Hunter Industries Hydrawise HC 12-Station Smart Indoor Irrigation Controller - WiFi Enabled for Easy Lawn & Garden Watering Management | Perfect for Homeowners & Landscapers

I've been running my Hydrowise for a little over a week, and absolutely love it. This is really much more than a simple WiFi-enabled irrigation controller -- it's really a complete solution made up of the controller, cloud infrastructure, phone apps and accessory sensors (i.e., for now anyway their branded flow meters). If you are familiar with the Nest thermostat or Hue lighting systems, Hydrawise is a lot like those.I ruled out what at the time of writing this was Amazon's "best selling WiFi irrigation controller" because of that systems’ architecture. With that system (which lacked a cloud component to it) mobile/phone control could only be accomplished by setting up a port forward via your WiFi router. Being that I'm not an IT security expert, I'm really not into putting holes -- however safe they may or may not be -- into my home network. In addition, all of the programming in that architecture resides within the physical controller; so if the controller goes south so does your programming. With a cloud-based system your programming is independent of the physical controller… which is a small but nice benefit.Back to the Hydrawise… The first step I took before I purchased the controller was to set up a trial account on their site to see what the online component was like. It all looked pretty robust to me, so I ended up purchasing their 12-zone system. After getting the unit on my WiFi network I logged back into my "trial" account and entered the controller's serial number. This allowed the controller to download the irrigation zone and timing information that I had previously programmed (my "trial" account now turned into their free "home" account, once I entered in my controller's serial number).To use the weather forecasting features of the system the Hydrawise system allows you to "subscribe" to weather stations local to you. I had no problem finding several weather stations in my area to subscribe to. Once subscribed to a couple of stations you can set up triggers to have the system intelligently vary your watering (one can set a high temperature trigger that tells the system to water more on hot days, or a low temperature when not to water, or not water on days that it's going to rain, etc.).The best part of the system for me is that all of the programming, control and reporting can be accomplished via a mobile phone. You can turn systems on/off on demand, change water times/days, look at the past's weather condition reports (based on your previously subscribed to weather stations) and pretty much anything else you can imagine doing with a smart irrigation controller.Things get really cool when you purchase one of their accessory flow meters. Once installed in front of your valves it's a simple two wire connection to the controller to get it up and running. Once you have the flow meter installed a variety of water-usage reports are available such as: total water used, flow rates and water usage by zone. This is very handy for monitoring for potential leaks or broken emitters/sprinklers/pipes in your system. It really takes irrigation control to the next level.The 12-zone system also reports low-voltage situations which can result in your valves not operating correctly. I got several of these when I was setting up my system and had not made all of my valve wiring bomber (I’m planning on soldering these connections once I finalize everything). Good to know that this part of the reporting system works too.There's more stuff for professional landscapers with regards to alerts and multiple monitoring of irrigation controllers for clients. Check their site out if that sounds interesting to you.———BTW, this system is replacing my wireless Hunter WVP/WVC irrigation controllers. Although this system was good for the time (I originally purchased it back in the early 2000s) the hand-held controller is completely non-intuitive (which is understandable considering the now primitive display and old-school 4-way keypad). Every time I pick up the Hunter WVP hand-held controller I would have to dig for the manual to try and remember how everything worked. Not exactly user friendly.