My wish list and thoughts on the Iro

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Rachio Team,

I’m a irrigation distributor and a former landscape/irrigation contractor and I’ve been playing with this controller for four weeks now. I have to tell you that I’m really impressed with the Iro and what it can do. The Iro really fills a niche in ET based controllers.

Some first impressions:

Your estimated water use is really accurate once I dialed in my rotors and sprays on custom nozzles and setting up a watering program is a breeze. Weather data is well integrated and I really like the emails notifying me that the system is being turned off before a rain. The water usage charts are especially handy and I’m thrilled with the water savings.

I would put the Iro in the same league as a Pro-C, ESP-Me or Evolution series controllers. It hold up real well against the Smartline/Proline controllers too. It’s a perfect choice for typical suburban residential and light commercial applications. For larger applications, there are other choices that would make better sense and I’m sure you’ll agree, but for the nice you’re after, the Iro cannot be beat.

Now some suggestions from my point of view:

  1. The ability to blink up at the store as well as on site. This will be a huge time saver as not all buyers or contractors are computer savvy.

  2. Have the master valve/pump start be controlled at the zone level.

  3. The common should be on a terminal block.

  4. Option for a longer cord on the power supply transformer. I’m thinking 15-20 feet.

  5. Optional enclosure with one or two terminal blocks (14 terminals) already mounted inside. (This is for relocating the controller from outdoor to indoor, better wifi reception etc. without having to rewire the valves and beats a birds nest or wire nuts.)

  6. Valve locator/chatter feature. Voltmeter?

  7. If you were going to offer more zones, switch to a 9/18 zone format.

  8. Have the Android app render on all phones. I use a Sonim XP6 and the setup wizard ran off the screen and I cannot get into my watering programs on the phone. Yeah, it’s an odd phone, but a phone many contractors are switching to and makes a perfect indestructible remote.

That’s it for now. I’ll be sure to let you know my thoughts as time progresses. And make no mistake, the Iro is an 8.5 out of 10 and you guys are just getting started.

Thanks.

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Hey @gai1, thanks so much for the thoughts! Really appreciate the insight.

In your mind, how would this work? For example, who would be doing the blinking up and such?

Is the Rachio Android app not working correctly on this phone? Just making sure.

Again thanks for the thoughts!

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i agree with the 8.5/10. once i get flow sensor/meter integration, ill give it a 10/10

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I think @benblackmer responded to most of these, I’ll tackle the others :wink:

We’ve recorded this feature in our backlog, thanks!

Noted.

Sent this to our hardware guru.

@gai1

Just wanted to let you know we do read each and every one of these posts, and I wanted to thank you for taking the time out of your day to relay this to us.

:cheers:

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Blinking up at point if sale would be great. I know many contractors who will be frustrated trying to set this up out doors, in a basement or a garage where the light is wrong or their phone won’t work for whatever reason.

And yes, the blink up wizard doesn’t work on my Android. It runs off the screen. Also cannot bring up watering programs on the phone. I can set them though.