I love having these faucet timers for my yard. I have 3 now (one purchased with this hub and 2 additional 21005 units). The majority of the negative reviews are due to frustrations working with the poorly designed app from Orbit. The documentation is not very clear either, so hopefully the following explains how it works.
The Orbit B-hyve smart device app is used to control multiple devices. You can purchase this item which includes a WiFi hub, the model without that is Bluetooth only (but which can be upgraded to use WiFi with this included hub), another timer that will control other Orbit B-hyve products, etc. While using the same app for multiple devices in theory shouldn't be an issue, in this case it can be confusing because some options are not relevant for the product you may have purchased, but are still visible even if you don't want to or can't use the feature.
Things to note:
Each device is separate from the other. You control and schedule them separately.
Programs - This is where you "program" the faucet timers. You can create multiple sets of schedules for each device. You can have a device come on each day of the week (you can select the days individually), at an interval (every 1, 2, 3 etc days), even or odd days. You can specify multiple start times throughout the day (come on at 8am, 12pm, 3pm). You will pick the default zone and select for how long the faucet will remain open for the days/times you picked. You can also specify a watering budget (which admittedly i have no clue what that does because i couldn't find documentation on it, it may not even be relevant to this device...so i left it alone at 100%)
Zones - Although completely irrelevant and not meaningful for these devices, a Zone is the area that the device will water. They each only control 1 zone, but despite that possibly obvious fact, you still have to select that 1 zone when setting up the schedule. You will see prompts and warnings that you haven't configured a schedule for the zones on the device. From reading others complaints, I think a lot of the struggles would be eliminated if they just defaulted to the only zone available, but once you realize that they sell other devices that control 6 or 12 zones and they happen to use the same interface for our single zone devices, it makes a little more sense.
So how do you actually program these timers?
1. Once you download the app on your phone/tablet, you will need to create a Orbit B-hyve account.
2. The app will attempt to enable Bluetooth on your phone for the initial pairing of the devices.
3. You should then plugin the hub (choose an inside wall that is closet to where your faucet timers will be installed and where you have a WiFi signal). This device will connect on a 2.4GHz signal only. The signal doesn't need to be very strong from my experience (mine is pretty far from my WiFi router).
4. You will then add the hub to your account via the app (it should default to pairing mode).
5. Next you install 2 double A batteries in the faucet timer (you will hear it click twice as it opens and shuts the valve to confirm it is functioning correctly).
6. You will add a new device in the app and you should see the icon that looks like the timer with the MAC of device. You will need to tell it the location (which is annoying because you do it for each device you add...or it seems like you do. It remembers what you previously provided, but seems to keep prompted on each new device. I assume this is for people who will use the same account to control devices in multiple zip codes, but why that would be on for most people i can't understand).
7. You should get prompted to update the device (one of the 3 I installed did not prompt me at first so i went into Settings - Devices - select the device - scroll down to Update Firmware). This took about 2 to 3 minutes for me.
8. Here is where the fun / confusion / frustration begins..
9. You should be prompted to program a schedule for the new device now. You have the option of using their smart watering or to do a manual schedule. Regardless of which you want to do, it tells you that it wants to test the water flow. For me i wanted to do the manual schedule so that honestly threw me off because I was doing this on my couch and I also didn't want to use the smart watering option so I didn't know if I needed to do that to proceed...you don't need to by the way :)
10. If you go through the wizard and do manual setup it will walk you through the options I listed above regarding the "programming"
11. Once you save it, you are all set. Hook it up to your faucet and click the icon that looks like a remote and test it out.
Once you have it programmed it seems reasonably straight forward to use. Providing the zip code means that if it rains, it will / can automatically set a rain delay on (it happened to be raining when i was setting it up and it applied a rain delay automatically). But of course, you can always clear that or adjust it as you see fit which I think is pretty cool.
There are more features and options but this should be enough to get someone started. The app does suck, but the product is totally worth it form what i can tell so far.
