Although we all love green grass and safe gardens, we also know water restrictions and water sources are minimal. The Orbit B-hyve Sprinkler Timer provides control through your smartphone and on the controller itself for your home and company.
Optimize your lawn with no bugs and frustration, B-Hyve Watering system manages all the tasks that would be required to keep your lawn in good health.
Price:
- 6 Zone- $87.23
- 12 Zone- $103.99
Overview of B-Hyve Watering System
When installing the Orbit B-Hyve for the first time, you might not think it’s that different from an ordinary sprinkler power. The huge central knob, the four main buttons and the clunky LCD monitor all give you the feeling you are dealing with obsolete technology.
Indeed, Orbit’s first smart sprinkler doesn’t stray far from the company’s non-smart options in appearance, and Orbit has been making sprinkler controllers for decades.
It’s one of the least costly smart sprinkler controllers you can find, B-Hyve cheaper than Rachio. Like most rivals in that smart sprinkler group, the B-Hyve replaces the in-ground sprinklers with existing controller. Link it to your Wi-Fi and download the B-Hyve app and you’ll be able to use your phone to power your sprinkler.
The B-Hyve also tracks the local weather, and if you wish, will schedule your sprinklers for you. Like most smart sprinklers, the EPA WaterSense system is certified for this. Cross over here to see if your water bill will count for a rebate. So not only does the B-Hyve make it easier to control and schedule your sprinklers, but it can theoretically help you water more efficiently and save you money as a result.
Hardware
6 zone to 12 zones indoor/outdoor timer offer by B-Hype, connecting wires for power and each of your zone with the controller you placed, usually people mount controller inside on garage.
Some controller systems require that you purchase a separate enclosure to mount it outside, but the Orbit unit has the enclosure integrated into the system. This means there is also a key and lock included so you can keep your sprinkler secure if it is mounted outside.
Monochrome LCD screen, four buttons, and a central dial. The screen, buttons, and dial let you manually setup the system so you don’t need a smartphone to control your sprinkler. This is a nice option when you have network or phone issues.
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How to Set Up B-Hyve Watering System
Download the Orbit B-hyve app to your Android or iOS device to proceed with the setup and operation. The first time you launch the app you will be walked through the setup process for the Orbit B-hyve.
After setup process The Smart Watering functionality you need to go through the zone setup process that includes naming the zone, including an actual photo of the zone, choosing the soil type (clay, loam, sand), plant type (cool/warm turf, trees, annual flowers, etc.), sprinkler type, sun/shade coverage, slope, sprinkler head count, and even advanced details. Advanced details let you enter very specific data on the zone to help you fully optimize the Smart Watering process.
These details include application rate, efficiency, plant factor, microclimate factor, field capacity, root zone, allowable surface accumulation, and more that I had to read about in order to understand.
Once you set a program or a schedule, you’ll be able to see dots on the days when your system is set to water. Tap a day, and it’ll show you the start time of each program, but you can’t see much more detail than that, even if you tap the time to pull up additional details. The calendar entry never shows you a full play by play of which zones are going to run and for how long in each session.
The main page of the app lets you set a rain delay, or manually turn your sprinklers on or off. You can access the details of each zone in the zone page, and set up schedules and programs in the programs page.
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Smarter scheduling
Under the zones page, you can give the B-Hyve the details it needs to set your schedule for you under “smart details.” For each zone, you can set the soil type, plant type, sprinkler type, amount of sunlight, slope and how many sprinklers are in the zone. You can also set up catch cups to determine exactly how much water hits your yard between rain and the sprinklers for a more exact estimate of soil moisture.
If you’re an expert, the B-Hyve has an advanced details section that lets you fine-tune stats such as “Reference Evapotranspiration” and “Landscape Coefficient.” If you don’t know what those terms mean, don’t worry, the B-Hyve makes an educated guess and fills in values based on the basic details you provide. Like Rachio, Orbit does a good job of combining easy-to-use options for beginners with hidden depth for experts.
Once you get your zones set, you can turn on smart watering for each and the B-Hyve will track your soil moisture, watch the weather and water when necessary. Smart WeatherSense receives local weather data and automatically adjusts your controller to deliver the right amount of water to your plants. It does the work – allowing you to sit back and enjoy the results.
- Sprinkler scheduled to run
- B-hyve detects rain in the forecast
- B-hyve delays watering automatically
The B-hyve specifically waters your lawn for short 10- to 15-minute bursts for each zone to prevent runoff.
B-hyve is the way the system waters one zone, moves to another, and continues all the way through the zones before coming back and watering the first one again. This sequential means of watering lets the water settle into the turf so you don’t waste water with runoff.
You can refine the B-Hyve’s smart watering program if you have watering restrictions or preferred watering times, or let the system take care of everything for you. Alternatively, you can set up scheduled programs manually and ignore the smart feature.
Alexa, water the lawn
The B-Hyve also works with Amazon’s Alexa, but that’s it. Alexa is Amazon’s digital assistant built into a variety of smart speakers such as the Amazon Echo. With a simple voice command, you can turn your B-Hyve sprinklers on or off, check when they ran last or set a rain delay. Head here for the full list of the B-Hyve’s Alexa commands.
Technical Specification of B-Hype Water System
App Compatibility | IOS – iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch running iOS 11 and higher. Android – Android version 5 and higher. |
Smart Home Compatibility | Amazon Alexa |
Zones | 6 or 12 |
Size and Weight | Length 3.75″ (9.5cm) Width 9.375″ (23.8cm) Height 8.625″ (21.9cm) Weight 3.7 lbs (.45kg) |
Power Requirements | 120V AC/60Hz Input 24V AC Output 5 ft. Power Cord UL 1951 Approved |
Wi-Fi | 2.4 GHz |
Sensor Add-ons | Supports Most Rain/Freeze Sensor |
Master Valve/Pump Relay Support | Yes |
Warranty | 2 Years |
Enclosure | Locking Indoor/Outdoor |
EPA/Watersense Approval | Yes |