Review Of Rainpoint Smart+ Garden Watering System

Introduction

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Introduction

In this review, I describe how I’ve set up the RainPoint Smart+ Garden Watering System at home and my experience doing it, and at the end of the article I’ll summarise what I think of it. Please note that this review is based on my first impression, as I am writing it after only having had the product for a few days.

For context, I want to make clear that I have not paid for the product. RainPoint kindly sent the products to me free of charge, and I decided to make a video and write this article as I believe it will be of interest to people who visit this website. Please note, all the comments I make are my personal opinions, and not those of RainPoint.

Why Have A Drip Irrigation System?

Before looking at RainPoint’s products, I think it is helpful to start with why drip irrigation systems are useful. Over the years, I have developed a strong liking for automatic watering systems, and that is for several reasons.

The first one is personal enjoyment. When the weather is at its hottest, my plants need the most water, which can mean watering twice a day. Watering by hand is hard work, and even harder in humid and warm temperatures, and involves carrying heavy watering cans around the garden and allotment. This hard work takes time, that could be spent doing other things.

The second reason is that I have learned that watering by hand is not as effective, and by that I mean not as good for plants, compared to the consistent watering provided by drip irrigation systems. By hand, I am inconsistent with my watering, sometimes watering twice a day and sometimes not, as sometimes other things in life take priority. When watering by hand, a lot of water is applied at once, meaning that a good deal of it washes away.

That brings me to my third reason of water wastage. By dripping water slowly at specific time intervals in a day, much less water is lost to run-off. It is an ideal combination of healthier plants growing in consistently moist soil, and with less water usage.

Finally, my fourth reason, and this is the deal maker for me, is simply that I like to go away occasionally, whether for the weekend or on holiday. I do not want my plants to die when I am away. An automatic watering system means that I do not need to be at home to care for my plants.

My Experience With Drip Irrigation Systems

Before describing the RainPoint products, I want to share my experience with using drip irrigation, as my comments on their products will be based on how I want to use them.

I have been a frequent user of drip irrigation systems in my polytunnel on my allotment. In fact, I created my own DIY solar powered drip irrigation system using a solar panel, a leisure battery, and a water butt pump, and if you would like more information about this please see this page.

However, I see RainPoint’s products being most useful for me at home. I have tried many solutions at home, but over the last few years I have consistently used a combination of soaker hose drip irrigation, to keep my herbaceous perennials alive in my flower borders, and a network of drippers for my annual flowers that are mostly grown in pots on a patio, together with a few hanging baskets.

Rainpoint Irrigation Display Hub

The RainPoint Irrigation Display Hub features a large colour display. I measured the screen at about 16 cm or 6 inches wide, and 9 cm or 3.5 inches high.

It is powered by an adaptor that plugs into the back of the weather station. I really like the design of the battery panel. It was easy to remove simply by sliding away, and inside of it there is a connector for the power cable.

Although the display hub does take batteries, the instructions say it is best to use the power adaptor. The batteries are there to help when there is a power outage.

On the display, it shows a two day weather summary, and the current outdoor temperature and humidity, as well as the indoor temperature and humidity of the room where the display is located. The current time, date, and day of the week are also shown.

The outdoor temperature is calculated from an online weather service, just like the weather I check on my phone. I think this is worth saying, as it is not a weather station that has a sensor that needs to be positioned outside.

The addition of the weather forecast I think is a really nice touch, as it is convenient to have it always on display. Another nice feature is that the brightness of the screen can easily be adjusted, by touching a button positioned on the top of the display.

In the centre of the screen is the information specific to the smart garden watering system. This includes the next scheduled time for the watering system to start, and how much water was used in the last watering.

RainPoint Two Zone Water Timer

The RainPoint Two Zone Water Timer is both a water splitter, or manifold, that is able to run two hose networks from one tap, and also a watering computer, or controller, set by a mobile phone app, that makes it possible to create plant specific watering schedules for each of the two networks.

It is powered by four AA batteries that are inserted into the back of the water timer. I like the way the battery compartment is screw free. The cover has raised handles that allows it to be eased off, and around the edge of the cover is some plastic or rubber edging that makes the compartment watertight.

Without drawing direct comparisons, my experience with water timers has been mixed. Whilst other timers I have used have always been reliable, one issue I have experienced is that the text, or words, printed next to or on the buttons of one of my timers disappeared. I think the text was washed off, or the sun bleached the ink until it disappeared. Either way, the text went.

What this means is that when changing settings, I have to remember what each button does, or use trial and error, every time I want to make adjustments to the watering schedule.

Now, this problem disappears on the RainPoint water timer, as everything is controlled by the phone app. Once I had the water timer controlled by my phone, it became really easy to set my watering schedule.

The timer can connect to an outside tap with either a 1 inch or ¾ inch thread, which are common in the UK. My outside taps both use the ¾ inch thread, and therefore I needed to use the adaptor included with the water timer.

The ¾ inch outside tap adaptor is made of plastic. This material is commonly used, but in general I prefer brass fittings. I did not experience leaks using the tap adaptor provided, but if required, it is easy to buy brass fittings if needed.