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From the manufacturer
Water Control In The Palm of Your Hand
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Bring Smart to Your YardTurn any outdoor faucet into an app-controlled water source that can help you save time, water and money. Thanks to automatic rain delays, B-hyve has saved over 30 billion gallons of water since 2016. |
Control From AnywhereB-hyve connects to Wi-Fi, giving you complete control over your watering, no matter where you are. No Wi-Fi? You can still connect to Bluetooth from up to 150 feet away, and begin watering. |
B-hyve Network MeshingIf you want to use multiple B-hyve timers in different locations, network meshing expands the strength of your signal, extending it from your Wi-Fi network to your entire B-hyve system. This allows you to effectively manage your entire yard while minimizing inefficient water use. |
Smart Watering for a Smart Yard
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WeatherSense TechnologySmart Watering automatically adjusts your watering based on site conditions, including slope, soil type, sun/shade, historical ET and live weather feeds, delivering the exact amount of water your plants need. |
Know the FlowThe built-in flow meter lets you know how much water you are using to water your plants, wash your car, or fill your pool. This allows you to water by volume, not just by time. B-hyve also controls watering by seconds, making it ideal not only for gardening, but also for hydroponics and greenhouse applications. |
Expandable SystemExpand your system to control one or multiple timers with the B-hyve app. Combined with the network meshing enabled through Wi-Fi, the timers will communicate with each other to ensure they don’t water simultaneously. |
Easy to Install, Easy to Set
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Download the B-hyve AppGet the free B-hyve app (available on Android and iOS) today by searching 'B-hyve' in your app store. Create an account to begin timer setup. Already a B-hyve user? Log in to your existing B-hyve account. |
Install the Hub and TimerConnect your B-hyve timer to an outdoor hose faucet where its Bluetooth signal to the hub won’t be obstructed. Pair to each device, turn on the water, and let B-hyve do the work. |
Program Your Timer with the AppUse the wizard in the app to help guide you through initial setup. For access to a full user manual, videos, and other materials, please visit bhyve.orbitonline.com. |
Goes Great With...
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Additional B-hyve Valve(s)Don't limit yourself to just one B-hyve timer valve. If you have more than one area that needs water, get a couple extra valves (#21005) so you're all set. |
Garden HoseNow that you've picked your timer, get a professional-grade hose that's durable and long enough to reach where you need to go. Get one hose per valve/timer. |
Hose Manifold AdapterSometimes you may have more than one area that needs water. A splitter gives you flexibility so you don't keep having to move back and forth every time. |
Lawn SprinklerA smart watering timer is a great start - now just make sure you also get the sprinkler that's best-suited for the size and shape of your lawn. |
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Orbit 21005 B-hyve Bluetooth Hose Faucet Timer, GRAY
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Orbit 62061Z Single-Outlet Hose Watering Timer, 1, Green
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Melnor 65128-AMZ 4-Zone Bluetooth Water Timer with 5 Stainless Steel Filter Washers Set, Amazon Bundle
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Orbit 62034 Mechanical Watering Hose Timer, Colors may vary
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| Customer Rating | (5026) | (159) | (2446) | (28848) | (2494) | (7484) |
| Price | $50.00 | $37.99 | $37.20 | $29.99 | $54.18 | $12.90 |
| Shipping | FREE Shipping. Details | FREE Shipping. Details | FREE Shipping. Details | FREE Shipping. Details | FREE Shipping. Details | FREE Shipping on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon or get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime |
| Sold By | Amazon.com | Amazon.com | Amazon.com | Amazon.com | Amazon.com | Amazon.com |
| Item Dimensions | 2.9 x 6.44 x 8.7 inches | 4 x 7.75 x 8.19 inches | 2.9 x 6.44 x 8.7 inches | 6.69 x 3.11 x 10.24 inches | 2.55 x 8.26 x 5.7 inches | 3.13 x 0.35 x 4.5 inches |
Customer Questions & Answers
Customer reviews
Top reviews from the United States
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Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2018
The Orbit B-hyve smart device app is used to control multiple devices. You can purchase this item which includes a WiFi hub, the model without that is Bluetooth only (but which can be upgraded to use WiFi with this included hub), another timer that will control other Orbit B-hyve products, etc. While using the same app for multiple devices in theory shouldn't be an issue, in this case it can be confusing because some options are not relevant for the product you may have purchased, but are still visible even if you don't want to or can't use the feature.
Things to note:
Each device is separate from the other. You control and schedule them separately.
