Orbit Hydro-Rain 4020 4-Station Battery-Powered Controller with 1 Solenoid

This works great and saved us running 200 ft of wire from the timer. Easy to program and set up. Nice design and very water resistant looking. A lot of attention to keeping this working even in a damp dirty valve control box. I repair lawn sprinkler systems for a living and I would definitely go back to this product if needed.

I bought this to replace a Hydro-Rain unit that had been damaged. Installation was very easy and setting the watering schedule was straightforward. Does just what I need it to do.

The potential for this to be a good product is there. However, don’t have any questions not specially answered in the poorly made instructions. Otherwise good luck! I could not for the life of me figure it certain parts of the programming or how to get the unit to work correctly. I don’t know if it was faulty. Electronically. Or I just don’t get the programming right. Either way, I am not a sprinkler installer. So my knowledge is enough to get by most of the time. But not a field expert. That being said, I could not get this dumb thing to one the program for the stations only once. It wanted to run the program for all four stations multiple times. Didn’t matter what I did. Instruction book was worthless to help here. The manufactures website? Also worthless to help here. I couldn’t get a hold of the manufacture by phone either. So I gave up. And returned it. Which also cost my a nearly $25 “restocking fee”. Lame. On all counts. And the seller’s policy is absolutely vague about charging this fee, the amount, or anything related. Oh well, I am out the money. No working product. And stuck on the project. All around bad experience. Left a bad taste in my mouth for this product, the manufacture and the seller….

There are 100 things that can go wrong with sprinkler control,There is 0 technical support from Hydro-rain. It is only by text message.In my case the solenoid was two small for the opening on my valve.I asked if Hydro rain had a larger solenoid. i was directed to a solenoid on the Orbit web site.The site did not provide specifications. The solenoid was a 24 volt device. The Hydro rain is a battery 12 volt system.

Works great and easy to program

The device works fine and is reliable; however, the product received is in a different (more difficult to use) than the one pictured in the ad. The name was the same HRC 990. My reason for saying more difficult is that with the other Hydro-Rain devices that I have you turn the dial and set it up (simple). This one I received has only push buttons and requires detailed instructions on how to configure it. I think it must have been old stock.

Replaced an earlier model that had a screw on design. It is in an underground box that fills with water. The first one lasted several years before it got wet. The replacement lasted less than 6 months before getting water in it.

Works nicely, would like a light proof cover option for installations above ground. Difficult to understand how to control many times a day on a single day but worked as expected.