Product Description

Orbit Irrigation 62032 Yard Watering System; Clm Fully automatic yard watering kit turns your hose faucet into a 4-station sprinkler system. No digging is required to easily install this watering system.Orbit Irrigation 62032 Yard Watering System; Clm Features:; Connects to standard hose faucet to provide 4 hose outlets with 4 independent controls; 3/4 In. National Hose Thread manifold connection to hose faucet; Preprogram up to 4 stations with 3 start times of up to 99 minutes each; Installs in minutes; no digging required; For outdoor use with cold water only; Connects to standard faucet, providing 4 hose outlets with four independent controls; Convenient, remote operation; Pre-program up to 4 stations with 3 start times of up to 99 minutes; 2 position timer mounting; Conserves water by timing output; Patent pending

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3811 in Home Improvement
• Brand: Orbit
• Model: 62032
• Dimensions: 3.50" h x 11.50" w x 14.80" l, 4.22 pounds

Features

• Connects to standard hose faucet to provide 4 hose outlets with 4 independent controls
• 3/4-Inch national hose thread manifold connection to hose faucet
• Preprogram up to 4 stations with 3 start times of up to 99 minutes each
• Installs in minutes; no digging required
• For outdoor use with cold water only

From the Manufacturer
Fully automatic yard watering kit turns your hose faucet into a 4-station sprinkler system. No digging is required to easily install this watering system. Operation range 5-80 PSI, flow range 2.7 GPM to 18 GPM, and temperature range minimum 35° F to maximum 110° F.

Customer Reviews

works well, but not as complete an implementation as first glance indicates
some of the reviews here are not phrased well, similar to the manual.

You can water 4 different sections of the yard separately, one-at-a-time (so no worries about low water pressure). The manual actually implies that you can't do this- it sounds as if all go on at once.

You can adjust duration of watering for each section separately, and program up to three repeat times per day to water (I don't find the last useful).

The main complaint is that the sections always get serially watered- first one, then two, etc- you can't skip a section if you want one on a different schedule.

I've had this thing up for 5 months now with no broken valves, and while it would be nice to be able to skip a section, I can limit watering times to work around it. I have not found an alternate device that will let me skip sections at will without going to an underground system.

A good-quality brass 4-hose connector is $15 at WalMart, let alone a garden store. For the price, it adds a huge capability and works well here.

FOLLOWUP: Worked great all summer, sits on the S face of the house full sun 95F, driving 4 hoses-- love it. Never changed batteries. Use good alkalines, not cheap ones.

If people are breaking valves perhaps check your water pressure, wells and some water districts markedly over (or under) pressure their systems, it is a big problem if you use equipment that notices the out-of-spec pressure.

Could have been much better
As you will gather from the other reviews, this is not a fully programmable valve timing system. You cannot, for example, program one valve to turn on a lawn sprinkler once a week and another to turn on a drip watering system every day. You CAN pick what days of the week to water, whether once a day, every other day, etc., and how long each valve stays open, but whatever schedule you pick ALL the valves will turn on and off in sequence. This is a bit disappointing, as it makes it impossible to water one area once week, for example, and another area every day. This is a shame because I suspect this feature could be easily incorporated into the programming system. Perhaps Orbit thought to do so would make the programming too cubersome and complex with the compact controller it uses. Maybe so, but even with the options they do include, the programming system is unnecessarily complex and hard to understand. Further, the instruction manual appears to have been written by a four-year-old with attention-deficit disorder. A few examples keyed to "real world" watering needs would sure be helpful. Really, someone at Orbit needs to think this thing through much more carefully and do a redesign. Or perhaps they don't want it to compete with their more expensive underground sprinkler timers?

Still, once you do figure out how the things works, it does make for a very useful (if limited) automatic watering system. I bought two more valves so as to control four different systems, two going to lawn areas watered with sprinklers and two to hanging baskets and pots watered with a drip system. Since the baskets and pots have to be watered every day, then so do the two lawn areas--less than ideal, as I would prefer to water the lawn deeply once or twice a week. Still, I've managed to adjust the timing for each valve so the lawns receive the proper amount of water as well as the baskets. In our dry climate, this is an acceptable compromise, but it might not work as well in other areas where watering the lawn everyday would be very wasteful. Also, if all you want to do is water lawn areas, you won't have this problem.

In sum, I am happy with the product, though it took some sustained effort and thinking to get it to do what I wanted. I limit my rating to three stars in hopes that Orbit will get a clue and do a bit of R&D to improve the controller and to write a decent manual. This thing is almost a really great product. All it needs is a fully programmable controller!

Owned for 4 years now. For now, there is nothing better for outdoor irrigation
We've owned this product for 4 years...each year adding more zones. We now water our entire outdoor flower and vegetable gardens with it, using a total of 4 controllers and 11 valves. In 4 years we've had 4 valve failures and one brass manifold failure.

The system has been incredible. Before we owned it there were constant battles, with ourselves, and our children to keep the garden watered. Invariably a section would be missed and plants would wilt. It is a huge relief to let this system take care of it for us.

The trick is to buy a drip irrigation system (I recommend Mr. Landscaper) and hook the system up to it. These systems come with about every kind of head you can imagine and some you didn't. In a few hours of laying hoses and putting in sprinkler heads you have a happy garden. It took us a couple weeks to refine the heads to optimize the watering, and each year you have to check for bad heads (they clog or break from foot traffic or squirrels who decide to taste them.)

I also recommend the tiny 1/4" dripper hose to be placed in pots. A couple inches of hose in each pot is all you need.

Pros:
1. There is no product out there to compete with this one yet...other than an updated system also from Orbit, or a full indoor controlled irrigation system, which would be considerably more expensive.
2. Can water 4 stations up to 4 times a day. Can pick a day of the week, every other day or every day for watering.
3. Batteries last an entire summer watering season. In fact, I've used last years batteries the following year.
4. Stations are very reliable. I've not had one fail.

Cons:
1. Valves do fail. We've lost 4 out of 11 in 4 years. However they aren't expensive at about $15 a piece. My only concern is that Orbit continues to provide them since they have redesigned this system this year and the new valves have a different connector.
2. Orbit changed the design this year. The new valves use a different connector with better sealing to the control unit. I've never had an issue with the old connectors, and I'm concerned they will obsolete this generation, requiring me to buy new stations.
3. Stations can not be programmed independently. That is to say that every station must run at every programming time, though you can program each station for different amounts of time. So, for example you can program your garden to water for 40 minutes, and your pots for 5.
4. Programming is on the level of some poorly documented VCR's. Once you get it figured out, it isn't such a big problem but I still find myself frustratingly pressing the wrong button and having to start over. The button sequences are confusing.

All in all I'd give the system a big thumbs up. Not perfect, but the best available at this time (though one should consider buying the newer sealed system if it isn't much more expensive because replacement parts might be easier to find in the future.)