Orbit SunMate® Automatic Yard Watering Kit

Although, as a rule, I recommend automatic watering systems because they save time and money, I do not recommend the Orbit SunMate® Automatic Yard Watering Kit to anyone, and will not buy another one. I thought I would have my vegetable beds on a watering timer to ensure the plants survived the Phoenix summers. Instead of the worry-free reliable watering system the manufacturer's advertising promised, I had to check every morning to make sure it had turned on, use the manual override if it had not turned on, and check to make sure it had turned off. It didn't save me work, water or money. And then it broke.

Yes, it broke! See the photo for details. All three of the valves I was using cracked in the same spot before the summer was over, and leaked. Some ads I saw promoted that the Orbit SunMate® Automatic Yard Watering Kit has "non-corrosive construction". That means plastic. It's just a plastic lip covered by a brass sleeve, not the solid metal it appears to be in the ads. The normal stresses on the valve from tightening it to the manifold, the water pressure pushing on it, and the small movements of the hose were apparently too much for cheap plastic to endure.

It uses 2 AA batteries for the timer, and didn't work at all with rechargeable Ni-MH or Li-ion batteries. The battery life was shorter than I expected. The controller would do strange things if the batteries were not changed every couple of weeks, such as fail to turn on, fail to turn off, or turn on a station that was not supposed to turn on. I had to check every day to make sure it was not misbehaving, which cancelled out the time-savings it promised.

Yes, it was easy to install, and not too difficult to program, although the text on the control panel was almost microscopic and difficult to read in direct sunlight. The instructions that came with the timer, for some reason, came in French. Having English instructions would have been better. Spanish would have been understandable, because the retailers around here sometimes get a shipment meant for Mexico by mistake. But French?

PRICE: $50-75 for the 2-station Orbit SunMate® Automatic Yard Watering Kit , and $15-20 for additional valves, depending on where you buy them. I've seen them on eBay for as little as 40, if you want to risk your money. I'm saving my pennies for a real controller with all-brass valves.