Pixie Smart Hose Faucet Timer, WiFi, Solar Powered, Weather Aware, Gray, Compatible with Alexa

So, I purchased one of these a couple of years ago, and have since purchased two more (one to replace the original, and an additional).First the good. This thing just works. Once you get it watering how you'd like, you just set it and forget it. Do you have a crazy heat-wave come through? Great, then just do a little supplemental watering cycle just to be safe. It's easy, and you can do it from anywhere.However, it is a pretty delicate little device since it's plastic. You're attaching a plastic "computer" onto your brass hose-link, and if something is going to give, it's going to be this little device.So, the second time around I got a little smarter. I attached quick-disconnects to both connections on the Netro, ensuring that when I disconnect it and reconnect it each season, I'm not ruining the device simply trying to disconnect something that has seized onto the faucet over the summer.That's my only complaint about the device. When you attach something onto your faucet for 7 months a year, you get some calcium buildup and corrosion, and the plastic is going to give-way before the brass does. My initial unit developed a leak the 2nd season, and ultimately failed since it ruined the electronics. I think I've got it down, now, with the quick disconnects.

I really wanted to like these. I bought four -- over $500 -- replacing existing ten-year-old standalone timers. The app installed and paired with the Pixies will not a lot of trouble -- on glitch: the pairing instructions on-screen at one point show a screenshot, but it looks like a live screen, which of course is confusing until you realize you're being presented with a screenshot of what to do.I had no trouble initially charging the batteries via USB charger, and only one unit had a leak after a day which was just a re-tightening thing.But the software . . . is pretty bad.I can't see data from all four timers at once (a swim-lane graph showing all four timers' schedules would have been a great start). To check the battery status of all timers, you have to dance through three screens each timer.And, repeatedly, the app would show a timer status of "watering" when no water was flowing. Most of these instances, if I waited one or two minutes, the timer *would* eventually start, but that's not what the app was reporting. Several times, it would report that a Pixie was Online, but manual watering could not be initiated.On battery usage: one of the four was barely staying charged. I think that eventually I'd have to bring the battery inside and manually charge it. Since my old Orbits would run TWO summers on two AAs, the solar charging feature turns out to be less useful than burning an average of three AAs per season, and the Orbits let me spot water manually for ten minutes with a single button press; the Pixie requires holding the Pixie's one button for three seconds to wake it up, waiting 10-15 secs. for it to go online, the you tap the button twice to initiate manual watering, and if you want to change the length it will water, better have your phone with you. The Orbit is less hassle.For my use case, these offer no advantages over my older electronic standalone timers, and I've returned them to Amazon after three weeks. I liked the idea of phone- or web- control of the timers, but the reality was more frustration than ease of use, and certainly not worth the hundreds of dollars extra expense, only for smart watering and remote control capability.

The media could not be loaded.  I want to start by saying that the reason why I bought this Pixie sprinkler timer was because my girlfriend wanted to have a little bit more attention paid to her orchids and I was too lazy to stay on a schedule. While that may sound funny, it's very difficult when you're busy every single day working and then coming home and putting orchids before some personal time. After looking at a lot of these different timers that plug into the water faucet, I decided to get this one since it had some pretty good reviews that answered a few questions. Along with this, I also bought an adapter that took one hose outlet and turned it into four. I felt that if I had the hose also attached on a different faucet, as well as the pixie timer, the options would be there for me to use either or and anything else that I might think about later on to include. When I finally put them together, I realized that the water misting system that was going to be necessary to attach to the remaining faucets – in essence, the 4 to 1 faucet was ALMOST the same price as a 2 to 1. I also needed something that was adaptable and could easily be repositioned because I wanted this to be a surprise and going to my girlfriend and asking her where she would want each one of these nozzles would sort of reveal the intent of the gift.As with any part of the world that is Amazon, I found a water misting system composed of nozzles, 100 feet of plastic hose (people said that the hose will crack on the reviews – my thought is that you can get some hose connectors and cut out the old and install new hose as well as numerous adapters that I could configure to follow a particular path along her flower bench and connect different parts together to make something very original.When I first stood in front of the garden, I should mention that my girlfriend keeps many of her orchids on a table that she uses for potting and putting them into new decorative vases and Potts. When I looked at the time that I needed to set up to set this timing device, versus the time I would be waking out of a sound sleep at 3:00 AM to water them, followed by 10 minutes of misting to 11:30, a little bit more than mid morning, when the sun in South Florida is higher and the climate a little bit more inhospitable two delicate flora like orchids, and again at 3:30 or 4:00 o'clock and finally again for the 4th time at 9:30 at night. Basically, four times a day every six hours.A lot of people would ask me what kind of spray comes out of the jets. I explained a lot of times that it's a fine mist, and many people have different definitions of what they find “mist” is. I took photos, up close, and also a video to show how i laid it out. I also put in several L brackets, what you might call aluminum angles that are mounted to the back of the bench with two screws at the bottom and I drilled a hole at the very top so I had the option of either running the hose through that hole or using wire ties to secure it through the hole in case I had to quickly remove them by using a wire cutter in case a hurricane was coming toward shore in Florida. The most important thing I learned from my girlfriend is that the fine mist has to be above the orchid plants and allow enough time, when it is cool out, to saturate the soil enough were it will not dry out or burn the orchid.What is nice about the Pixie timer, is that it has a solar panel that will continue to keep the timer charged. It does have a removable battery that you can bring indoors, recharge, and return outside to continue powering the device. The battery is recharged by the sun, and in Florida, we do not have any shortage of that. I also like the ability to save water by allowing the application to know the zip code that I am in and follow a forecast that will turn off the water if there is rain coming. I have the app on my phone synchronizing every three hours because the weather in South Florida is somewhat unpredictable. The most difficult thing that I have encountered on the software app is programming it so I understand what the calendar dates are initially. The nice part about this app is that once your Pixie is synchronized to your wireless access point from the house, and you should always test where you are going to place the Pixie outside near the faucet, with the wireless on your cellular phone in order to see what the signal is going to be from inside. You want to place your cellular phone, while connected to your wireless access point, down where the Pixie will be screwed onto the faucet in order to verify at least 2 bars for the connection.In this review, I have combined a water misting set for the water along with a multiple 1 to 4 spigot faucet and wrapping that all up with the Pixie to send the water through. I hope the information that I had provided to you will allow you to get a better perspective on what this may do for you. I am not compensated in any way for this endorsement and I enjoy this type of review because it is honest and I am looking forward to seeing what this device can do since I am only one week out from the purchase and things are looking pretty cool right now. I really would like to find out if I can integrate it with my Alexa so I will let you know if that becomes a reality.