1-Port Single Dial Timer

This review is based on my experience with many of these units in Tucson. Your results may differ. Pro: Battery powered. Easy to program. Performs the intended function, and is very adaptable to many irrigation installations (including kluges like mine). Con: 3 stars because the LCD display, or the circuitry that controls it, is an Achilles heel. It will not long survive high temps and/or direct sunlight in our Tucson summers ( long days, 106 deg, clear skies). When display goes bad, you lose the ability to program it. My solution is to install so display is in shadow or faces North. If your environment is more benign, consider that my rating might not be applicable to your environment.

This is a review after using the Orbit 1-port single dial timer for less than one day, so I don't have long-term experience with it yet. LIKES: - $32 ; inexpensive - Very simple. - Batteries are very easy to install/replace (takes two AA's)...this is important since reviews for other products say that sometimes the batteries can be hard to replace....not with this one. - Very easy to program. I spent one or two minutes reading the instructions, and after installing the batteries, it took me about two minutes to program it. The longest delay was me trying to determine how often I wanted it to run. - Note: It's for one zone only, obviously. Note: Run frequency/intervals: It can water up to four times per day, but there's a catch. It only works with "interval timing" meaning every X number of hours or days. In other words, you can't program it to water at four unique and specific times such as, say, 9am, 10a, 4pm, and 11pm....however, you can set the interval time to the lowest setting of "every six hours", which is equivalent to four times each day. In regards to start time, you can enter only *one* start time, such as 6am. With a start time of 6am and a 6-hour interval time, it would water at 6am, 12pm, 6pm, and 12am. Lowest interval times are 6 hours and 12 hours and 24 hours (ie, 4 times/day, twice a day, once a day)...you *cannot* do three times a day. You can also do every 2 days, 3 days, etc. - Note: In regards to "run time" (for example, 5 minutes), it will run for that run time during EACH interval...ie, you can't have it run for 5 minutes at 6am and 10 minutes at 12p. If you need that, you'll need a more complex and expensive product. - Note: Manual running. Can you manually activate the sprinkler zone for X number of minutes? Yes. Quite simple...turn to AUTO, press manual button, select the number of minutes, and then wait about 5 or 6 seconds for it to kick in and start counting down. After you install the batteries, you can test the unit before installing it. when the start time is reached, you can hear a loud click in the unit indicating that the water-passthru valve is open, and then it clicks again when it closes at the end of the cycle. DISLIKES: - It gets very hot in direct sunlight....no fault of the product....that's what plastic does. Instead of artbitrarily saying that it "gets very hot", here is some accurate details about that. I'm in Phoenix, AZ at the end of April. It was 92F when I tested this at 2pm. I used an infrared thermometer to check the surface temperature of the Orbit timer after it had been installed and sitting in direct sun for 30 minutes...the surface temperature was 150F on the top of the unit. Ouch! The daily temperature usually hits 120F in Phoenix in the summer, so that will likely ruin the entire timer or at least the LCD screen. This is likely one of the reasons people blame Orbit for a bad timer...it overheats in direct sunlight. With that said, *NO* electric timer (or any electronics device at all) should be left in direct sunlight. Standard/larger timers are usually put in plastic water/sun-proof boxes, and they can still overheat. - Heat solution: I wasn't too concerned about aesthetics, so I found a 12"*12"*12" cardboard box, cut a few slots in it to fit around my hose and pipes, covered it in clear packing tape to make it water resistant, and then spray painted it with white gloss paint. The box was a complete cube with no bottom... I placed the box over the timer, pipe, and hose...I specifically created the box so that the cardboard top receiving direct sunlight would not be directly on top of the timer...there is probably 5" of air gap above and around the timer to the cardboard that protects it. - After waiting about 20 minutes, I went back out, removed the box, and checked the termperature of the top of the timer...it was now 112F...almost 40F degrees cooler. Because the timer is so close to the 1/2" copper pipe that feeds it, the water in the copper pipe (that is also being covered by the box) is somewhat acting like a miniature air conditioner inside of the box which helps keep the timer cool...not a lot, but I'm sure it helps since the copper pipe is slightly cool to the touch. Another benefit to the shade box is that it will keep the AA batteries cooler as well which will make them last longer. The white box is not horribly ugly, but not amazing...yet, it is functional and somewhat out of the way. - Other dislike: I have read several people say that the timer is oddly not very water resistant and can become ruined if it's in rain too long. Even though the water-resistant box will keep water off of the timer, I first wrapped the timer in a 1-gallon plastic ziplock bag to help keep it dry, and I placed the box over that. I'd bet that in some cases, the sun bakes/warps the timer after several weeks/months, which leads to a leak, which could lead to water damage...just a hunch. - Physical installation notes: I had a friend remove the hosebib on my house, replace it with a custom-made copper pipe "Y" splitter that we made with 1/2" copper pipe. The left side goes to the Orbit timer, but there is a manual ball-valve shut-off *before* the timer (HUGELY recommended, and very convenient to have the shut-off available during testing and troubleshooting), the right side of the "Y" goes to another hosebib for my regular garden hose. Can you use a standard $10 hosebib splitter instead of the custom copper pipe method? Yes, but I chose not to since cheaper splitters often leak once they've been under pressure for awhile, and I had the luxury of having someone help me do it the preferred way. Also, since I'm watering only a 100SF flowerbed, I connected a $10 pressure-reducer on the outgoing part of the orbit timer to keep the pressure down a bit. -Spike

easy to set time controls. home owners use should be great. we use in a nursery setting with hard use and these last about a year. cheap enough to just replace when needed

This product set up is easy. The display is large and easy to read. The water inlet fitting is brass/metal. The outlet is threaded plastic. Product takes 2 AA batteries. Product operates better than expected.

Love this timer! Easy to set ! Good price. Will probably get two more.

Easy to install, works as expected

My remote sprinkler lost power connection and I bought one of these to replace it. I was very satisfied with the ease of programming the timer. I needed to be able to water a new tree I planted and this gave me the control to do it. The instructions were easy to follow, you set the time of day, the time to start watering and for how long. the only tricky part was the how often, you need to read the instructions closely for this as the "1" meant every day, "2" every other day etc. It is very light and easy to mount with a little imagination I used a 1/2" conduit clip to hold it up and some plumbers tape.

Bought two, both of them got water in the battery compartment causing the LCD screen to break and the circuit board to rust. Hasn't even been a year, but this summer we started getting a lot of crazy rain fall in FL (and yes, I installed it correctly but maybe I should have used plumbing tape). Very disappointed. Buyer Beware.

It worked fine for a few weeks then started leaking internally with water coming out of the holes on the bottom.

I bought two of these timers. One has been working flawlessly for several months now, the other, well . . . . . . not so flawlessly. I had one of the timers (the one that doesn't work) going through batteries about every second or third day. The culprit turned out to be the top retaining screw on the back cover. I found it had been stripped out and just stuck in the hole. Being that there was no gasketing on the rear cover, and the screw unable to hold the cover in tightly, it allowed water to enter the unit and it entered the electronics compartment through the battery carrier. Electronic components were corroded and part of the "protective" coating had been lifted off the printed circuit board. Water also damaged the LCD display to where it is unreadable at times. To say that I am displeased with this particular piece would be a gross understatement. Being that it is one of the "less expensive" offerings, I guess the old adage does hold true - you get what you pay for.