When I saw what you did there…! lol
Made me laugh. Glad we both got some humor today!
Decided to drop back by and see if anything had been resolved, SOSDD. Best thing I did before my year of ownership was up I returned it to Costco for a full refund. No more problems, at all. New system with HomeKit is spot on plus never dropped WiFi once since I installed it. This thread is very well known and shared around the various groups that discuss HomeKit, seems Rachio doesn’t care about the bad press they just keep pushing them out the door without a care. Sorry folks, good luck!
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I will double that… FFS! (I also had to look it up!)
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So far I have been unable to connect my new unit with HomeKit however I don’t really care. I much prefer having the system decide when to water the lawn with intelligence rather than me telling Siri to turn the system on. Besides, I have a separate app that I can open and turn on my sprinklers if needed. That being said I would not mind having HomeKit compatibility but it is not that big of an issue
My controller is still on the same beta they rolled out back in April (version “iro3-firmware-hk-11-8”). Did the version number change at all? Can anyone verify if they’ve actually received this beta? (Or does roll out not mean it will be installed to their previous/current beta tester’s devices?)
The real value of it is being able to voice-activate zones via Siri when you’re, say, out in the yard repairing sprinkler heads, adjusting nozzles, or whatever. It sucks to pull a nozzle off, turn the zone on to flush the junk out of it, but holding the stem in one hand and fumbling around with a wet phone screen trying to turn the zone off with the other, all while getting absolutely soaked.
HomeKit worked for me for like 2 days after I bought it, and the Siri voice commands were SO nice to have. Then it stopped wanting to add to HomeKit for all of eternity and thus arriving me at this thread of despair.
I’m sure they’re hard at work on Rachio 4’s HomeKit capabilities though!
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I think a lot of it has to do with Apple and not Rachio. Apple is hard at work adding support for other platforms through an alliance. Rachio isn’t the only device having issues. https://www.cultofmac.com/742226/matter-home-automation-alliance-homekit-compatible-devices/
I’d disagree. I participate in the matter standard groups and Apple seems to have employees devoted to that directly (like most of the other companies who work on this and other standards) and they aren’t pulling the resources from existing products (at least from what I see) Well managed technical companies don’t drop the support aspect of products to work on new standards that MAY or MAY NOT actually supersede existing functionality.
I am also an architect and write firmware for IOT devices (including Homekit) and this is definitely Rachio’s fault and problem (either directly or the subcontractor their hired to do the work – one or both don’t have any clue what they’re doing). The fact that this problem has existed for TWO YEARS shows technical incompetence.
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That is mostly what I use HomeKit for. I enjoy working in my yard. I don’t enjoy having a $1500 iPhone in the yard with me risking breaking it so I only am wearing my AppleWatch often while also wearing AirPods so it’s nice to control my sprinklers with SirI.
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I have a ton of HomeKit stuff and Rachio is the only device I have a lot of issues with.
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I find it amazing that they have just now enabled logging in to their beta.
And the newest annoying thing it’s doing is when I leave my house shows off-line. If I restart my hub it works properly for a few days but then I have to restart my hub again. So for whatever reason, it stops talking to my Apple TV hub and I lose remote access. All my other Homekit devices are fine just the Rachio doing this.
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I’m sorry about your luck
Waited 7+ months, finally have the beta (newest), and can’t add the Rachio 3 to HomeKit. I enter the digits manually in Home app, and it finds nothing. Emailed support a week ago and heard nothing back. So basically have the beta, can’t test it… Oh well. Your results may very.
It’s almost funny.
Yesterday my power kept on going on and off for a bit and then went off for hours.
It tuns out that if you cycle the power to a LIFX bulb that is how you reset it to factory defaults which is exactly what happened to two of my LIFX bulbs, but not the light strips.
Took me a long time to figure out why my LIFX bulbs would no longer connect to the LIFX app or HomeKit.
After much web searching I found out that I had to re-add them in. This also meant setting up their automations all over again.
But oddly the Rachio came back online without me having to do anything.
You’re just making this up Terri, surely! Having said which my Radish 3 stayed connected to HomeKit for a surprisingly long time until I had some electrical work done around the house that involved turning breakers off and on an unfeasibly large number of times. It’s not connected now, but that might be because I haven’t made five minutes to go and restart it and add it back in to the HomeKit walled garden.
