Orbit21004 B-hyve Smart Hose Watering Timer with Wi-Fi Hub

I love having these faucet timers for my yard. I have 3 now (one purchased with this hub and 2 additional 21005 units). The majority of the negative reviews are due to frustrations working with the poorly designed app from Orbit. The documentation is not very clear either, so hopefully the following explains how it works.The Orbit B-hyve smart device app is used to control multiple devices. You can purchase this item which includes a WiFi hub, the model without that is Bluetooth only (but which can be upgraded to use WiFi with this included hub), another timer that will control other Orbit B-hyve products, etc. While using the same app for multiple devices in theory shouldn't be an issue, in this case it can be confusing because some options are not relevant for the product you may have purchased, but are still visible even if you don't want to or can't use the feature.Things to note:Each device is separate from the other. You control and schedule them separately.Programs - This is where you "program" the faucet timers. You can create multiple sets of schedules for each device. You can have a device come on each day of the week (you can select the days individually), at an interval (every 1, 2, 3 etc days), even or odd days. You can specify multiple start times throughout the day (come on at 8am, 12pm, 3pm). You will pick the default zone and select for how long the faucet will remain open for the days/times you picked. You can also specify a watering budget (which admittedly i have no clue what that does because i couldn't find documentation on it, it may not even be relevant to this device...so i left it alone at 100%)Zones - Although completely irrelevant and not meaningful for these devices, a Zone is the area that the device will water. They each only control 1 zone, but despite that possibly obvious fact, you still have to select that 1 zone when setting up the schedule. You will see prompts and warnings that you haven't configured a schedule for the zones on the device. From reading others complaints, I think a lot of the struggles would be eliminated if they just defaulted to the only zone available, but once you realize that they sell other devices that control 6 or 12 zones and they happen to use the same interface for our single zone devices, it makes a little more sense.So how do you actually program these timers?1. Once you download the app on your phone/tablet, you will need to create a Orbit B-hyve account.2. The app will attempt to enable Bluetooth on your phone for the initial pairing of the devices.3. You should then plugin the hub (choose an inside wall that is closet to where your faucet timers will be installed and where you have a WiFi signal). This device will connect on a 2.4GHz signal only. The signal doesn't need to be very strong from my experience (mine is pretty far from my WiFi router).4. You will then add the hub to your account via the app (it should default to pairing mode).5. Next you install 2 double A batteries in the faucet timer (you will hear it click twice as it opens and shuts the valve to confirm it is functioning correctly).6. You will add a new device in the app and you should see the icon that looks like the timer with the MAC of device. You will need to tell it the location (which is annoying because you do it for each device you add...or it seems like you do. It remembers what you previously provided, but seems to keep prompted on each new device. I assume this is for people who will use the same account to control devices in multiple zip codes, but why that would be on for most people i can't understand).7. You should get prompted to update the device (one of the 3 I installed did not prompt me at first so i went into Settings - Devices - select the device - scroll down to Update Firmware). This took about 2 to 3 minutes for me.8. Here is where the fun / confusion / frustration begins..9. You should be prompted to program a schedule for the new device now. You have the option of using their smart watering or to do a manual schedule. Regardless of which you want to do, it tells you that it wants to test the water flow. For me i wanted to do the manual schedule so that honestly threw me off because I was doing this on my couch and I also didn't want to use the smart watering option so I didn't know if I needed to do that to proceed...you don't need to by the way :)10. If you go through the wizard and do manual setup it will walk you through the options I listed above regarding the "programming"11. Once you save it, you are all set. Hook it up to your faucet and click the icon that looks like a remote and test it out.Once you have it programmed it seems reasonably straight forward to use. Providing the zip code means that if it rains, it will / can automatically set a rain delay on (it happened to be raining when i was setting it up and it applied a rain delay automatically). But of course, you can always clear that or adjust it as you see fit which I think is pretty cool.There are more features and options but this should be enough to get someone started. The app does suck, but the product is totally worth it form what i can tell so far.

Orbit has done lot of work on their app and addressed many problems. My system is now working fine. I have a large yard and low water pressure so I have 15 hose end timers on two hubs. They were all stable last summer and worked as they should. Also, they all made it through the last power outage and reconnected to the wifi as soon as the power was turned back on.Hose End Faucet Timer using WiFiUpdate - May 15, 2022It has now been close to six weeks since my review and things are going from bad to worse. The App is buggy and with each update (many in the last 6 weeks) things get worse. Last night I "turned off" a timed program using the "On/Off" button in the App and sure enough the water came on this morning. Had to run out and turn off the faucet since the App indicated it was not scheduled to run.So many updates in the past 6 weeks with little to no progress. They somehow managed to change the colors of the buttons!, but that does little when the settings are ignored by their server. I have already done a complete reset of one timer and now I will try that with this second errant timer. They need new coders but more importantly they need real time field testing to see what actually happens.And I think part of the problem is trying to run two totally different systems within one App. There is the "sprinkler" system timer that waters zones in your yard, and the individual faucet timer, each of which is a separate zone. The two do not play well together.And still no response from Orbit.Original Review - April 6, 2022I have used the B-hyve Smart Hose Timer (15 in total) since 2020 and found it to be a reliable product until the company started doing software "updates" a few months ago. I can only say it is a mess. The first hint was when "Notifications" stopped coming. Unless I go through the entire list, one by one I can't tell if the watering was done. And even going through the list I found some devices that while they did water, were not recorded has having watered. I am now having to visually inspect my whole yard to make sure the plants are watered - the Smart Hose Timer has now turned "DUMB".I tried to provide feedback to Orbit, but even that is difficult.Definitely not recommended at this time

Sorry I've had to update this review to say I can't recommend it anymore. The removal of the batteries is near impossible as it will get stuck. There is no easy pry point and the two flared plastic pieces will break when you use any kind of plier on them. In addition one of my 4 has already failed on me in less than a few months of usage. I will be switching to Rachio------------I have a lot of smart home devices, but really needed this and I was glad it existed. I live in Vegas and needed to deep soak some new tree's that were purchased. It was a pain turning on the hose and remembering when to turn it off. This solved the issue, I can simply just move the hose from tree to tree, and set the timer. When I go out, I move the hose to the next tree at my leisure without worry of forgetting to turn it off. Brilliant!As far as the setup goes, it was very easy. My wifi strength is better than most outside though, but I don't think it's a weak connection that can't grab from indoors. The app is refined and works perfectly, and I'm able to do what I need to without digging for the feature. Everything else is in there for scheduling, rain delay, looks complete for anything you might need it to do.I didn't integrate it with my Hubitat, Home Assistant, or SmartThings hubs but I could see that it was offered. For my purpose, I just use it with a hose. I have a Rachio for all other irrigation.I've used it for about a month now, 5 or 6 days a week, and only needed to replace the stock battery with some good AA's once. I suspect the batteries I have in there now will last even longer.I highly recommend, love this little smart device.