Still staring at those brown patches you call a lawn? The warmer weather means that you should at least think about getting outside to tend to the grass and garden. Maybe it’s not the top at your priorities list, whether due to drought or sloth. If that’s the case, you may want to invest in some type of smart irrigation system.
Yes, home automation can extend to the great outdoors to tackle yet another tough chore! However, smart irrigation systems don’t just water the lawn at predetermined times—which means that you shouldn’t see the sprinklers still doing their thing during heavy rainstorms. Today they allow you to give that lawn a little drink at any time, by tapping into an app on your smartphone. Even better, they can follow a predetermined schedule, but also adjust based on weather conditions, seasons, and even your specific type of soil.
Does an automated sprinkler system sound like a smart idea to you? Let’s take a peek at three different smart irrigation systems that are available today.
Droplet
The Droplet has something that you don’t—access to real-time data from over 10,000 weather stations, millions of square miles of U.S. soil samples, and comprehensive biological plant information. With all of that goodness, it can decide when, where and how much water to deliver to your lawn. It even knows the proper angle in which to deliver it. The idea is that this type of system can actually conserve water. It can even produce reports on water consumption. Just hook the sprinkler up to a garden hose, power it, and connect the system to your existing WiFi network. You also need to input the types of plants in your yard and where they are located. If you’re even too lazy for that, you can opt to water the entire lawn. It has a range of 30 feet or 2,700 square feet for normal watering, 50 feet or 9,000 square feet for high-pressure watering, and several hundred feet for agriculture watering.
MSRP: $299
For More Information: Droplet
Rachio Iro
Designed to be the brain for your existing sprinkler system, this smart box is the perfect replacement for your old controller. Just detach the old sprinkler’s low-voltage zone wires, remove it from the wall, and put the Iro in its place. Then, connect the Iro to your WiFi. Once it’s hooked up, the Iro can adjust to seasons and weather conditions, as well as apply water at a rate that your local soil type can actually absorb. It’s even part of the “Works With Nest” program. That way, when your Nest Protect smoke and carbon monoxide detector goes off, the Iro smart sprinkler controller will cycle the sprinklers—not right away, but in enough time to keep the fire from spreading to other areas of the home or even neighboring houses.
MSRP: $249 (8-zone) to $299 (16-zone) (Available on Amazon)
For More Information: Rachio
Blossom
The least expensive entry on our list has connectivity options for both powerline technology and WiFi, allowing you to monitor and control your yard’s watering schedule from anywhere via a smartphone, tablet or computer. However, if you don’t feel like doing any manual tweaking, it will adapt to your local weather, so you won’t waste resources—including your money! The Blossom uses cloud technology to gather local forecasts and daily data from thousands of weather stations and satellites. Then, it uses that info to create an optimized watering schedule.
MSRP: $199 (Available on Amazon)
For More Information: Blossom
JASON BROWN says
I have a Rachio Iro and it seems to work well. It even lets me know when my GFI has tripped because it goes offline and their system sends me an e-mail. With my old controller, it could be offline for days with a tripped GFI and we’d never know. It only happens once a year or so, but it’s still nice. It also lets me know when it’s going to skip a watering day because we got a lot of rain recently. Kinda neat and I’m glad I bought it.