The Orbit 21004 B-hyve Smart Hose Timer is a premium product for use with gardens and lawns. We will look at some of the most important features of timers, as well as some of the benefits these systems provide. Plenty of garden hose timers exist in the market today, but not every model has the features you might want. Educational institutions such as the University of Florida and the University of Nebraska have said using a water hose timer is an effective method of water conservation What Makes A Great Garden Hose Timer? Some models come equipped with sensors to see if the soil is already sufficiently watered or if it has rained. You control how much water the system sends out and when it turns on. Overwatering is both environmentally unfriendly and costly to your wallet. Inevitably, you will over or under-water some parts of the lawn or garden. When you water your garden yourself, it’s hard to get the exact right amount of water in every area. And checking the soil to see if it needs water is also annoying after a long day at work.Ī hose timer takes the monotony out of watering your garden and does the work for you. Setting up the equipment and watering your lawn or garden every day during a dry spell is a time-consuming activity. The two most significant benefits these timers give the consumer are saving time and water, which are precious. While water hose timers aren’t technically necessary, the convenience and usefulness make the investment worthwhile. These systems take the guesswork out of keeping a garden or lawn well-watered.īut what is this system, and what are the best water hose timer models in 2022? We’ll give you the answers to these questions and more in this article. This is where a water hose timer system comes in. You even run the risk of forgetting to do it for a few days and stunting the growth of your plants. Watering a garden every day can be a stressful experience.
Best Timer W/O Smartphone Control: Instapark PWT-07 Outdoor Waterproof Digital Timer.Best Overall Hose Timer: Orbit 21004 B-hyve Smart Hose Faucet Timer with Wi-Fi Hub, Compatible with Alexa, GRAY.Here's an example of an anti-siphon valve.Ī third option would be to put the vacuum breakers on each of the exit ports of your timer.īe mindful that there may certain codes that apply to how you hook up your system. If the brass vacuum breaker doesn't work you might want to try one of these with appropriate stubs of PVC pipe and fittings to make a hose connection. They have some specific requirements such as needing to be a certain height above the maximum sprinkler outlet. I have pretty high water pressure.Īnti-siphon valves are usually plumbed into PVC pipe that is part of some hard connected irrigation systems. I don't know of an anti-siphon valve meant for hose connections.Īre you using the small plastic vacuum breaker or the brass one? I've had a brass one on the top side of a hose connected watering timer and haven't had any issues with it. Anti siphon valves are different ways of handling the same need. The typical screw in device for garden hoses is a vacuum breaker.
I am no plantologist but the veggies are doing better this year than they were last year. The other is for the vegetable-and-strawberry garden which I had watered for 20 minutes every evening around dusk. One is for arbor vitae and huckleberry bushes which I water one hour every four days because they have bigger, deeper root balls. I have two "zones" set up which are actually two hoses attached to a dual timer. And if I wanted a sillcock without an anti-siphon device I'd have to order it online. They agreed you weren't supposed to attach a constant-pressure timer like this after a anti-siphon device, but said everyone does it. Is there any way to properly install this watering timer short of installing a new spigot without the anti-siphon? I went to the Big Box store and they didn't have any advice. It will either leak or it will stick open permanently, no longer performing its anti-siphon function. It turns out that the anti-siphon valve is not intended to be under pressure for more than 12 hours or so. After a couple weeks the anti-siphon valve failed spectacularly. The spigot side of the timer was always turned on, and the timer turns the hose on for half an hour each day. Not knowing any better, I bought an Orbit watering timer, connected one side to the frost-free spigot and the other to a soaker irrigation hose.