Orbit 57985 B-hyve XR 8-Zone Smart Indoor/Outdoor Sprinkler Controller

Useful features, easy installation, good phone app
We had to replace a 14 year-old irrigation timer when the electro-mechanical switches started to get flaky. Three valves were already installed, with wiring already in place from the valves to the timer location (in the garage). I was really unsure how to replace the old timer, and did a fair amount of research and dithering, but finally decided on this unit. I’m happy to report it turned out to be a good choice! First, it was a snap to install–I just hooked up the wires from the valves (one wire per valve, and one “master/common” wire), and plugged it in. The “hardest” part was attaching it to the wall, which just required all of two screws. After that I downloaded the app to my iPhone, created an account, and the rest was a piece of cake. The unit asked me for permission to connect by bluetooth, after which it detected our WiFi; I logged it in, and then set up the watering schedules. You can have up to four; I created three (normal, hot weather, and REALLY hot weather…). You tell it when to start and how long each valve should run for each such schedule (you can choose specific days of the week, odd or even days (viz., dates), etc., all pretty standard for irrigation timers). Then you (typically) choose which schedule to run, and that’s it, you’re done. I think this whole process took me about 15 minutes, if that. The thing I did not realize in advance is how much easier setup and operation is with a well-designed app as your interface! Our other timer worked basically the same way, but you had to perform all operations physically on the unit itself (and you can get such timers for $40-60 less nowadays, if you want to save a little money). Besides setup, the app tells you what schedule you are using, when the next watering will happen, and allows you to change to a different schedule, run a valve manually for x amount of time, and so on. Status information is also displayed on the unit, as well as in the app, which can be handy if you don’t happen to have your phone on you at a particular moment. Part of this is simply about having a timer that’s capable of connecting to the internet and is controlled by a phone app, but I want to add that if the app were poorly designed (which is often the case when companies that used to just make gizmos suddenly find themselves wanting to produce smart gizmos, but they lack the engineering expertise!), or connectivity did not work well, or whatever, then even a well built piece of equipment could be a disappointing pain in the —. So I congratulate Orbit for designing a nice, clear user interface that works exactly as it should. I should add that the unit has an “automatic” feature that I have not tried yet; I guess that feature actually monitors the weather (which it can since it’s online) and decides whether to water based on that, at least in part. I might check that out later. It also can handle up to 8 valves, which is way more than we needed, but who knows, we might add more zones in the future. Finally, I must confess, I was delighted by the way the panel that hides the wire connection array comes off–rather than some kind of plastic tabs or something, it clicks out of and into place *magnetically*! That probably reveals my truly geeky nature…ahem…but, well, I just thought it was a cool touch, and maybe indicative of some uncommonly thoughtful engineering.

B-Hyve Controller
I replaced my old Hunter controller. It was 11 years old and stopped working. The install was easy. I took my time and labled the wires before disconnecting from the old unit. Mounting the unit wasn’t too bad. Note: mine only came with two screws and anchors. Luckily I had a screw and anchor set.After powering on the B-Hyve it proceeded to update which was nice. Everything is controlled from the app on your phone. I haven’t finished setting everything up, yet but plan to soon. Overall, really great product. So glad I chose the Orbit brand.

Why Did I Wait So Long???
We have a lot of sprinkler valves. We had an older Orbit controller that would do 5 stations in our front yard and another controller for 8 stations in our backyard. Both controllers were in my garage/workshop but mounted on opposite walls. The one for the backyard was always blocked by my woodworking equipment so it was a hassle to get to when we wanted to run a station manually or test a station for whatever reason. Additionally, if we were in either yard working on a sprinkler or planting new plants and wanted to test it, we’d have to go all the over to the controller, push through the buttons and run it. I know, i know, first world problems.We’ve been considering this B-Hyve unit for a while and now that we finally pulled the trigger I can’t believe we waited so long!Wiring the sprinklers into the unit was easy. I recommend having a small flathead screwdriver and needle nose pliers handy as these might make it easier to get the skinny wires into their slots.Programming the unit was very straightforward and our phones were connected to the app in no time.It’s so nice to be able to name the stations AND associate a photo with each station.The most helpful thing on the planet is to be able to be working at the far corner of the yard and be able to just run a specific sprinkler within about 8 seconds. Just open the app, click “water manually”, select the station, the duration, start! This B-Hyve makes it so easy to run the sprinks.Inside the panel cover you can find instructions for running the stations in old school manual mode in the event that you may be having wi-fi problems at the moment. The print is very small though, so keep that in mind.*ONE CONCERN*After the first week of using the B-Hyve we noticed the button lit up RED and said we had a fault at station 5. We did a quick search online and came to the conclusion that it could be our solenoid at that station was bad. After testing the solenoid we found that to be the culprit. We replaced it with a spare we already had and we were back in business. About a week and a half later we had another RED fault, this time for station 7. I thought okay, i’ll take care of that this weekend. A couple days later I noticed the RED fault for station 8 as well. So now I e got faults on 7 and 8 at the same time. One day later I noticed the fault for station 8 simply disappeared. So I replaced the solenoid on station 7 and it was all good. It’s been a couple weeks now and no new faults have shown up. I was concerned that the B-Hyve was perhaps sending too much electricity to the valves and blowing the solenoids but I also realize solenoids go bad and maybe it was just coincidence. Time will tell.I don’t use the water saving feature…i don’t really care about “saving the planet” and I have my program set to run on a schedule that works best for the beauty of our landscape.The B-Hyve supposedly shows your local weather info but even after entering my 92026 code during setup, i’ve noticed the weather it tells me is FAR from accurate. No big deal because I have eyes and an actual weather app.*MY ONLY COMPLAINT*While this B-Hyve can do 16 stations, it still can ONLY have 4 programs (A,B,C,D) which has caused me to adjust the schedule of a couple of my stations and I have to run them at time when I wasn’t running them before with my old system. ORBIT…if you read this, PLEASE do a software update that allows us to add more programs….like at least A,B,C,D,E,F,G. That would be SO SO SO HELPFUL!!🙌🏻All in all, very happy with the B-Hyve. Wish we would’ve gotten this thing a few years ago!

120 voltios. Enchufe americano. No debería estar a la venta en la Unión Europea.

Dry easy to set up. Instruction easily understood. Have only used manual feature so far, but expect other settings will be easy to use as well