{"id":3479,"date":"2020-05-26T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-26T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aviancetechnologies.com\/blog\/blog\/rachio-3e-smart-sprinkler-controller-review-a-budget-version-from-the-market-leader\/"},"modified":"2020-05-26T10:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-05-26T10:00:00","slug":"rachio-3e-smart-sprinkler-controller-review-a-budget-version-from-the-market-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aviancetechnologies.com\/blog\/rachio-3e-smart-sprinkler-controller-review-a-budget-version-from-the-market-leader\/","title":{"rendered":"Rachio 3e Smart Sprinkler Controller review: A budget version from the market leader"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Rachio 3e Smart Sprinkler Controller review: A budget version from the market leader<\/h2>\n

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Want to use smart home tech to automate your watering, system but you\u2019re not in love with the price tag that comes with top smart sprinkler controllers? Check out the Rachio 3e, a stripped-down version of the Rachio 3, that costs just $130\u2014$60 less than the current price of the eight-zone version of its more sophisticated sibling.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the same hardware (the only visible difference is that the 3e is gray while the 3 is white), but the capabilities of the 3e are a bit more limited. What do you not get? Support for HomeKit, integrations with a lot of smart home gear (including Rachio\u2019s own Flow Meter), and the Rachio Yard Map, which lets you graphically set the boundaries of your lawn. The Rachio 3e\u2019s Weather Intelligence feature (which automatically skips watering on wet days) is less hyperlocalized, and there\u2019s also no 16-zone version available, as there is with the Rachio 3.<\/p>\n

This review is part of TechHive\u2019s coverage of the best smart sprinkler controllers, <\/span>where you\u2019ll find<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>reviews of competing products, plus a buyer\u2019s guide to the features you should consider when shopping.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Admittedly, you\u2019re not missing out on a lot. HomeKit adds little to the Rachio experience, and I\u2019ve yet to find any legitimate need to sync my sprinkler controller to my smart lights. Also, the 3e does still support Alexa and Google Assistant as well as IFTTT, so if you really need to integrate it with another device, you can probably find a way to make it happen. Other than these few missing features, you won\u2019t find any other major differences between the 3e and the 3\u2014although Rachio warns that future features developed for the 3 might not be extended to the 3e.<\/p>\n

\"rachio<\/a> Christopher Null \/ IDG<\/small>
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The Rachio 3e\u2019s biggest limitation is that it can control only eight zones.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I did have some unusual setup hiccups with the 3e. While the wiring of the sprinkler leads was as simple as it is on the standard Rachio unit\u2014the 3e uses the same easy clip-on system for your wiring\u2014the app struggled to register the unit wirelessly. Scanning the bar code with my camera didn\u2019t work at all, and it took several tries of manually entering the unit\u2019s serial number before it connected to the Rachio app. It took another four tries from there to get the unit to connect to my Wi-Fi network.<\/p>\n

As well, somewhere along the way, the wizard-based setup routine died, and I later had to manually enter all the information about my watering zones in Rachio\u2019s settings instead of following the usual guided tour. For a seasoned Rachio user like me (this is the fifth<\/em> model I\u2019ve tested), it wasn\u2019t difficult to figure out, but new users may be stymied by what can be a fairly steep learning curve.<\/p>\n

Other than some setup headaches, I encountered no trouble in day-to-day use, from scheduled waterings to manual runs, as the 3e is indistinguishable from the 3 within the Rachio app. And Rachio continues to update its app regularly, taking baby steps toward making the system easier to use by un-burying the most commonly used features.<\/p>\n

Fertile Ground<\/h2>\n
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Rachio\u2019s new subscription-based fertilizer service comes with an expanding water hose, your initial liquid fertilizer needs, and a dispenser.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The other new feature withing the Rachio ecosystem\u2014whichever model you have\u2014is the introduction of Thrive, a completely optional, subscription-based liquid fertilizer concept. With Thrive, you plug in your address and outline the shape of your yard on the Rachio website. The company crunches the numbers and determines your soil type based on your location, then sets you up with a kit that includes an expandable hose (up to 100 feet in length), applicator nozzles, and several bottles of Lawn Champion, its homegrown fertilizer which looks a lot like the \u201cgreen juice\u201d that you\u2019d get at Whole Foods. Lawn Champion isn\u2019t your typical fertilizer; it\u2019s a natural, kid\/pet-safe product that includes \u201cmicroalgae and other nutrients [that] feed healthy microbes in your soil to create a living environment plants love.\u201d So, better than Brawndo<\/a> (despite the absence of electrolytes).<\/p>\n

\"rachio<\/a> Christopher Null \/ IDG<\/small>
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The Rachio app now includes prompts that tell you when it\u2019s time to fertilize.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Thrive is built into the Rachio app, which alerts you to apply the stuff to your lawn roughly every 45 days. This is easy to do: Just attach the hose to any outdoor spigot and connect the applicator to the other end of it, then \u201cpaint\u201d your yard. The only trick for my home was that my watering zones are spread out piecemeal over an acre of land, and while the expanding hose is of high quality, there was just no way for me to reach all of it, even if I moved the hose around to various spigots on the property.<\/p>\n