57995 B-hyve XR 16-Zone Smart Indoor/Outdoor Sprinkler Controller

We have a lot of sprinkler valves. We had an older Orbit controller that would do 5 stations in our front yard and another controller for 8 stations in our backyard. Both controllers were in my garage/workshop but mounted on opposite walls. The one for the backyard was always blocked by my woodworking equipment so it was a hassle to get to when we wanted to run a station manually or test a station for whatever reason. Additionally, if we were in either yard working on a sprinkler or planting new plants and wanted to test it, we'd have to go all the over to the controller, push through the buttons and run it. I know, i know, first world problems. We've been considering this B-Hyve unit for a while and now that we finally pulled the trigger I can't believe we waited so long! Wiring the sprinklers into the unit was easy. I recommend having a small flathead screwdriver and needle nose pliers handy as these might make it easier to get the skinny wires into their slots. Programming the unit was very straightforward and our phones were connected to the app in no time. It's so nice to be able to name the stations AND associate a photo with each station. The most helpful thing on the planet is to be able to be working at the far corner of the yard and be able to just run a specific sprinkler within about 8 seconds. Just open the app, click "water manually", select the station, the duration, start! This B-Hyve makes it so easy to run the sprinks. Inside the panel cover you can find instructions for running the stations in old school manual mode in the event that you may be having wi-fi problems at the moment. The print is very small though, so keep that in mind. *ONE CONCERN* After the first week of using the B-Hyve we noticed the button lit up RED and said we had a fault at station 5. We did a quick search online and came to the conclusion that it could be our solenoid at that station was bad. After testing the solenoid we found that to be the culprit. We replaced it with a spare we already had and we were back in business. About a week and a half later we had another RED fault, this time for station 7. I thought okay, i'll take care of that this weekend. A couple days later I noticed the RED fault for station 8 as well. So now I e got faults on 7 and 8 at the same time. One day later I noticed the fault for station 8 simply disappeared. So I replaced the solenoid on station 7 and it was all good. It's been a couple weeks now and no new faults have shown up. I was concerned that the B-Hyve was perhaps sending too much electricity to the valves and blowing the solenoids but I also realize solenoids go bad and maybe it was just coincidence. Time will tell. I don't use the water saving feature...i don't really care about "saving the planet" and I have my program set to run on a schedule that works best for the beauty of our landscape. The B-Hyve supposedly shows your local weather info but even after entering my 92026 code during setup, i've noticed the weather it tells me is FAR from accurate. No big deal because I have eyes and an actual weather app. *MY ONLY COMPLAINT* While this B-Hyve can do 16 stations, it still can ONLY have 4 programs (A,B,C,D) which has caused me to adjust the schedule of a couple of my stations and I have to run them at time when I wasn't running them before with my old system. ORBIT...if you read this, PLEASE do a software update that allows us to add more programs....like at least A,B,C,D,E,F,G. That would be SO SO SO HELPFUL!!🙌🏻 All in all, very happy with the B-Hyve. Wish we would've gotten this thing a few years ago!

Fantastic product ! Very easy to install and works great. No need for rain sensors as this unit checks your weather forecast and automatically delays the system. I plan on offering this product to all my clients

The Orbit 16-zone sprinkler system has been a fantastic upgrade for my yard. The setup was straightforward, and it works flawlessly. What I love most is how convenient it is to run the entire system right from my phone — adjusting zones, setting schedules, or turning it on manually is quick and easy no matter where I am. The app is intuitive and makes managing all 16 zones a breeze. It’s reliable, efficient, and has really taken the hassle out of keeping my lawn and garden watered properly. Highly recommend for anyone looking to modernize their sprinkler system!

Easy install. Many great features. But a FATAL FLAW: the app doesn't work. In less than 24 hours, we've had 3 major problems. 1) the running timer resets every time we view the app. So, if you're 10 min into a 30 min system, and open the app, or return to the app from another app, it resets to read 30 min remaining, even if there's only 20 left. So ... the main feature on the app's Home Screen doesn't work. 2) It took 2+ hours on the phone with reps to set up the wifi. 3) Reps today had me try a firmware update. We're on the 5th attempt now (5+ min each). Each time it gives an error message and restarts. This system can't even update its own firmware. It can't run the main feature on its Home Screen. and in 2025 it can take 2+ hours to connect to wifi. I had a B-Hyve system 4 years ago--it worked perfectly. I was looking forward to using this one. But this is too much ... we just bought the Rachio. When it arrives, we'll return the B-Hyve.

