Customer Reviews for Orbit Hard Wired Rain/Freeze Sensor

This sensor is a decent product for the right price. So easy to install. My 2nd one in 8-10 years.

This is a very good replacement for the original one that came with the system.

Orbit Rain/ Freeze sensor appears to be a high quality product. I especially appreciate the rugged two conductor 20 AWG, 25 ft (long) lamp 'zip' cord controller cable.

Works but if you live in a area prone to hail expect the plunger pin and or the cap to be broken. Hence it will no longer work. Don't want to spend $20 for another order replacement parts with one exception... THEY DON'T OFFER PARTS to be purchased for this sensor.

I rely on this to stop my sprinkler during rainy days. It has worked well so far.

It's hard to believe the range of excellent and poor reviews this has gotten. I'm sure that location has a lot to do with it's operation. I replaced my original rain sensor that quit working. It was simple to install and works great.

I installed this over a year ago on my system and it simply does not work. I have adjusted it to the lowest rain fall setting and even after a hard rain my system will still run. I can manually go up and depress the button causing my system to shut off so I know it is wired and hooked up correctly. I have even closed the air gap to prevent it from drying out quickly but nothing works. Poor product and it just does not work.

In operation, rain enters the top and saturates a shaft of fiber washers. As the washers become heavy with moisture, they press down on a switch which, when connected to most irrigation controllers, stops irrigation until the washers dry out. In theory, the user can also set the sensor to any one of several "notches" which correspond to "inches of rain" the sensor accumulates before stopping the watering. There is also an adjustment that supposedly slows evaporation. I found that in trying several locations, the washers dried out too quickly, in spite of adjustments. For example, we would have a heavy downpour of rain all afternoon and the sensor would eventually block irrigation operation BUT by 8 pm, the sensor would allow the irrigation system to operate. Placement in a shaded area is imperative but high outdoor temperatures rendered this device useless for me and I returned it.

Easy to install, works as described, better option than wireless.

Clear, easy to follow installation instructions. does the job!

This rain/freeze sensor mounted easily and secure and interfaced to my Hunter modular controller perfectly. The area that I live in requires that I fully close the dry-out (reset) shutter but the feature works perfect. The 25 ft wire is just enough to get the sensor up and out of way.

It rained last night and this morning my sprinklers were on.

the product works very well even when connected to a older control system

I have always used orbit rain sensors. The best!!!

I installed one of these Orbit rain/freeze sensor and it hasn't worked consistently during the last two years since its been installed. During heavy rains, the sprinkler system turns on wasting precious water when its not needed. I've even placed tap water into it as a test and my sprinkler system still turns on. Not sure if I got a lemon but looking at some of the other negative reviews, I'd say the problem lies with the sensor. This shouldn't surprise me about Orbit products. On a separate note, I also installed 4 Orbit jar type valves when I installed the rain sensor but within the first 5 months two of the valves started leaking. I had to replace the diaphragms but then the other two valves started leaking a few weeks later which required new diaphragms as well. After another 7 months, more leaks. I finally tore these pieces of garbage out and replaced them with Rain Bird valves. After 1.5 years, these Rain Birds are operating flawlessly without a single issue. Should have bought Rain Bird in the beginning and saved me lots of wasted time and frustrations.

I connected this unit to my Rainbird sprinkler system without any problems. So far, so good.

When it rained the sprinkler still went off! The sensor didn't do it's job.

Easy to install great directions. I set the rain fall amount to 1/2 inch. When it rained it worked perfect . The auto sprinkler didn't go on till the next dry day. Love it now I'll save water and electric.

No issues to date - but based on very short review period.

Sensor wouldn't turn on during first rain. It started working after second rain. The manual wouldn't mention how if the sensor needed adjustment even though it's apparent the sensor head was adjustable.

Easy to install, but does not work with TORO timers. This is not mentioned in the documentation. Discovered AFTER installation and speaking with Orbit customer service!