Residential Wi-Fi Enabled Irrigation Controller with Hydrawise Web-based Software
In the last six months, Hunter Industries acquired Hyradwise Web-Based Irrigation Controllers. This has opened up the residential and commercial irrigation controller markets to a new level of control and service.
From a contractor’s point of view, the controller enables you to control, schedule, see alerts, and report without having to be on site. This saves the contractor and homeowner costs and time-consuming call-outs that can now easily be performed; remotely saving time and money.
For a homeowner, it gives them the ability to control their system whilst they are away from home or just sitting on the couch on a hot day and want to perform a manual watering cycle.
The controller and software itself can be as simple or as depth as the user wants it to be. It features Web-based software that allows all aspects of the controller to be programmed with the use of a smartphone, tablet, or PC. The controller also has a touch screen that allows you to do basic operations from the controller itself, if you have no access to the Hydrawise software.
The greatest benefit of installing a Wi-Fi-based controller is that the controller can send you alerts if there are any issues with wiring and flow (if a flow sensor is installed). By doing this, you will know first hand if there is an issue with any of your zones and it will shut down the affected zone.
Also, the water triggers save the homeowner a great amount of water if used correctly. The reports page will allow you to see water savings when your controller has watered, is due to water, or when your controller has cancelled, reduced, or increased watering due to the water triggers put in place.
Basically, I give this controller a big thumbs up in terms of its functions. The downsides at the moment are that the space for wiring within the controller is quite restricted, the additional costs for some of the subscription packages may put some people off, and the software can be a little confusing the first few times you use it. Hopefully over time, Hunter adjusts these things with the controller and makes it even more of a game-changer.
