Rachio released Gen 3 of its Wifi Sprinkler Controller in the spring of 2018. We tested it. Our results are in. It’s like the Rachio design team took every possible objection off the table when they made the best Wifi controller even better.

The major concern we had the past couple years that we provided Rachio and Rachio Gen 2 for our irrigation repair customers in Birmingham, AL was the lack of any control of the sprinkler controller device from the wall unit.

They fixed that!

Rachio Gen 3 has on-unit buttons to Run, Pause and Skip. So while you cannot program it from the unit and have to use a smart phone or laptop, you now have some control of it from the wall unit.

Another objection was that the Rain Skip was not always accurate. Gen 2 was making a “decision” to run your sprinkler system or not, based on the closest local weather station. The problem was, it might have rained at your house, but not at the nearest weather station and visa versa. As a result your sprinkler system could run in the rain, or when it had just rained. What’s worse, it could skip a much needed watering day, if it had rained at the weather station and not your house.

They fixed that too!

The new Rachio Gen 3 uses an aggregate of many resources to pinpoint the weather in a 36 foot radius of your home. In my testing the Rachio Gen 3 for the past few months, I can tell a difference in the improved accuracy of the water predictions. You can read about our initial test of Gen 2 here.

Most of our customers have a Rain Sensor. We use a wireless Hunter Rain Sensor with the Rachio Gen 2, which works great and prevents the system from running in the rain or just after a rain.

Rachio Gen 3 Clever Watering Schedule Capability

With the new Rachio Gen 3 you can program your sprinkler system to end watering before sunrise or before a specific time that you typically shower, so you’re not competing with your sprinkler system for water pressure. I really love this feature!

Other important upgrades, Rachio Gen 3 now Supports 5 GHz Wi-Fi via Dual band Wi-Fi (2.4 GHz / 5 GHz.) It also has a new Magnetic Front easier to remove than the harder to remove click mechanism. Rachio Gen 3 also works with Apple HomeKit™, which is something new. In addition, Gen 3 works with Nest, Amazon Alexa, The Google Assistant, IFTTT, Wink, Control4, Dexia and others, which Gen 2 does too.

Get 2 and Gen 3 are both rated for inside only and require an enclosure for outdoor use. But no worries on that either! Rachio developed an outdoor enclosure that fits its controllers perfectly. It’s a beautiful installation. Blue Sky Rain has many installations of the outdoor enclosure and customers love them!

What’s most important to me, our customers love them! Rachio provides Customer Support for the device and app available 7 days/week. If you are located in the Greater Birmingham, AL area, we’d love to install a Smart Wifi Sprinkler Controller for you.  Contact Us Here!