# Anyone have experience with the B-Hyve controller



## bassadict69 (Apr 2, 2018)

I know the Rachio is more often discussed and liked around here, but does anyone have experience with B-Hyve which seems to be MUCH cheaper?

What are the main differences between the two?

Anyone have a previous gen Rachio they would like to sell cheap?


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## TroyHenley (Apr 24, 2019)

No experience with the Rachio, but I have the 4 zone B-Hyve. Was super easy to install and the app is easy to use. It was perfect for me since I only have a 3 zone system. Not a ton of bells and whistles, but it was hard to beat for the price.


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## bassadict69 (Apr 2, 2018)

So what are these bells & whistles it doesn't have?


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## sukhoi3w (Aug 12, 2019)

I have the 12 zone B-Hyve and I have zero complaints. Setup was quick and easy. Has way more features than i will ever need. I like the feature that you can take a picture of each zone profile for a visual reference when manually turning zones on for watering. my main reason for buying a wifi timer was so i didn't have to go back and forth to the garage where my timer is located when i want to do a sprinkler check or a random watering here and there.


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## ktgrok (May 25, 2019)

I have one, and I researched both before buying. My understanding is that the main difference between the two is that the B-hyve smart watering is slightly less smart, but I don't use that feature anyway, as it goes off the weather station a few miles away and in Florida it tends to rain on one side of the street and not the other. So rain a few miles away does NOT mean it is raining at my house. I just hooked up a rain sensor for that issue. And even without smart watering turned on it will still give me an alert if rain is predicted, so I can manually hit the "rain delay" button on the app if I want to.


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## knomore (Jul 23, 2018)

I use the 12zone and before that the 6zone B-Hyve and I don't have anything bad to say really. I wish the scheduling was a bit more robust. Right now you can pick even or odd days or set specific days of the week, but I would like to have a every 3 days option. Sometimes every other day gets to be more than I need but if I pick specific days of the week that's also not great.

The smart watering thing is kinda strange I never really got to understand that. I just ended up putting in a rain sensor and turning off the smart watering. I keep a eye on the weather as is and have a weather station in house as well so l tend to turn it all off once in a while when we have wet periods of time.

I would love to see some ifttt integration with it so I could get my weather station, soil moisture probes, and the like to talk with the controller, but that's just the nerd in me asking for something only a handful of people would use.

O and it only seams to allow like 4 programs to be in the mix at any one time. That is about two less than I would like to have. I end up moving things around at various times in the year to accommodate my over seeding schedule. Trees... they just end up forcing a guy to seed all year long to keep a lawn.


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## adgattoni (Oct 3, 2017)

knomore said:


> I would like to have a every 3 days option.


FYI if you go into a program, there is an option at the bottom called "Interval" which will allow you to do "every X days."

The only annoying thing for me is that only 4 programs can be active at one time. Each program will only run 4 start times, so max of 16 start times. I've been doing some sprigging this summer, so many short watering cycles. At one point I had to take off my drip system from the main programs (you can save them to add them back to the main program slots later) to make room for sprigging times.


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## Gibby (Apr 3, 2018)

Look at opensprinkler cheapest per zone and highly customizable. On my 2nd one, first got hit by lightning after 3 or 4 years.


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## ubergeek (Sep 5, 2019)

I have one installed to control 12 zones and love it I am actually surprised by the quality of the application. They've done a great job.


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## stogie1020 (Sep 10, 2019)

I have a 6 zone and really like it. I only have three zones set up, but need to add a fourth. I, too, would like more than 4 active programs at once for overseeding time, but otherwise I am very happy.

I should also add that mine was free. I bought it and then my city paid me back for it as a rebate program, since it has the "smart" features (which I don't actually use, shhhh!). They also bought half of my new toilet, but that's another forum...


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