Toby spent months looking at things and eventually settled on the HydraWise. He's still installing it, so we won't know how we like it for a few days, but he says so far it seem simple.
When I went out to ask him the brand, he basically said:
--all of them seem to be $250 as a base price (for 6 zones--you can get bigger ones, but they cost more (duh))
--HydraWise requires a wifi internet connection, and you have to make a free account with them, but you can control it from the panel itself or from your device. (a paid account will allow you to write apps to talk to it)
--the Rachio IRO does not have the ability to control it from the panel, only from your device, and also requires an internet connection.
--the third one he considered, the RainMachine, does not require an internet connection, but obviously won't get any weather info if you don't set it up. Does not require you to set up an account with them, but if you want to control it from a device you have to open up a port on your internet and he's paranoid enough not to want to do that.
no subject
When I went out to ask him the brand, he basically said:
--all of them seem to be $250 as a base price (for 6 zones--you can get bigger ones, but they cost more (duh))
--HydraWise requires a wifi internet connection, and you have to make a free account with them, but you can control it from the panel itself or from your device. (a paid account will allow you to write apps to talk to it)
--the Rachio IRO does not have the ability to control it from the panel, only from your device, and also requires an internet connection.
--the third one he considered, the RainMachine, does not require an internet connection, but obviously won't get any weather info if you don't set it up. Does not require you to set up an account with them, but if you want to control it from a device you have to open up a port on your internet and he's paranoid enough not to want to do that.