Absolutely love this! Mainly for the phone interface - I make manual adjustments all the time. It does have smart mode that I use on my lawn circuits - I'm not really sure when it will be running and for how long but I don't really care - it seems to adapt on weather conditions and the lawn looks great. So much better than the old style with buttons and the dial and you spend a ton of time in the garage pressing buttons and changing the dial. Highly recommend this unit.

This is an excellent smart controller and installation didn’t take 15 minutes. I can not wrap my mind around the smart watering. I entered accurate data for all fields on every station and the first week I averaged over two hours of run time per station which is well over twice what I need this time of year. I would adjust moisture levels to try and stop the excessive watering only to find that 24 hours later the schedule would update to the excessive watering again. I purchased a Flume device as well pairing with the B-hyve but the B-hyve will not recognize the GPM (gallons per minute). Orbit has submitted a support ticket and I am waiting on a resolution. All that said, I still give it 4 stars as I have not had any connectivity issues and being able to turn on/off stations when working on sprinkler head maintenance is a game changer. Also if I’m out of town and rain is forecasted I can simply pause and not be that house with sprinklers running while it’s raining.

I replaced a 25 year old RainBird 16 zone controller with the Bhyve 16 Zone Controller. It has been active for a couple of weeks and I will follow up periodically with additional comments. I can say, today, that the installation, integration and configuration of the system was intuitive and well documented. The instructions were a bit sparse at first glance but soon became secondary as the device self connects, via the iOS application on my phone. The configuration of the device and the programming of irrigation strategies was very straightforward. The system was operational about 2 hours including securing the device to my brick wall and adding a GFi receptacle. I have an outside, "Access Point", for my WIFI that is very robust and had no difficulties finding and maintaining a good connection. I suspect there could be challenges if your WIFI connection is not strong. Connecting the old wiring to the Bhyve is vey straightforward. Requiring only stripped wire ends, each connection is made by pressing a pushbutton, inserting a wire into a small hole under the pushbutton and releasing the button. Please note the "common" connections, one on each bank of 8 control outputs. Typically this is where you will connect the white wires in the wire bundles coming from your valves. Having made the connections, I used the App to test each zone. Being able to walk around the yard and start and stop the various zones is VERY useful. I then programed the device, again via a very good user interface on my phone. 16 zones completed in less than 5 minutes. The system automatically located and integrated the local weather forecast to monitor for rain forecasts. on several occasions the system has, "pushed", the day's irrigation because of rain being forecast. Note that you can always force the delayed irrigation with one click. I like getting the updates on my phone informing me of the start of the day's schedule, it's completion or its delay. There is a certain Kool factor for me in seeing this sort of update. I had a bit of a challenge integrating the Bhyve with my ALEXA account, not realizing you have to add the, "Alexa Skill" to your home Alexa Account. When I added the skill everything connected seamlessly. Note to Orbit: A bit more in the instruction sheet about the ALEXA connection would be helpful. I have not used the, "Smart Watering", programming capabilities built into the software. There are no restrictions in the use of water for irrigation in Auburn, Al. All in All, the Bhyve System was a easy install, and has performed as expected. I wanted to share my experience and will update this in 6 months to share my longer term take on its performance. Bill... Southern Smoke.

I've owned 5 homes over the past 10 year. In literally every one, one of the first things I've done is removed the "old, dumb" sprinkler timer and replaced it with a B-hyve unit. This makes sprinkler scheduling and maintenance so much easier. For our newest home, I bought two of these units since we've got 21 zones that are split into 9 + 12 zones (front vs backyard). Although these were the first ones of this model I've bought, the software is exactly the same and familar. Setup is always easy. The only issue I've run into with all the B-hyve products is when the "smart" watering settings are turned on, as I've had several occasions where they've failed to run over the course of many days during hot weather. So I keep those features off. Other than that, great devices! I'll keep buying, though hopefully not for a long while!