Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Product Configuration: 4 zone Background: I have used the orbit equivalent with the individually sold valves for a season and the valves would keep locking up and failing a few months after buying them. So my review will come from experience with the other products and talk a bit of the features I like and don't like about this product. I will update this initial review once I have had time to use it more and comment on durability. Programming: Upon receiving the product I took it out of the packaging and programmed it. The programming was simple and easy to follow. There were some quirks with it but I didn't need the instructions and had all 4 zones configured in under 10 minutes. - Set Time Unlike my old timer this does not have a rotating dial but a button that rotates around and allows you to set time / day / date. - Start Water Then you move on to the water start time. You can set the start time for different zones 1-4 individually. This is nice. You can also let them overlap if your water pressure is high enough to operate more than 1 zone at a time. Mine is not with 5000 sq ft brass impacts on each zone. I configured mine to run right after each other starting with zone 1 -> zone 4. - How Long You configure how long in minutes that each zone runs. This is configurable per zone so you can have them run a different times. Very easy to use. - How Often This is the one that has limited features that I would like to see improved. You cannot set how often each zone comes on you can only set how often the entire cycle goes. You also cannot set the specific times you would like it to run. Say 5am and 10am. You can only set intervals based on hours or days. I ended up setting mine to run 2x a day. Starting at 2am. This will mean it runs at 2am and 2pm. I wanted to ensure that the lawn had time to dry before night. Optimally I would like to do 5am and 1pm but that is not possible with this unit. It was possible with my old orbit unit. Manual Override: This unit has a manual zone switch on each hose bib. This is great. You dont have to worry about fiddling with navigating the menu when you want water one. You also have the ability to schedule a number zones to come on for a set amount of time. You do not have the ability to manually trigger the start time and have them run zone by zone. If you select multiple zones manually they will all turn on at the same time. I prefer the behavior where they go one zone at a time so you get full water pressure. Flow Rate: The flow of the unit is much less than the water pressure at the main hose bib even with a single zone active. I assume there is restricted passage way. I can still operate a 5000sq ft bass impact sprinkler and get about 25' steam of water. Overall: I am happy with the product. I think there are three main spots to improve on. 1) Being able to specify times to have the zones come on vs time interval. 2) Being able to manually trigger the schedule running of the zones vs having to run one at a time or all of them at the same time. 3) Increase the flow rate by limiting obstructions in the zone plumbing.