One of the issues I had with my old electric programmable sprinkler controller was that the sprinklers would run even when it was raining. This meant if it was raining I would end up over watering my plants unless I remembered to manually change the watering schedule. Another issue was that I couldn’t remotely change the watering schedule. Therefore, if I was on vacation and an unexpected heat wave was hitting the area where I lived I was out of luck and couldn’t increase the sprinkler watering schedule.

Both of these issues are solved with a Smart sprinkler controller. These types of sprinkler controller systems can connect to Wi-Fi. This allows you to change the watering schedule anytime you want with your phone. Also, the sprinkler controller is given weather data through Wi-Fi and will automatically turn the sprinklers off when it is scheduled to rain (this is where the Smart comes in). Many water utilities will even give you a rebate towards the cost of the Smart sprinkler controllers since they save water and are more environmentally friendly.

When I installed my Smart sprinkler controller it was very straight forward, as I simply unhooked the cable from the old sprinkler controller and attached them to the new one. However, if you do not have an existing sprinkler controller the process would be much more time intensive and you might want to hire a professional.

The system I bought is the Orbit 57950 B-hyve Smart Indoor/Outdoor 12-Station. A picture of it is below and you can find it on Amazon here: Orbit 57950 B-hyve Smart Indoor/Outdoor 12-Station WiFi Sprinkler System Controller, Compatible with Alexa