The days of having to walk out to the garage to change the watering schedule on your sprinkler timer/controller are over. With the release of Rain Bird’s WiFi ST8 sprinkler timer, you can make changes to the programming on your sprinkler timer at the timer or from comfort of a chair in your home by using the app that installs on a smartphone or tablet. The timer replaces any standard lawn sprinkler timer using the same zone wires. To see my YouTube video on how to install and program the ST8 wifi timer, please click here.
The ST8 WiFi timer features:
- App installation on multiple devices.
- Zone customization for watering days, start times, & run times.
- Custom (days of the week), odd days, even days, or cyclic watering.
- Delayed watering and automatic seasonal adjusted watering. Current and 5 day weather on the app.
- Notifications on the app.
I’m a big fan of the Rainbird ESP series modular timers and this ST8 WiFi timer looks to be a welcome addition to Rainbird’s timer family. Timer installation was also very easy and I was able to use the current zone wires on my sprinkler system. To avoid problems with the app installation make sure you have at least 2 bars of wifi signal strength at the timer location. At my home, my wifi unit is 60’ from the timer location in my garage and the wifi signal has to go through 3 walls. Even with these obstacles I had no problems connecting and setting up the Rainbird sprinkler app.
I installed the sprinkler app on my iPhone 6 and it took less than 10 minutes to walk through the installation wizard on the app. Programming the timer is actually easier on the app than at the timer itself. Once the app is installed and connected to your home’s wifi, you can control and monitor you sprinkler system from anywhere in the world.
Pros
- Control your sprinkler system from the palm of your hand.
- Notifications on the app.
- Change a zone name and add a photo to depict the zone.
- App controls multiple timers.
- Sprinkler system programming at the timer or on the app.
- Automatic seasonal adjusted watering and flexible watering schedules.
Cons
- Current day and 5 day weather isn’t working on the app.
- Manual watering can only be done one zone at a time on the app.
- Timer’s a little pricey, over $200 for the outdoor model.