I’m considering buying an R3 controller, but had a question I couldn’t seem to find an answer to. Is there any stated guarantee that this system won’t change to a paid subscription service to access the app?
I have a wifi controller now and they just randomly sprung this monthly service fee after having it installed for a couple years. Bunch of b/s and I want to ensure as much as I can that this won’t repeat in the future.
The only guarantee in life is death. Everything else is faith or gamble!
I have seen products die when they start to force app subscription fees with the hardware so I would hate to see rachio go that route.
@DLane - Thank for the info.
I just bought the Rachio 3 so I can dump the Skydrop that just took away all smart-phone/cloud features unless you buy the subscription that they just added. I can’t even see history or anything. So I feel a little burned by Skydrop. If this ever happens again, I will buy a non-cloud dependent system (guess they are called closed loop systems). Seems to me that as people buy the hardware, more users make cloud costs go up and then company has to sell even more hardware to pay for the cloud services. I don’t see how this treadmill can go forever. I would like to know how their business model plans for this in the future but we will probably not see this as most companies would not want the competition to know this…
Oh well… I guess all tech is throw-away eventually (sadly). I like my hammer I bought when I was 18 and still use 
@Farmountain - several years ago as I was deciding which intelligent controller to buy it I was considering that one. The activity on the community and the rate of updates on the app is what steered me to Rachio, although I did like some of the features of that one. At the time I also rationalized that I’d save X amount of money over my old dumb controller and that the Rachio controller would pay for itself so that if I did throw it away in a couple of years then I’d be even.
An internet search should will where Rachio got some funding from a major technology players, so they should be fine for the near future (https://www.denverpost.com/2018/03/20/amazon-rachio/). I do think that Rachio is working on additional offerings (not a controller) that will have an ongoing revenue stream.
Yes, I hate throwing away perfectly working technology items too. However, I do like my 100 Mbps internet service compared to my 56 Kbps modem and every year the new mobile OS I use won’t support a prior model that is over X years old. Technology marches on…
Very good points. Upgrades that bring value certainly are important. That said, I hope to have a better working controller now and look forward to getting the flowmeter when back in stock (yup, despite the grumbling, I do like useful features and tech). Thanks for the insight!
Yeah i’m ditching a skydrop as well.
I’m fine with new added features or some supremely higher level of service and having the option to pay a fee for that. But to essentially disable all the standard features that were included in the unit, and giving back what you had (and expected when you made the purchase) is B/S. It’s the sign of a dying company IMO.
+1 on the flow meter. Would prefer one that’s wired and didn’t require batteries, so may look at the other units. But regardless this should be a nice upgrade. Costco has a 12 station unit for $199 currently if anyone is shopping. Most other places only have 8 or 16. Reasonably sure all the other features are the same.