Moen Sensible Sprinkler Controller Evaluation

Out of the Field

Out of the field, the Moen controller bears a resemblance to an earlier model of the B-hyve controller because of its squarish design. And much like the Rachio line of controllers, it has a magnetic cowl that snaps into place. The twin magnets within the Moen play a secondary function as effectively, in that they’re used throughout activation of the corporate’s Sensible Wi-fi Soil Sensors (extra on that integration later on this article).

The Moen controller is designed for inside wall set up, and must be situated close to {an electrical} outlet for connection of the included energy adapter. A weatherproof outside enclosure is obtainable from Moen as an adjunct within the occasion your controller must be mounted exterior.

All communication with the controller is finished by way of the Moen Sensible Water app on your smartphone. It is a hub for what the corporate refers to because the Moen Sensible Water Community. Along with the Sensible Sprinkler Controller and Sensible Wi-fi Soil Sensors, the app can have tiles for all Moen good water merchandise within the dwelling. This consists of good kitchen and bathtub fixtures, in addition to water safety merchandise such because the Flo Sensible Water Monitor and Shutoff and the Sensible Sump Pump Monitor.

Set up and Preliminary Setup

Usually, the Moen controller might be changing a regular irrigation timer/controller. Moen makes that assumption, and the app’s wizard does a very good job of strolling you thru the method. This consists of establishing a Moen account when you don’t have already got one, registering the system by scanning a QR code on the controller, mounting the controller on the wall, getting all the wires linked, and connecting to your Wi-Fi community.

They embrace a set of stick-on wiring labels that can be utilized to establish all the wires hooked up to the unique controller, a good suggestion if the wires weren’t beforehand labeled. It’s additionally a good suggestion to snap pictures of the outdated controller’s wiring connections for all the zones and any equipment (akin to a rain sensor or move meter) so it may be used as a reference if wanted when reattaching every part to the Moen controller. Moen makes use of normal screw terminals to safe the wires.

When preliminary setup and wiring attachments are accomplished, a zone detection function is used to detect the irrigation zones. The zones will then seem within the Zones tab within the app, and the LED mild bar on the controller illuminates in inexperienced, indicating it’s on-line. All the remainder of the setup work is finished through the app.

Customizing Zones and Setting Automation Schedules

Irrigation zones might be personalized so as to add a descriptive zone identify, vegetation kind, solar publicity, soil kind, floor slope, and sprinkler head kind by tapping the Zone Particulars button. A photograph will also be added straight by way of your cellphone’s digicam or from its photograph library to assist establish the zone, although we discovered getting the pictures to “stick” with the zone was problematic. Generally it took a number of tries to get the photograph to avoid wasting with the zone. Zones will also be enabled or disabled by way of the Zone Standing button on every zone.

For probably the most fundamental automation, Schedules might be set as much as automate the operation of a number of zones on particular frequencies, begin occasions, and durations. Do needless to say if particular zones are disabled within the app, you can be unable so as to add them to a schedule. Schedules containing a number of zones will water the zones in succession based mostly on the order you set.

For instance, for our schedule named Left Beds Thurs, we chosen solely the Left Facet Shrubs zone then configured it to water as soon as per week on Tuesdays starting at 8:25 AM with a period of 45 minutes. That is all you really want to do to create a fundamental schedule and automate its irrigation going ahead.

Usually, you’ll want to create schedules for teams of zones based mostly on the vegetation kind and sprinkler head kind (say, one schedule for turf grasses with normal spray heads, one other for turf grasses with rotor heads, and one more for shrubs with drip irrigation strains).

As soon as a Schedule is created, it seems on the Schedules tab and can run mechanically based mostly on its settings. Schedules will also be enabled or disabled by the Allow Schedule slide change on every zone, and may at all times be run manually by tapping the Handbook Run Schedule button.

In case your municipality has particular watering restriction rules, you possibly can simply customise any schedule to adjust to them by adjusting the settings in Schedule Particulars web page. For example, if you’re solely allowed to water twice per week on Tuesdays and Saturdays and should end earlier than 7:00 AM, that may be achieved by setting the frequency to Tue and Sat, then adjusting the run time to finish earlier than 07:00.

When a guide zone run or automated schedule run begins, the inexperienced LED on the controller pulsates. Moreover, a standing block seems on the Overview display screen with the Schedule or Zone identify, accompanied by a progress bar indicating the remaining time. And if smartphone notifications are turned on, standing updates might be delivered because the run progresses.

Schedule Skips by way of Climate Automation

Since it’s a good sprinkler controller, Moen provides a number of methods so as to add extra intelligence to your panorama irrigation routine based mostly on the climate. In all probability one of the best ways to do this is to configure the app to get realtime situations from a close-by nationwide or private climate station then activate the Climate Based mostly Skips function in every zone the place you need it.