Programs - This is where you "program" the faucet timers. You can create multiple sets of schedules for each device. You can have a device come on each day of the week (you can select the days individually), at an interval (every 1, 2, 3 etc days), even or odd days. You can specify multiple start times throughout the day (come on at 8am, 12pm, 3pm). You will pick the default zone and select for how long the faucet will remain open for the days/times you picked. You can also specify a watering budget (which admittedly i have no clue what that does because i couldn't find documentation on it, it may not even be relevant to this device...so i left it alone at 100%)
Zones - Although completely irrelevant and not meaningful for these devices, a Zone is the area that the device will water. They each only control 1 zone, but despite that possibly obvious fact, you still have to select that 1 zone when setting up the schedule. You will see prompts and warnings that you haven't configured a schedule for the zones on the device. From reading others complaints, I think a lot of the struggles would be eliminated if they just defaulted to the only zone available, but once you realize that they sell other devices that control 6 or 12 zones and they happen to use the same interface for our single zone devices, it makes a little more sense.
So how do you actually program these timers?
1. Once you download the app on your phone/tablet, you will need to create a Orbit B-hyve account.
2. The app will attempt to enable Bluetooth on your phone for the initial pairing of the devices.
3. You should then plugin the hub (choose an inside wall that is closet to where your faucet timers will be installed and where you have a WiFi signal). This device will connect on a 2.4GHz signal only. The signal doesn't need to be very strong from my experience (mine is pretty far from my WiFi router).
4. You will then add the hub to your account via the app (it should default to pairing mode).
5. Next you install 2 double A batteries in the faucet timer (you will hear it click twice as it opens and shuts the valve to confirm it is functioning correctly).
6. You will add a new device in the app and you should see the icon that looks like the timer with the MAC of device. You will need to tell it the location (which is annoying because you do it for each device you add...or it seems like you do. It remembers what you previously provided, but seems to keep prompted on each new device. I assume this is for people who will use the same account to control devices in multiple zip codes, but why that would be on for most people i can't understand).
7. You should get prompted to update the device (one of the 3 I installed did not prompt me at first so i went into Settings - Devices - select the device - scroll down to Update Firmware). This took about 2 to 3 minutes for me.
8. Here is where the fun / confusion / frustration begins..
9. You should be prompted to program a schedule for the new device now. You have the option of using their smart watering or to do a manual schedule. Regardless of which you want to do, it tells you that it wants to test the water flow. For me i wanted to do the manual schedule so that honestly threw me off because I was doing this on my couch and I also didn't want to use the smart watering option so I didn't know if I needed to do that to proceed...you don't need to by the way :)
10. If you go through the wizard and do manual setup it will walk you through the options I listed above regarding the "programming"
11. Once you save it, you are all set. Hook it up to your faucet and click the icon that looks like a remote and test it out.
Once you have it programmed it seems reasonably straight forward to use. Providing the zip code means that if it rains, it will / can automatically set a rain delay on (it happened to be raining when i was setting it up and it applied a rain delay automatically). But of course, you can always clear that or adjust it as you see fit which I think is pretty cool.
There are more features and options but this should be enough to get someone started. The app does suck, but the product is totally worth it form what i can tell so far.
Size: Single ZoneVerified Purchase
Instructions for getting through a poorly designed app and getting a pretty cool product
By AGG on July 24, 2018
I love having these faucet timers for my yard. I have 3 now (one purchased with this hub and 2 additional 21005 units). The majority of the negative reviews are due to frustrations working with the poorly designed app from Orbit. The documentation is not very clear either, so hopefully the following explains how it works.By AGG on July 24, 2018
The Orbit B-hyve smart device app is used to control multiple devices. You can purchase this item which includes a WiFi hub, the model without that is Bluetooth only (but which can be upgraded to use WiFi with this included hub), another timer that will control other Orbit B-hyve products, etc. While using the same app for multiple devices in theory shouldn't be an issue, in this case it can be confusing because some options are not relevant for the product you may have purchased, but are still visible even if you don't want to or can't use the feature.
Things to note:
Each device is separate from the other. You control and schedule them separately.
Programs - This is where you "program" the faucet timers. You can create multiple sets of schedules for each device. You can have a device come on each day of the week (you can select the days individually), at an interval (every 1, 2, 3 etc days), even or odd days. You can specify multiple start times throughout the day (come on at 8am, 12pm, 3pm). You will pick the default zone and select for how long the faucet will remain open for the days/times you picked. You can also specify a watering budget (which admittedly i have no clue what that does because i couldn't find documentation on it, it may not even be relevant to this device...so i left it alone at 100%)
Zones - Although completely irrelevant and not meaningful for these devices, a Zone is the area that the device will water. They each only control 1 zone, but despite that possibly obvious fact, you still have to select that 1 zone when setting up the schedule. You will see prompts and warnings that you haven't configured a schedule for the zones on the device. From reading others complaints, I think a lot of the struggles would be eliminated if they just defaulted to the only zone available, but once you realize that they sell other devices that control 6 or 12 zones and they happen to use the same interface for our single zone devices, it makes a little more sense.
