The second generation of Rachio’s sprinkler controller has been integrated with Amazon’s Echo, among many other ‘smart home’ devices.Photo: Rachio
Irrigation professionals have seen a variety of new technology come to market in recent years, so it’s not surprising that second-generation products are beginning to appear. One of the newest is Rachio’s smart sprinkler controller.
While referring to its newest controller as “smart home” technology, Rachio also says its mission is to transform the smart home into the smart yard.
The Rachio controller enables a user to manage a sprinkler system from any smart mobile device. The company says the controller can save users up to 50 percent off their monthly water bill.
“Generation 2” of the Rachio device taps into the user’s Wi-Fi network to analyze recent and upcoming weather and humidity levels. With this information, as well as personal soil types and lawn conditions, Rachio adapts to each individual yard.
The company claims it has helped helped people conserve more than 500 million gallons of water since its founding in 2012. Chris Klein, co-founder and CEO of Rachio, says the company helps to fuel 2016 savings of a billion gallons.
“Generation 2 builds upon the success of our flagship Iro model by providing more user-friendly functionality and sprinkler control …,” Klein said. Moreover, integration of the device with Amazon’s Echo and Alexa enables users to delay sprinkling or use Rachio’s irrigation zone controls solely by using voice commands.
Rachio notes that its sprinkler controller already was compatible with smart-home brands such as Nest, Xfinity, Alarm.com, Control4 and several others.
The second-generation Rachio controller can manage as many as 16 zones.