(Only kidding about the “making it up” thing)
Jon.
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If I may be so bold…what did you get that is working well with HomeKit?
I finally gave up waiting. I gave my Rachio to my son who does not use HomeKit. Then I got a RainMachine HD-12 and a Netatmo Personal Weather Station with Wind and Rain gauges. Connected them all up. Set a schedule, and all else is automated. Rain Machine polls the weather data from my Netatmo account every 3 hours, as well as 2 other weather services, and automatically adjusts the schedule and saturation times based on it’s evaluation of what has and will take place. And if it chooses not to run and then realizes it probably should have because the weather did not happen as predicted, it will even play catch up. Works with Siri, Apple Watch and HomeKit. It is never not connected in HomeKit, and was one of the easiest HomeKit devices to connect. It has an iOS and also a Web App. According to the app, I have saved almost 5000 gallons in water use this season thus far. I highly recommend this for those like me that want HomeKit and aren’t willing to wait any longer. Hope that helps.
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Me?
Things that work well with my HomeKit are:
- Eero mesh routers (fed by Google’s 1GB Fiber)
If you’re going to play with HomeKit you need really good WiFi connectivity everywhere.
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Apple TV4K (not the newest one, the one before that) - this is my HomeKit’s gateway to the world.
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Apple HomePods (multiple ones)
Siri is really rather poor at understanding what you mean - ‘Hey, Siri, turn on the breakfast room’ turns on the lights in the breakfast room and some of the lights in the family room, but nowhere else.
- Lutron light switches, dimmers, fan speed controllers
Rock solid.
- August door lock
Rock solid
- WeMo smart plugs
Rock solid
- OneLink CO / Smoke detectors
Rock solid. The house hasn’t burnt down yet so they must be perfect.
- Logitech CircleView doorbell
Best doorbell I’ve tried (and I’ve tried far too many)
- Insignia Garage Door Opener
Not 100% but pretty close
Things that are a bit iffy with my HomeKit are:
- Rachio 3 (having said which, it is now present and usable with HomeKit and I didn’t do ANYTHING to bring it back on line)
We all know the story here - HomeKit roulette
Things that were a terrible, terrible, terrible experience:
- Leviton light switches. (1st generation)
- Leviton light dimmers. (1st generation)
These devices would randomly forget the WiFi. If you’ve got half a dozen of them then maybe once a month you’d need to introduce a switch back to HomeKit. If you’ve got every single switch in your house using these then you’re resetting multiple switches every weekend. Leviton are working on a 2nd generation switch, so it might be worth watching out for reviews, as mechanically these switches are definitely the ones to go for, as they look like normal light switches, feel like normal light switches, and go ‘click’ when you operate them, giving you a confident ‘it’s a light switch’ experience. I haven’t seen this in any other HomeKit switches.
The Odd Thing At The End Of The List
- Raspberry-Pi runnng HomeBridge with a plugin for my non-HomeKit thermostat. Worked quite fine until the thermostat manufacturer changed the API and the hosts used to control it.
Also Rans
- WeMo wall switches
I tried some WeMio wall switches, but the design was such that if you had a 2- or 3-gang of them then you had to have the switches aligned within the cutouts of the face plate super accurately, other wise if you pressed one switch the next one’s reset bar could get pressed and unusual things would sometimes happen. If you’re mounting them as single switches these switches are just fine. They do look weird and are unnatural to use (press-on, press-off)
Jon.
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Good idea and GREAT list jonbrawn
I would add to the perfection list:
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Eve products are among the best HK products out there. I have Eve water guards in all wet areas. If there is a leak anywhere all homecare lights start flashing red, sirens go off, e-mails and texts are sent… It will scare you to death!
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ecobee thermostats = Awesome!
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LG CX Oled tv and Sonos Arc sound bar are crazy good - Dolby Digital + Apple Music = Concert hall in the Living room!
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MyQ Garage door = perfection
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Hue lighting scores a 10
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Eufy security 2k cams are great. (Eufy doorbell no HK support so far, but good doorbells)
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Then there is the Rachio3. Mine works perfectly. It really does… I’m serious…
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For me, 1st gen leviton switches (6) have occasional problems after power outages. Maybe 3 times a year and typically turning the offending switch breaker off/on solves it
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