Orbit 3-Outlet Programmable Timer

I have had one of these Orbit watering timers for a couple of years now. It still works great. It is easy to set the watering cycle and has been durable and dependable. It will work on Eneloop rechargeable batteries for a whole season. I have tried several other timers and the rechargeable batteries only last a month or less in them. I just bought another one of these to use in my orchard and nearby flower beds. This Orbit timer has been outdoors for about six months of the year for two years and the material still is in good condition. The color has not faded and the lettering is still distinct. The selector dial works smoothly and the LCD display is just as when new.

This timer works really well and is super easy to program and use. I’ve owned several over the years, and the key to keeping them running smoothly is simple: keep it out of direct sun and harsh weather. I know that sounds a little ironic for a product meant to work outdoors, but exposing it to the elements shortens its life considerably. Mount it under a cover or somewhere shaded, and it’ll last much longer. The timer functions reliably and having three outlets makes managing zones a breeze. Great product overall — just take a little extra care and it’ll serve you well.

I don't often submit negative reviews, and never until after I have attempted to get a problem resolved. We own two of these timers, one purchased last year and a second this year used in our vegetable garden. Selected Orbit due to name recognition, even though pricier. The timers were easy to setup and use, and worked well until they didn't. A week ago there was a sudden loss of water pressure that effected all three zones of both timers with the change happening within 24 hours of each other. The water pressure to our home has been unchanged. We took everything apart and cleaned everything including all the filters. Put everything back together and still terrible pressure through the timer. Without the timer pressure running through the line is normal - we put a different timer in the same line and pressure is normal - eveything points to an issue with the timers. Tried chatting with customer service, after spending quite a bit of time answering different questions about the issue and what we had done and waiting a fair amount of time for very slow responses from the chat representative, she cut off the chat when I didn't respond right away. Quite frustrating as I just wasted all that time and will have to start all over again - and if she perhaps thought we got disconnected she had requested my phone # but did not attempt to call. Considering this poor customer service and the fact that these timers are more expensive, I just cannot recommend them, especially since two are doing the same thing. For those who may wonder, the timers have only been used during spring/summer gardening - brought in the house and stored during the winter so never exposed to freezing temps. They were mounted in a protected area so nothing has hit/damaged the timers. And prior to the issue about a week ago, the timers had been running regularly with the exact same setup since spring - so nothing else has changed.

I've been using these Orbit controllers for more than a decade. I have 5 or 6 single zone controllers and 3 multi zone controllers in use for an extensive garden and citrus trees in the middle of the Arizona desert. Contrary to some of the reviews, I have never had one fail. Keep it out of the harsh desert sunlight, change the battery and washers once a year, and these controllers will work for you for a very long time.

I purchased this product at the beginning of summer to help water the lawn and I've been impressed so far but it does have a few downsides. The device is pretty heavy and it does come with a metal rod that should be bolted to the side of the house to give it some extra support. Unfortunately the rod comes down at a roughly 45 degree angle and ends up being located by ny poured concrete walls, so it was basically impossible to bolt the stand to the side of the house. I ended up putting a small piece of wood up against the house and screwing the bolt into that. It works but is not as secure as the wood can move around as opposed to a bolt in the house. So far the device itself hasn't leaked but the hose connectors do - it's really tough to get hoses to attach to anything without a little bit of water leaking. However the good news is that the shutoffs work well so they don't leak 24/7 My biggest disappointment however is the manual override button. This works great for those impromptu waterings where you don't have an available sprinkler, the area is too oddly shaped for a sprinkler or you just need to fill a bucket, wash the car, the dog etc. I use it to water the flowers at the front of the house that a sprinkler is not really going to get very well without wasting a lot of water. However, the manual override can only be used on the 1st outlet. This means you can only use water from one of the 3 hoses in an impromptu session. Not great if you need to use water in several locations at irregular times. I fixed this by adding a 2 way splitter to the first outlet and running two hoses - one to a sprinkler that I use to water a certain area manually and the other is attached to a hose to allow me to water the flowers or wash the car when I feel like it. The splitter allows me to choose which area I want to water for 10 mins with one push of the button and 1 toggle of the splitter. As a result of this manual process, I excluded the time process from this outlet and only have the other 2 outlets set up for their programs. The other major downside is that you can only use one outlet at a time so you need to carefully plan your watering. This may not be as big of a deal as you get more coverage when only one hose is in use, but it means you cant water the front and side lawn at the same time. You also cannot use the manual feature either and more importantly, if you are using the manual feature when a scheduled water is to take place, the schedule will not occur. This does complicate things if you have a small watering window and you need to water a large area. I like to water in the evening so the water isn't immediately evaporated in the sun and using this device means watering two areas takes twice as long as iif I ran them both at once from separate taps which also means I can't use the manual override for twice the period. During the summer I make sure I water the flowers manually before 7pm, have zone 2 run from 705 to 805 and then zone 3 run from 805-905pm The rain delay feature is nice although it is a manual process. If rain is forecast, you push the button and it stops watering for 24, 47 or 72 hours which is really handy - however if you wish to cancel the rain delay you rotate the dial to off and then back on to reset the timer again. Note the timer repeat is either hourly or daily and the days are every 2, 3,4 etc. There is no ability to only water on Mon, Wed, Friday. Depending on your HOA this could be a problem if they want even numbered houses to water on certain days of the week. Also if you were watering every 2 days to comply with an even numbered day water restriction and use the rain delay for 24 hours, you could also end up being watering on the wrong day. The good news is that so far it works well, there have been no leaks and my grass and flowers look nice and I don't have to keep running outside to turn the tap on and off or move hoses around the yard. I can just put out multiple hoses and let this take care of the watering. The manual override only being usable on one hose is probably my biggest drawback to this device and it's quite a big drawback. I would probably really give this a 3.5 star but not on Amazon.

Had this model but I dropped and broke. Wouldn't do without. Handles my watering needs in summer. Great device.

Es mi segundo aparato, lo compré por primera vez hace años por su simplicidad y bajo costo. Además se conecta en segundos.

I purchased this in October 2022 and I am very happy. I use zone 1 for timed manual watering. I press one button to turn hose on for 10 minutes and press the same button to turn it off or leave it to the timer to turn it off. The other two zones are set to automatically turn sprinklers on and off every two days. Much better, easier and cheaper than the set up I have in the front garden using a big brand name purchased from Bunnings.

Extrêmement facile à programmer, robuste et efficace. Peut arroser manuellement aisément. Recommande fortement.

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