Best Sprinkler System For Control4 Integration

[ajd123]

I am in the process of pricing out an in ground irrigation system for my house.

What irrigation brand / controller integrates the best with Control4?

[msgreenf]

Rachio iro. But why integrate? It's awesome on its own 

[ajd123]

19 minutes ago, msgreenf said:

Rachio iro. But why integrate? It's awesome on its own 

You tell me, are there any advantages to integration?  Does Rachio have a driver or is it a paid 3rd party driver?

My irrigation contractor suggest the following: HC-PRO-HC-2400 (https://www.hunterindustries.com/en-metric/irrigation-product/controllers/pro-hc).  Do you know if this system is compatible with Control4?

[SMHarman]

27 minutes ago, msgreenf said:

Rachio iro. But why integrate? It's awesome on its own 

In my use case case I have Moen flow

I can put Flo to sleep while ratio is watering and wake her up when watering stops

[msgreenf]

paid driver.  Rachio is better than anything hunter

[ajd123]

3 minutes ago, msgreenf said:

paid driver.  Rachio is better than anything hunter

What would be the comparable Rachio model to the HC-PRO-HC-2400.  What makes it better in your opinion?

[ajd123]

9 minutes ago, SMHarman said:

In my use case case I have Moen flow

I can put Flo to sleep while ratio is watering and wake her up when watering stops

Good point.  I already get Moen flow notifications when I water my lawn manually.  Unfortunately, I do not have the Moen driver since it is an absurdly expensive paid driver ($200usd).  

Moen is supposed to learn your habits, so hopefully it does not start shutting off my water once I have the irrigation installed.

[Amr]

3 hours ago, msgreenf said:

Rachio iro. But why integrate? It's awesome on its own 

In my case used in combination with motion sensors, my backyard doesn’t start with motion detected

[C4 User]

I suggest you look at weatermatic. Capabilities far beyond the others with regard to programming options, managing weather based zone deficits, monitoring zone Flo rates and zone valve performance. Unfortunately it does not integrate with C4 at this time. I have over 20 zones and travel for extended periods. I need to know if any zone has trouble. I tried Rachio and Hunter and Rainbird. They aren’t even close. But it’s costly. 

Edited June 8, 2023 by C4 User

[ekohn00]

13 hours ago, ajd123 said:

What would be the comparable Rachio model to the HC-PRO-HC-2400.  What makes it better in your opinion?

I just switched from Rachio to the Hunter Hydrawise

Rachio comes off as much easier to set up. But i do like the Hydrawise Now. If you have a service, it integrates better with them so they can have access and also provide schedules remotely.

The Hunter meters that integrate are on a whole different level than anything with Rachio. Unfortunately, you'll end up paying more for flow meters than the Hydrawise console.

Integration into C4 was simple. I created a couple of favorite buttons that when pressed do watering in that area outside the schedule.

Personally, if you have Rachio, i wouldn't change it. My rachio controller blew up, so i gave the Hunter a try. The hardware if far better, the software is also very good, but rachio is maybe a step better and a bit easier.

[South Africa C4 user]

13 hours ago, SMHarman said:

In my use case case I have Moen flow

I can put Flo to sleep while ratio is watering and wake her up when watering stops

Lots of additional potential reasons to integrate (depending on setup):

1. I have a shower button which pauses the irrigation for 20 minutes when I am in the shower (amongst other things - like overriding motion sensors in the bathroom so lights stay on,  increasing music volume and making sure that I am using municipal water and not our borehole backup) so that I keep pressure high for showering.

2. Alerting Flo by Moen to turn off the municipal water to the house when irrigating and only sue the borehole;

3. I have programmed when to skip irrigation due to high rainfall recently (as measured by my weather station) using a relatively complex algorithm with parameters that can be adjusted on my T4s or app.

4. I pause irrigation automatically (for up to 12 hours) if my borehole is running dry and the backup tank is empty.

5. I like monitoring when irrigation has been on and off (graphically) which I do in Control4 along with graphically monitoring hundreds of other variables.

6. I have a winter and summer setting which control4 changes automatically (with different frequency of watering, different time of day and different zone lengths).  All of this I change from my T4s / app.

7. pause and play of irrigation from a keypad as well as LED feedback (red is off, green is scheduled and blue is running).

I realise that some of these (particularly 3 and 6 can be done with most smart irrigation controllers.  I have skipped this totally and have no controller.  My irrigation runs straight from an IO extender.  I am not necessarily advocating this but I love my setup and that it is all in one app (or on one T4).

I think a borehole is what many of you may refer to as a well.   Not sure!

Edited June 8, 2023 by South Africa C4 user

[eggzlot]

I rarely see the benefit.  I had the original Gen1 Rachio and I had a touch screen close to that area of my house, and the Rachio didnt have physical buttons so I thought using the c4 touchpanel would be helpful.  now my sprinkler guy has rachio so i can share access and he does it all on his phone.  since then, my integration with c4 is minimal

Though some people say you can have keypads light up or pause when showering, at least by me in Northern NJ, it is highly recommended to water your lawn early, like 1:30am - 6am due to the ability to have better water pressure and if you water during the sunlight the water is just going to evaporate so you are wasting your money watering.  so I am not really concerned about keypad notifications that my sprinkler is on nor about showering as 99.9% of the time I am not showering or walking the dog outside when the sprinkler is on.