These climate stations might be chosen straight inside the Moen Sensible Water app, and will need to have their information printed to the worldwide PWS Climate community. When the Climate function is activated, the Moen app will default to the PWS Climate station closest to your own home’s location, although you possibly can choose others from the checklist that pops up. And, the nearer the higher for probably the most correct information.

In our case on the Digitized Home labs, we’ve a Davis Devices climate station publishing to the PWS Climate community on website right here in Texas named KTXLIBER205. We configured the Moen app to get its climate from this station.

This strategy to hyperlocal climate allows Schedules to be skipped predicated on precise rainfall accumulation (based mostly on rainfall at present, 2-day, 4-day, or 7-day metrics), rain likelihood proportion, minimal temperature, and even wind velocity. The thresholds for these parameters are adjustable within the app and apply globally, although the Climate Based mostly Skips function might be turned on or off inside the settings for a given Schedule.

For instance, we didn’t wish to irrigate when the wind was blowing over 20 MPH, so we set the Wind Pace parameter to twenty MPH. Going ahead, any Schedule slated to run on a blustery day with winds over 20 MPH might be skipped, thereby saving water. See the picture beneath for extra.

Schedule Skips by way of Sensible Wi-fi Soil Sensors

Distinctive amongst residential good sprinkler controllers, the Moen Sensible Wi-fi Soil Sensors provide a compelling possibility for extra deeply automating your irrigation routines. These completely wi-fi, spade-shaped, in-ground sensors pair with the Moen controller and are linked to a number of zones.

As soon as within the floor, they monitor the soil moisture at depths of 1-in., 3-in., and 5-in. whereas additionally measuring floor temperature. Then, they are going to relay their metrics again to the controller and Schedules to find out if the zone (or zones) ought to be watered or skipped based mostly on the moisture and temperature thresholds in that particular soil sensor.

Including a Moen Sensible Wi-fi Soil Sensor to the sprinkler controller is a simple course of, however plan forward to make sure your Wi-Fi entry factors or routers have ample sign energy within the irrigation zones the place you propose to put in them. For bigger yards, you might want a Wi-Fi extender, and for the biggest yards a mesh Wi-Fi setting with a number of routers like these accessible from eero could also be the most effective wager.

Pairing and Putting in Soil Sensors

Every soil sensor have to be individually paired with the Moen controller, an easy-enough course of achieved by merely tapping the pinnacle of the sensor towards one of many magnets on the face of the controller and following the prompts within the Moen Sensible Water app to get it added. You might have to be affected person with this course of, since we discovered it usually took a number of tries to get a sensor paired. In some circumstances, a manufacturing unit reset on the sensor could also be wanted to get it to pair, a course of effectively documented on the Moen web site.

As we paired our 4 soil sensors, we added stick-on labels to them so they might be simpler to establish as soon as they had been within the floor.

Resist the urge to make use of a hammer to drive the sensors into the bottom, since these are digital gadgets with onboard microchips, wi-fi radios, and batteries. In case you’re unable to push them into the bottom by hand, douse the world with a number of gallons of water to melt the soil. A backyard spade additionally works effectively to carve out an acceptable crevice earlier than pushing the sensor into its last resting place. Moen recommends the sensor be buried such that the highest of the sensor is flush with the bottom.

After you have got paired a number of soil sensors, they are going to seem on the Sensors tab within the Moen app. As soon as they acclimate to the soil, they are going to refresh their information within the app each 10 to fifteen minutes.

Detailed information on every sensor is accessible from the Sensors tab. This features a snapshot standing tile for every sensor with floor moisture percentages on the 1-in., 3-in., and 5-in. depths plus the bottom temperature. One click on down, battery degree and community sign energy meters can be found, in addition to 7-day historical past charts for every of the moisture and temperature parameters.

Zone Automation with Soil Sensors

For zone automation utilizing soil sensors, every sensor must be related to a number of irrigation zones. That is achieved from the Zones tab, by deciding on a Zone then tapping the +Sensor button to pick one of many accessible soil sensors. As soon as that’s achieved, the moisture and temperature information from the chosen sensor will seem on the Zone element web page beneath the picture.

Particular thresholds for the chosen soil sensor might be personalized on a per zone foundation by tapping the Soil Sensor Thresholds hyperlink on the small print web page. You may elect to simply accept the default thresholds for temperature plus moisture degree on the 1-in, 3-in. and 5-in. depths, or alter them as desired.

When you faucet Save Thresholds, these parameters might be utilized going ahead to the zone, whether or not it’s run manually or from a Schedule. This might be used to find out if the zone ought to run usually or be skipped for a given schedule or perhaps a guide run.

Schedules Skips, Seasonal Changes, and Cycle/Soak

For a given Schedule, tapping the Schedule Particulars then the Advance Particulars hyperlink allows the good options to be turned on or off individually. These embrace Climate Based mostly Skips, Soil Sensor Based mostly Skips, Seasonal Changes, and Cycle/Soak.

