rachio.com Reviews

I saw this recommended by a major tech publication and was excited to try it, but was really disappointed when I opened the box. The battery contacts were so loose that the unit wouldn't hold a charge properly. I'm sending it back.

This is a fantastic product that's perfect for today's homeowners. I was able to install it myself and called Rachio three separate times with questions and got excellent support each time. I made a couple more calls about the scheduling and weather settings, though really all that info was already in the manual if I'd bothered to read it. My landscaping crew loves it too since they can manage it from their phones and adjust watering if they notice the lawn looks dry.

Picked up a controller from the secondary market and I'm really impressed. The system does an amazing job conserving water by connecting to local weather conditions. Managing everything from my phone is straightforward, and I can easily turn off watering whenever I need to. Would definitely suggest this to anyone looking for a smart sprinkler system.

This is specifically about the EveryDrop Flowmeter that Rachio claims works with their controller. Years back, Rachio had their own flowmeter brand that worked great. EveryDrop actually made that original one, but their current version has serious problems. When my old Rachio meter finally gave out after eight years of service, I bought the EveryDrop replacement. First issue was it's six inches longer than the original, so I had to pay a plumber $250 to reconfigure my setup. Then the installation itself was a nightmare. The instructions were confusing and it took three conversations with Rachio support to get it installed properly. But here's the main problem: it doesn't actually work. It would pass calibration tests but whenever any zone activated I'd get a low-flow error. The meter wouldn't register any water flowing through. After two months of back and forth with Rachio they directed me to EveryDrop. Those folks couldn't fix it either and just offered a refund. So I'm left with a broken meter still sitting in my system doing absolutely nothing.

This company deserves even worse than one star if that were possible. Their customer service is practically non-existent. They're happy to take your money upfront but then won't support you with anything. They'll happily try to squeeze more cash out of you for basic features like connecting to Tempest weather stations, all while offering zero actual customer support. Do yourself a favor and buy from someone else. This company needs to go out of business.

The support and customer service are really disappointing. I've had the system running for about a year now and while it's not super user-friendly, it does perform its job. The real issue is with their customer support team. They don't notify you about available software updates, and if you're running an older version they can't help you troubleshoot. Sure, updating is simple enough, but you end up having to reprogram everything from scratch, which shows they didn't think this through from a customer standpoint.

Let down by the reliability of this system. My controller died at the two and a half year mark. I think products at this price point should definitely last longer than that. Here's what their support person told me: the device wouldn't power up properly and once the troubleshooting steps failed, it was done for. My warranty had expired and they couldn't help. But conveniently they offered to sell me a refurbished replacement for $150 (down from the regular $200), plus shipping costs. They mentioned these are repackaged returns with a 2-year warranty. So my options are to spend more money on another device after this one already quit on me. That's frustrating.

Fair warning before you buy this. The weather prediction feature is honestly misleading. They brag about connecting to hundreds of thousands of weather networks to provide superior forecasting, but that's nonsense. I'm in a regular area with plenty of weather data available, yet the system constantly tells me rain is coming when it's going to be completely clear skies. This causes it to skip watering when it shouldn't. When I talked to their tech support they actually agreed with me. Why not just use the Weather Channel since that actually works for pretty much everyone everywhere? All those thousands of networks seem to produce garbage data. I'm stuck with this system now and can't return it. They told me to just turn off the weather intelligence feature, but then what happens when actual rain comes and I manually have to manage everything? That defeats the whole purpose. On top of that, you can't run two watering sessions in a single day using one schedule. You have to create completely separate schedules for that. I regret buying this.

Great job by Rachio. This system works wonderfully for keeping our lawn, plants and trees healthy while being mindful of water usage and environmental impact. Plus their customer support team has been really helpful whenever I needed assistance.

My irrigation installer suggested this product but I'm really disappointed. The biggest problem is you can't set up a one-time quick run that actually stays saved. Every single time I want to do a quick run, I have to re-enter all the minutes for each zone because there's no save button. Good watering practices mean you should only run programs when you actually need water, but this system makes it a pain. Also, the recommendations are way off. It suggested over 30 minutes per zone for my clay soil and sunny yard, which is completely unrealistic. We water twice a week and even in dry conditions our grass does fine with two 12-minute sessions daily. I'd recommend looking elsewhere.