At our prior house we had a couple of Rachio's that we generally liked but our landscaper wanted a more robust and two-wire system for our new house and we have more zones than a single Rachio can handle.

Our landscaper installed a Hunter HCC at our new house last summer and we've had consistent problems with it. The primary problem is that it uses an antiquated WiFi card that doesn't like modern WiFi networks and so constantly disconnects*.

The second problem is that it will say in its iphone app that it's doing something like running a zone or making a schedule change when it's actually not. E.G., it should wait for the controller to reply back to the app that it really is running that zone rather than just assuming that it is (which is a really bad assumption given their poor quality WiFi).

We're considering changing to a Rainbird ESP-LXD. Does anyone have experience with these? Any idea how it compares from a ET/Weather standpoint? Ease or programming & use?

I like the Hunter interface and paradigm better than Rachio and if it was reliable would be very happy with it. It so far seems to be doing fairly well at adjusting watering times based on ET and weather predictions though we've not yet fully explored that.

Thanks,

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* For those wondering if it's our network. We have about 150 devices from 45 manufacturers on our WiFi network (along w/ around 80 hardwired ethernet devices). All devices are stable execpt for the Hunter and our Memphis Grill, both of which use the same WiFi controller from Newport Media. Both the Hunter & Memphis Grill have good WiFi signals and both exhibit improper transport layer protocols.