Schedule skips might be triggered by climate situations, soil sensors, or rain sensors. All three of them might be in impact directly and might be checked by the controller earlier than a schedule or guide run begins.

For the Seasonal Changes, these settings allow automated adjustment in watering durations for all zones based mostly on the month of the 12 months (see middle picture above). Sadly, they’re arduous to search out since they’re buried deep on the backside of the Climate settings particulars web page.

Cycle/Soak is one other good function that may allow extra water saving. If this world setting is turned on, intermittent delays happen throughout all zone runs to allow the water to be extra slowly absorbed by the panorama to encourage deeper roots and to keep away from extra runoff (significantly with sloped areas). Remember the fact that this function will considerably prolong the whole time {that a} given zone runs. By means of instance, we ran a Schedule with 2 zones (Entrance Turf Left and Entrance Turf Heart) set to water for 40 minutes every for a complete of 1 hour and 20 minutes. With Cycle/Soak turned on, the Moen controller interspersed 6 delays—alternating irrigation and delays between the two zones—so the whole period for the run was 3 hours and 17 minutes.

Connection of Third-Social gathering Equipment and Voice Assistants

Stream Meter

For the final word in irrigation administration, nothing beats a move meter, an inline plumbing system that measures the precise water move in gallons per minute and cumulative gallons because the irrigation system operates. The Moen helps wired, third-party move meters, and they are often put in on the irrigation mainline then wired to the terminals on the controller.

As soon as the move meter is linked and calibrated, day by day, weekly, month-to-month, and yearly utilization metrics within the Moen app replicate precise gallons used. Moreover, realtime gallons per minute (GPM) metrics can be found as a zone runs by way of the Moen app standing block. And for the reason that Moen controller is aware of the move meter is hooked up, it may well generate notifications based mostly on an unexpectedly excessive or low water move occasion. That occasion might signify a damaged sprinkler head, cracked underground pipe, caught irrigation valve, or different points that may waste water or forestall the zone from usually operating.

To check this function, we linked an EveryDrop 1004-EX move meter to the Moen Sensible Sprinkler Controller set up. It is a hard-wired vortex move meter with an built-in LCD show. As soon as it was correctly calibrated it labored seamlessly within the Moen app to offer realtime GPM readings as zones operated in addition to feeding cumulative water quantity information to the Utilization tab.

Rain Sensor

Another choice for weather-based automation could be to attach a regular irrigation rain sensor to the Moen controller. Although Moen doesn’t provide a rain sensor accent, most 24-volt, third-party rain sensors might be wired to to the controller to allow this operate. For instance, Rain Hen provides such a sensor.

We typically don’t advocate rain sensors with good irrigation controllers, since they aren’t as dependable as different good options (for example, climate station integration). Nonetheless, they are often considerably efficient if activated by rainfall simply earlier than a Schedule is about to run. In that case, the Moen controller would skip schedules whereas the rain sensor was activated. As soon as the rain sensor dries out, regular operation resumes.

Voice Assistants

Moen helps each the Amazon Alexa and Google Dwelling voice assistants. We linked our controller to the Google Dwelling ecosystem, which allows some restricted voice instructions and in addition locations an lively tile within the Google Dwelling app and Google Nest Hub good shows. The tile in Google Dwelling is a straightforward on/off change for your complete Moen controller, and zones can’t be individually managed.

What’s To not Like

The Moen Sensible Sprinkler Controller is sadly hampered by a sub-par app that usually doggedly refuses to avoid wasting settings, places up bogus errors, and is usually clumsy to make use of. The Utilization monitoring charts appear to work effective when seen by Day or Yr, however present no information by Week or Month. We regularly obtained “Surprising Water Stream” errors, when there isn’t any water move within the system anyplace (as evidenced by taking a look at our accent move meter LCD). These appear to be generated when the controller quickly loses energy.

Usually, we had been lastly capable of get the app to do what we would have liked by quitting and restarting it, or repeatedly performing the motion or setting till we succeeded. Our testing was based mostly on model 3.6.1 of the iOS app, and Moen sprinkler controller firmware at v1.0.4j. We will solely hope the software program improves over time.

We predict the Sensible Wi-fi Soil Sensors are an incredible concept, however the lithium batteries in them will not be replaceable. Moen says to anticipate them to last as long as 7 years, however solely time will inform if that’s the case. The one possibility with a useless battery is to buy a brand new sensor. They’re additionally moderately pricey at about $70 every (retail).

The Backside Line

Moen has introduced a viable competitor to market within the type of the Sensible Sprinkler Controller, a complete good irrigation system that gives spectacular options and an industry-first Sensible Wi-fi Soil Sensor accent that may ship simply the correct quantity of water to a panorama based mostly on precise in-ground moisture ranges. Nonetheless, it’s hampered by a sub-par app that may get in the way in which of fundamental utilization.