Any leaks would be detected by Moen if you have Moen, and then shut off your water anyways.

Its one of the few devices that I did pay to integrate and now I am like why....the built in weather on rachio is sufficient for me, guess I have a close enough weather station.

Edited June 8, 2023 by eggzlot

[msgreenf]

And get a 2nd water meter just for your sprinklers. That's a huge savings

[RyanE]

1 hour ago, msgreenf said:

And get a 2nd water meter just for your sprinklers. That's a huge savings

We have pressurized irrigation here.

Nasty, dirty water, but the price is right for unmetered, monthly lawn water...

RyanE

[ajd123]

1 hour ago, msgreenf said:

And get a 2nd water meter just for your sprinklers. That's a huge savings

Is the idea here so you don't pay for sewage processing?

[msgreenf]

11 minutes ago, ajd123 said:

Is the idea here so you don't pay for sewage processing?

Yes

[ajd123]

On 6/8/2023 at 8:52 AM, C4 User said:

I suggest you look at weatermatic. Capabilities far beyond the others with regard to programming options, managing weather based zone deficits, monitoring zone Flo rates and zone valve performance. Unfortunately it does not integrate with C4 at this time. I have over 20 zones and travel for extended periods. I need to know if any zone has trouble. I tried Rachio and Hunter and Rainbird. They aren’t even close. But it’s costly. 

What model weathermatic controller do you use?

[ajd123]

On 6/7/2023 at 9:35 PM, msgreenf said:

paid driver.  Rachio is better than anything hunter

What model Rachio would you use for 24 zones?

[ajd123]

On 6/8/2023 at 11:29 AM, ekohn00 said:

I just switched from Rachio to the Hunter Hydrawise

Rachio comes off as much easier to set up. But i do like the Hydrawise Now. If you have a service, it integrates better with them so they can have access and also provide schedules remotely.

The Hunter meters that integrate are on a whole different level than anything with Rachio. Unfortunately, you'll end up paying more for flow meters than the Hydrawise console.

Integration into C4 was simple. I created a couple of favorite buttons that when pressed do watering in that area outside the schedule.

Personally, if you have Rachio, i wouldn't change it. My rachio controller blew up, so i gave the Hunter a try. The hardware if far better, the software is also very good, but rachio is maybe a step better and a bit easier.

My irrigation guys prefer Hunter.

1) So does hunter integrate with Control4?

2) Are there stock drivers or are they paid drivers?

[ajd123]

On 6/8/2023 at 1:32 PM, eggzlot said:

I rarely see the benefit.  I had the original Gen1 Rachio and I had a touch screen close to that area of my house, and the Rachio didnt have physical buttons so I thought using the c4 touchpanel would be helpful.  now my sprinkler guy has rachio so i can share access and he does it all on his phone.  since then, my integration with c4 is minimal

Though some people say you can have keypads light up or pause when showering, at least by me in Northern NJ, it is highly recommended to water your lawn early, like 1:30am - 6am due to the ability to have better water pressure and if you water during the sunlight the water is just going to evaporate so you are wasting your money watering.  so I am not really concerned about keypad notifications that my sprinkler is on nor about showering as 99.9% of the time I am not showering or walking the dog outside when the sprinkler is on.

Any leaks would be detected by Moen if you have Moen, and then shut off your water anyways.

Its one of the few devices that I did pay to integrate and now I am like why....the built in weather on rachio is sufficient for me, guess I have a close enough weather station.

I agree with a lot of what you say.  Better to water in the middle of the night.  More efficient and more water gets into the ground.  Water at night also resolves any of the other needs for motion to turn off when outside, programming when showering etc.

[msgreenf]

middle of night is not good.  Early morning is best.  Middle of night allows too much time for water to sit especially in your northern climnate.  About 4am is when you want to water.  

[msgreenf]

7 minutes ago, ajd123 said:

What model Rachio would you use for 24 zones?

that a problem for that many zones - they only have a 16 zone unit and the software isn't able to "chain" two together unless they recently added that this spring

[ajd123]

I noticed they now offer integration for Hunter Hydrawise: https://annex4.link/drivers/hydrawise-hc

Mitch, what is the price for this driver?

[C4 User]

3 hours ago, ajd123 said:

What model weathermatic controller do you use?

I have the SL4800 (SmartLine) with the Aircard, Flow, and the WeatherStation. It is not cheap, but there is nothing better that I know of, and I know the Rachio, Hunter and Rainbird well. While it does not integrate with C4 (yet) the online app gives you full programming, review, monitoring, notifications. Your yard care specialist can also access the system if you allow.

[ekohn00]

5 hours ago, ajd123 said:

My irrigation guys prefer Hunter.

1) So does hunter integrate with Control4?

2) Are there stock drivers or are they paid drivers?

1. Yes

2. Unfortunately paid, but cheap. Under $100