once you understand their concept of zones, schedules, triggers, and the such its very easy to program. Web interface and iOS interface are identical. No separate learning curve.4) Nice looking, easy to hook up. I like neat looking installations. Installed it in an weather proof enclosure, the wiring is neat and tidy. Looks good on the side of the house.5) Lots of stations. I have the 12 station version.6) Reliable. Nice and reliable. The bugs caused me to reset some settings unwittingly, but they fixed that right away.7) Top notch support. Fast response. Fast fixes. This is worth the price of the unit.8) Lots of sensors options available. Flow sensors, etc.9) Supports master valves.10) Easy to setup for world wide access. No port forwarding or firewall issues. No ‘security’ issues with people hacking directly into the device. The device is not visible to the internet. Their cloud base approach isolates direct access to the hardware from the internet. A direct local WiFi connection is supported if needed. Choose a strong password and security shouldn’t be an issue.11) Lots of reports: Actual watering schedule, proposed watering schedule, rainfall trends, water usage, water savings, temperature trends, etc.The BAD:1) Station expansion is expensive. They offer a 6 zone and 12 zone model with 12 zone expansion modules. They really need an 8 zone offering. I’d replace the 6 zone with an 8 zone. I have 22 zones total grouped into a 7 zone area and a 15zone area. I have to have two timer because of this. I was forced to purchase a 12 zone controller to cover 7 zones, It would have been nice to have an 8zone option. I know, this is a personal problem, but I thought worth mentioning.2) Its not weather proof. Had to purchase an additional outdoor enclosure to mount the controller outdoors. I really don’t mind that so much but it would be nice if Hydrowise offered a custom designed outdoor enclosure that fit it better, or offered an outdoor version. The multi-purpose enclosures are a little kludgy. I know, another personal problem, but what can I say, there aren’t a lot of BAD’s for this controller3) No ‘custom’ dashboard or reports. No ability to layout my own custom dashboard or to build my own custom reports. It would be nice future addition.4) No home automation integration. This may be possible and I just don’t know about it. It would be nice if they published an API to allow for interaction between home automation systems and this controller.5) No multi-controller striping. This may sound strange but it would be nice to be able to virtualize the controllers in the dashboard. Right now, you choose which controller you are working with from a drop-down menu at the top of the page. It would be nice to virtualize the zones from multiple controllers into a single ‘virtual’ dashboard so that schedules could span controllers. This would be an awesome feature.6) Expansion units must be wired and need to be within a few feet of the main unit without purchasing additional hardware. The suggestion above in #5 would remove that restriction.7) In summery, very little bad about this device, and when there is an issue they fix it very quickly.The UGLY:1) The price. Its about 3x the price of a comparable traditional 12 station controller. Expansion is also expensive.2) Managing multiple controllers in a single ‘schedule’ is a little difficult. Easier than doing so with a traditional controller though. This is an area where they could evolve to make a ‘mesh network’ of controllers. Useful for larger properties like mine, ranches, gold courses, parks, etc.3) As you can see, there really isn’t anything ugly about this controller. The price is what you pay for innovation. These guys have done a nice job, and I’m willing to pay extra for it.