I would like to see device upgraded to allow user of app to force select 2.4 GHz wifi band on dual band routers and/or allow the user you select which band to use. Having worked for a company that made a wifi enabled 360 degree camera that offered this feature in a product with a much smaller footprint and arguably much more technology packed into it, I am very confident this can be done. I would guess the added flexibility would materially reduce support interactions given the first question support and is if you know you are on ONLY 2.4 (if both 2.4 and 5.0are being offered from the router, Rachio will not function). If you don’t know, out the answer is no, they cannot help you any further. I know that propagation through walls can be an issue, but the user knows his frequency characteristics better than anyone. If this has been addressed since I installed my unit in the spring, thank you.
Hey Tom!
I just want to make sure I understand, are you wanting to have the capability to force select either band or just the 2.4 GHz band?
At least to force selection of 2.4 when both bands are offered by a WiFi router. Ideally, the customer would be able to choose the band that best suits his/her needs. I don’t doubt the capabilities of your technical team; however, should they need a contact to help them with this enhancement, let me know and I would be glad to put them in touch with people I know who can help.
As you likely know, the issue arises where a router defaults to offering both bands. When I installed my unit, it was at a home I own, but rent. The tenant has their own router. They were kind enough to grant me access. When I learned that I could not connect, I was loathe to ask them to either set up on their own a separate instance utilizing 2.4 only on their router to serve my purpose.
My solution was to buy a wireless hotspot from my wireless carrier. It seems to me that Rachio should endeavor to further enhance the already obvious value proposition by making the installation and set up very, very easy. A symptom of level of difficulty is evident when a Rachio support rep is instructed to ask first if the customert, who may know nothing about WiFi bands or router set up, is “are you operating on 2.4 only?” Making the symptom worse is to have to tell a client that support cannot help unless they can verify that they are ONLY on 2.4. This has the tendency to turn a very useful technology into a boat anchor.
At the risk of being pedantic on this, I would venture to guess that if you looked at the root cause of calls to support and returns, a high ranking cause must be this issue. Sorry about my fervor on this, it’s just that I have worked in tech businesses for so long that I know there is a solution to this that is well within the capabilities of a company that created such a great product to begin with.
Tom-
Thank you for your input, we are always looking for feedback! I will make sure to get this in front of our tech team.
McKynzee 