The timer came with PFTE tape, or plumbers tape, that can help to achieve a water tight connection between a tap and a tap adaptor. I am not a big fan of tape, my preference is to use plumbers sealant or jointing compound. This article is not about how to get a good drip free connection, but I want to mention that there are solutions to getting a watertight connection between a tap and a tap connector.

And once the ¾ inch tap connector is in place, the 1 inch tap connector on top of the water timer is simply screwed onto it. It is easy to attach hoses to the water timer using standard hose fittings.

One really nice feature of the timer is a manual override. By pressing either of the large buttons on the outside of the water timer, it opens the respective zone. Pressing the button again stops the water. That is really convenient. This makes it possible to have one zone connected to a drip irrigation network, and the other zone left free, to make it easy to fill up a watering can when required.

RainPoint Flow Meter

The final product to look at is the RainPoint Flow Meter. The purpose of the flow meter is to measure water consumption. The data is passed back to the app, making it possible to see not only the water used in one watering job, but also cumulative use of water over a period of time.

A notable difference with the water timer is that the flow meter is always open, meaning that as soon as a tap is opened, water will start flowing, and there is no way of stopping the water by using the flow meter.

I think the main benefit of the flow meter is to measure water usage when watering without using a watering schedule, for example watering on hot days using a spray gun attached to a hose, or a sprinkler watering a garden lawn. It allows a gardener to know exactly how much water they are using.

The flow meter is powered by three AAA batteries that are inserted into the body of the device. To access the compartment, the square body is first removed, and then the four cross head screws that hold the battery compartment cover in place.

My experience with screws and water is that they do not mix well, as metal screws can rust and then become very difficult to remove. To be extra cautious and to prevent this happening on the flow meter, I covered the exposed screws with waterproof tape to keep them in good condition.

Unlike the water timer, the flow meter is provided with only a ¾ thread to connect to an outside tap. That was not a problem for me, but a different solution would be needed for a 1 inch thread on an outside tap.

The flow meter is easy to attach. First the tap connector is positioned in place, and then the flow meter has a push fit fitting to connect to the tap connector.

Once everything is connected, every time the tap is opened for watering, the amount of water used will be recorded in the app. There is no need to touch the flow meter to turn it on to record data. It will detect the water flow and record automatically. There is also a digital display on the flow meter itself.

My first impression is that I think this data is pretty helpful. It should mean I will quickly learn just how much water I am using when I use my garden hose.

Technical Set Up

Before summing up my first impression of all the products, I want to briefly introduce the technical set up.

I am not going to go into much detail here, because the manufacturer has created helpful videos showing how to download and set up the HomGar app that controls all three products. However, I do want to introduce my experience, as I think this may be helpful to others.

The first step is to download the HomGar app. Once installed, I needed to create a new account, and set my home location so that the weather information was accurate to where I live.

The second step is to get the app to connect to a wifi network. I think this step has the potential to catch some people out. The app requires a 2.4 GHz frequency wifi to connect. My wifi hub at home is dual band, which means I can connect to it at either 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz. However, all my wifi devices are normally connected at 5 GHz because it is faster. To get the app to work, I needed to change the frequency my phone uses to connect to wifi on my home network to 2.4 GHz.

Even though the instructions provided by the manufacturer are clear, I think this issue may confuse some people. I do not know if it is possible for the manufacturer to update the product to work on either wifi frequency. If it is possible, I think that would be helpful.

The third step is to pair by bluetooth the app on my phone to all the products, namely the display hub, water timer, and flow meter. The manufacturer provided clear instructions and helpful videos on how to do this. I think anyone familiar with bluetooth pairing will be fine with this. Nevertheless, because there are three devices to do, it took me a few minutes to get everything clear in my head, before I got everything to work.

Therefore, my summary of the technical set up is that it is straightforward for anybody who is familiar with setting up new wifi connections, and with connecting bluetooth devices. However, for anyone less familiar with this, they make like to get help from a family member or friend.

Summary Of First Impressions

So, what do I think overall? Well, the RainPoint products have got me excited. I really like the following features.

Firstly, using the app to programme my drip irrigation schedule I think is a big step forward. It will save me guessing which buttons to press on my old irrigation timer.

Secondly, assuming that the measuring of water consumption is accurate, I think this will allow me to learn how much water I am using, and ultimately find a more efficient way of watering my plants. Or put another way, I think I will end up using less water to get the same results.

Thirdly, I really like the convenience of seeing the weather on the display hub, and inside the app itself. I can see myself checking this often.

What I have not mentioned so far is that the app offers quite detailed water consumption information, and control over the water schedules. This is something I hope to learn more about over the next few weeks. One feature is the ability to easily skip a scheduled watering time, for example when it is about to rain. This is really easy and convenient to do in the app.

I am not able to say how durable, or reliable, the products are because I have only had them a few days. I want the products to continue to work over a few years, albeit with the occasional battery change. Only time will tell on this. My first impression is that the build quality seems to be at least equivalent to other products I have purchased in the past, and these have lasted reasonably well.

I think the only other consideration is what I mentioned earlier about the technical set up. Once this hurdle is cleared, and everything is working as it should, the app offers much greater control over my water usage than I’ve had before.