Millions of Nest Home Thermostats are now e-waste by Google, the stated reason is they could no longer update the Wi-Fi protocol in its older models, mainly to plug the security holes.
This can happen with Rachio as well.
Included Ethernet will avoid all Wi-Fi pitfalls, including having to trash and perfectly good controller.
I have an old model Ring Wi-Fi that works fine but sometimes is slow (will replace with new Ethernet model).
I also have a Rheem smart water heater that is 10 ft from my Wi-Fi that constantly drops network connection, sometimes causing it to run when no one is home.
Perfect examples of why Wi-Fi only devices are not recommended for fixed location devices.
I wasn’t for this, seemed like few people would have wired near their controller, and then last month my wifi went out on my 3 year old Rachio unit. Pretty much useless now. So I get to buy a new one. I suppose a wired NIC can also fail.
If the Rachio is still watering on schedule, then only the Wi-Fi is out. If it had Ethernet then you could regain control it with that; so Ethernet is also be a backup to the Wi-Fi (and vice versa).
$250 for a device by a company to cheap to install a $3 Ethernet connection, they want you to buy more of their devices to make up for sub-par hardware.
I would love to install a Rachio, but I simply must have Ethernet.
and perfectly good controller.