So how do you actually program these timers?
1. Once you download the app on your phone/tablet, you will need to create a Orbit B-hyve account.
2. The app will attempt to enable Bluetooth on your phone for the initial pairing of the devices.
3. You should then plugin the hub (choose an inside wall that is closet to where your faucet timers will be installed and where you have a WiFi signal). This device will connect on a 2.4GHz signal only. The signal doesn't need to be very strong from my experience (mine is pretty far from my WiFi router).
4. You will then add the hub to your account via the app (it should default to pairing mode).
5. Next you install 2 double A batteries in the faucet timer (you will hear it click twice as it opens and shuts the valve to confirm it is functioning correctly).
6. You will add a new device in the app and you should see the icon that looks like the timer with the MAC of device. You will need to tell it the location (which is annoying because you do it for each device you add...or it seems like you do. It remembers what you previously provided, but seems to keep prompted on each new device. I assume this is for people who will use the same account to control devices in multiple zip codes, but why that would be on for most people i can't understand).
7. You should get prompted to update the device (one of the 3 I installed did not prompt me at first so i went into Settings - Devices - select the device - scroll down to Update Firmware). This took about 2 to 3 minutes for me.
8. Here is where the fun / confusion / frustration begins..
9. You should be prompted to program a schedule for the new device now. You have the option of using their smart watering or to do a manual schedule. Regardless of which you want to do, it tells you that it wants to test the water flow. For me i wanted to do the manual schedule so that honestly threw me off because I was doing this on my couch and I also didn't want to use the smart watering option so I didn't know if I needed to do that to proceed...you don't need to by the way :)
10. If you go through the wizard and do manual setup it will walk you through the options I listed above regarding the "programming"
11. Once you save it, you are all set. Hook it up to your faucet and click the icon that looks like a remote and test it out.
Once you have it programmed it seems reasonably straight forward to use. Providing the zip code means that if it rains, it will / can automatically set a rain delay on (it happened to be raining when i was setting it up and it applied a rain delay automatically). But of course, you can always clear that or adjust it as you see fit which I think is pretty cool.
There are more features and options but this should be enough to get someone started. The app does suck, but the product is totally worth it form what i can tell so far.
Images in this review
Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2018
Size: Single ZoneVerified Purchase
Reviewed in the United States on April 5, 2018
Size: Single ZoneVerified Purchase
Top reviews from other countries
Marc
Works fine once you've figured it out
Reviewed in Canada on March 23, 2021Size: Single ZoneVerified Purchase
Jay
Buggy
Reviewed in Canada on July 24, 2019Size: Single ZoneVerified Purchase
Eugen. C.
Control over Wi-Fi from anywhere in the world, conected to a weather station
Reviewed in Canada on July 27, 2020Size: Single ZoneVerified Purchase
Spice Rack
Good device.
Reviewed in Canada on July 15, 2021Size: Single ZoneVerified Purchase
Good device.
Reviewed in Canada on July 15, 2021
So far the product is doing as expected. I’m very satisfied with the app. It has many options can I can add more sprinklers in the future. No leaks on the faucet to smart hose B-hyve device.Reviewed in Canada on July 15, 2021
4 stars so far. 1 star is being taken away. I don’t know who to point the finger at but my package was not new despite being advertised as such. I could tell as the packages had an Amazon inspection sticker and extra tape. In addition I know it was set up because when I added the hub it states it was already programmed and it wanted to take it over. This caused an unnecessary delay in the programming and set up.
The item on Amazon stated new but clearly not the case. Will be contacting Amazon customer service.
Update: called Amazon customer service and they were very helpful and made it right. To make it right they offered me way more than I was asking. I turned it down for a smaller adjustment. I only wanted the price to reflect a discount of a used item versus the new item price.
Product. After a few weeks the timer is working very well and have had no leaks on the faucet and timer goes off when needed.
Images in this review
DXN
Good solution for DYI sprinkler system
Reviewed in Canada on June 23, 2020Size: Single ZoneVerified Purchase
