Great question @wjkohl! Unfortunately, there’s no way to make that work 
I would like to challenge Rachio product team to consider that the Gen 2 customer base be offered a trade-in program where we (your loyal customers) are able to get credit for the SW licencing and Cloud services that is bundled with the Gen 2 HW pricing and have those licencing credits applied to a Gen 3 upgrade. As an experienced product developer myself, I know that your Gen 3 pricing includes the following costs (HW + SW + Cloud + manufacturing + support) and margin (i.e. profit). I don’t believe the $30 credit is fully reflective of your true HW + manufacturing costs + minimal margin to address this limitation in your Gen 2 install base.
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The the only equitable solution is to offer a generous trade-in program for Gen2 owners. I see no way where Rachio can say with a straight face they did not at the very least imply that the Gen2 would support HomeKit. The risk in not offering more than $50 credit is high, you are alienating your faithful early adopters and evangelists. Personally I have owned two Rachio’s (Gen1 and Gen2). Like many others I have recommended it as the “Nest of Sprinklers” to friends, family and complete strangers, online and in real life. I cannot in good faith do that any longer while I await the cut & past apology and talk about how Rachio tried “SO” hard and is “so Bummed”.
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@laura.bauman are you forgetting about European customers that bought Rachio gen2 directly from USA, paying high shipping cost, tax and EU power supply expecting Homekit support; for us is impossible to buy the 3rd gen profit by the (very low) discount of 30$.
really a bad management by rachio.
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Then I agree with others here. Send us the Gen 3 and we’ll send back the gen 2 to you. I’d be willing to pay the $20 difference (after $30 discount).
Everyone complaining is ridiculous. Where has Rachio ever said that Gen 2 would definitely be compatible with /upgradeable to Homekit? Do you all do this with everything you buy? If you have struggled along valiantly without Homekit, I’m pretty sure you can dig deep and find it without yourself to continue doing so. If that’s way too much hardship just buy a Gen 3 and sell your Gen 2 on eBay or craigslist. In the grand scheme of life a couple hundred bucks is just not worth all this angst you all seem to have.
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Everyone complaining here is valid. The entire time Rachio was working to get homekit on Gen 2 they dropped little hits that it was coming, put would never flat out say it. While it is now gone, When Gen 2 first came out the company that actually makes the hardware had stated on it’s website that Gen 2 would have homekit. Reading that is why I went out and bought the Gen 2.
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To me what would make this fair, because mistake do happen, is to sell a Gen 3 to everyone on here at Rachio’s cost or maybe a couple bucks more depending on what the cost is. I should be able to get around $100 for my Gen 2 by reselling it myself. I would think that to make my upgrade cost about break even or cost a few dollars more which is fine because I also get a newer model. This way Rachio doesn’t eat the cost and it won’t cost much in the end for the customer to upgrade. As of now there are a lot of Gen 2 owners that will never by Rachio again. I see my plan as a win win.
Rachio, Be honest, The whole time you were working on trying to get HomeKit on Gen 2 you let people think it was coming. Had you said No it’s not coming or that we are working on it but don’t know if it will be possible, things would be a lot better right now. You didn’t do that, either you avoided the question or gave a little hint that it was coming. You played the legal game of “we didn’t say it was coming” but you still lead people to think it was coming with the hints such as check out Appple’s Keynote. That was wrong. You really need a trade in program or a real discount (not the fake $30 that everyone gets).
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I completely understand peoples frustration with lack of HomeKit support. One potential workaround is as follows:
- Install Home Assistant platform (many options from VM, Raspberry Pi, etc.)
- Link your existing Rachio sprinkler to the platform
- Link your existing HomeKit to the platform.
You basically end up using Home Assistant as a “bridge” between the 2 environments. Is it maybe quite as clean as native support… no, but it does work.