Patti and I went to Lowes a while back to get wood for the kitchen remodel and looked for a new timer for our sprinklers. I accidentally left the door on the old one open and would no longer power up. We only noticed it when the grass and plants were dying. Getting a new timer was an opportunity to get a modern device that I could connect to with my phone. The primary requirement seemed to be connecting to it through your Wi-Fi. To my surprise Patti agreed we could get one. The next step was to find the cheapest one. Apparently, people use sprinkler timers with Wi-Fi on large houses. Our mobile home is not large. The smallest one available had 6 zones. I knew our current system only used 3 zones. Even 4 zones were one too many.
The smallest 6 zone system with Wi-Fi was over $100. I assured Patti that it would make watering the yard easier because I could change when they ran and for how long from my phone. It occurred to me it may not work well because the sprinkler system and the Wi-Fi are at opposite ends of the house. Worst case, we would have to return it and buy a cheaper one. If it did work, I was going to be extremely happy. While we were there, I bought a cord encloser because I had to connect to an extension cord that would have to sit right behind our air conditioner. It assured the cord connection wouldn’t get wet in the rain. When we got home, I didn’t have time to hook it up. I just looked at the box with hope and trepidation.
Today, I could take the Wi-Fi sprinkler timer out of its box. From hooking up other Wi-Fi devices, I knew not to expect it to connect with no problems. I looked over the instructions in the kitchen before I went outside. They talked about hooking to the unit through Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. I could program it through Bluetooth, but it would need to connect to the Wi-Fi to work. Going outside, I went to the old unit to take a picture of the wires coming out. Luckily, they were different colors. Each color corresponded to a different zone. There were cobwebs and dead bugs all around the wires. I disconnected all the wires and put the old unit to the side.
Before I talk about connecting the new unit, I must talk about my encounter with nature. I was working right next to the air conditioner, which butted up to the lawn in the backyard. Sitting on the side of the air conditioner was a sizable grasshopper. He was looking at me with one of his compound eyes. Do I know it was a “he?” I’m sure Jiminy Cricket influenced my decision. Maybe he preferred to be addressed as “one,” the better alternative to “they.” He had compound eyes, but he was not more than one grasshopper. I assured him that I meant no harm. He answered me by not moving. That’s the universal sign for, “I’ll leave you alone if you leave me alone.” The next time I looked up, Jiminy Cricket was gone.
Connecting the new unit was easy because I put the wires in the first three zones as they were in the old unit. Now I needed to connect to the unit with my phone. I downloaded the app for the timer. My first thought was to connect to it with Bluetooth because I was right next to the unit and I questioned whether Wi-Fi would connect to the unit. After several tries, I gave up. If this worked, it would have to go through Wi-Fi. The hard part was getting my phone and the timer to connect to the Wi-Fi. Eventually, I found an area by the timer where both devices could connect. This might work after all!
Now that I connected it to my phone, it was time to program the zones. I tested each one by turning it on and off from my phone. The first time I turned it on and didn’t get splashed because I had to be right next to the timer, I knew this was money well spent. Program the zones brought up a new “smart watering” setting. As I went through settings, it asked me about the type of soil, amount of shade in the area, type of grass, and other questions that I only guessed at. When I got done, it analyzed what I said for a while. In the end, I don’t know if “smart watering” is working. I set each zone to come on for so many minutes at 15-minute increments. When it rains, it turns off the sprinklers for that day. For that and other reasons, I am one happy nerd!
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