DIG EVO100 Hose End Watering Timer, Gray

First of all, I love it because it's solar powered, so 5 stars for being eco friendly. Ok, the unit seems solidly built. I charged mine for like half a day in the sun before programming it. It says only 10 minutes required. But I was able to figure out how to program it without the instructions. But later looking at the instructions, you see there isn't much to the device. you first set the date/time so it knows what day it is. Then you select the days you want the device on (any of the 7 days of the week), and up to 4 start times. I think you can only put one duration time in so if you set the sprinklers on 4 times a day, they stay on for the same duration for the 4 times. you also can set a duration like water every 7 days, but nothing fancy like this week water m/w/f and next week tu/thu. But it does have odd and even days so it should be able to do what you want. So it's pretty basic, but the bottom line is it works and I think most people will only water at most 2-3 times a week anyways so it works as advertised. The connection to the faucet was solid and didn't leak. The blue plastic looks durable. the only problem with mine is the faucet location and angle, my faucet connection part is angled 45 degrees so the solar panel is facing the house, not up at the sun. So with summer around the corner, I hope that it gets enough ambient light to keep it's programmed settings. So take a look at the picture and see if it will work with how your faucet is. It's made so you move it 360 degrees around the faucet to optimize the sun hitting the solar panel, but in my case the 45 degrees is the closest it gets to getting sun and it's not going to be direct. So if it loses it's program and stops working i'll let you know. It's not the products fault, but most faucets aren't straight up and down. Anyways, I tried the manual on, and it clicks the valve open with a fairly audible click, so it's pretty solidly made. if it dies in a few months i'll post here as well. But great idea for those of you like me who dont' or can't have a built in sprinkler system.update: Although my unit isn't in direct view of the sun, it is getting enough sun to maintain it's programming and is turning on at the correct time for about an hour, once a week, so it's working perfectly for me. My house blocks the afternoon sun as well, so it's getting only half a day of indirect sun to charge up, but i guess that's enough. Great product.update2: Ok after 5 months of totally automatic sprinkler activations, i noticed today that water is leaking from the body, it's just a trickle of water, but enough to leave a puddle under the faucet. Not a major problem, but irritating enough for me to try to disassemble it and silicone the case so it doesn't leak. It was solid when i bought it so not sure what the problem is since it seems to be leaking internally, possibly ruining the whole device eventually if water gets and rusts something internally i'd assume, so one star off for only 5 months of use and leaking. But it does have a 3 yr warranty, so i'll double check it, could be a loose valve, but if it's leaking internally, will send in for repair, and will restore the one star.Update3: I think it's time to call the manufacturer and send it in for repair. it's early oct, (8 months since i bought it) and the sun is starting to head to the south and getting less sun on the solar panel. It's not allowing me to manually click off, or it doesn't store enough power to click off which is sort of weird as it's been pretty sunny and hot the last few days. I'll test it one more week but i'll write the manufacturer this week and see if i can send it in for repair or replacement.

While the timer will turn on after several hours of direct sunlight, mine tended to leak if there was not enough water pressure right before the timer. In the second season the timer was unable to completely hold the water back and leaked. All the water that went through was clean and I had a filter on the timer earlier. There used to be some really good solar timers available for a reasonable price. Unfortunately, with this being the only solar hose timer that is readily available to the general public, it is frustrating that it is not better quality. Given the cost, one season with only mediocre results is not worth the solar benefit. So now I'm just going back to regular battery timers.

I have been wanting to test out one of these Solar Timers for a while and had good luck with the old DIG9 Vt Battery timers. This timer was a little hard for me to set up. I contacted their help line and it wasvery, very good. I was walked through every step of the set up to be sure it was how I wanted it.It has worked flawlessly sin I started using it more than a month ago. Now to see how long it lasts.I am expecting it to last for years for me to be happy.

I have several of these and they work great - don't have to worry about the battery running out. I came to reorder and see the price has doubled! You can buy from Home Depot for $47.

The programming is fairly straightforward, I did it right the first time. The screen is nice and big. Because the unit never runs out of power I never have to re-program it as was the case every three months with a battery powered unit.For the past few months it has held up very well in the weather, and I was delighted to see that after I programmed it the manual on off uses the same number of hours as my timed program, so it is impossible to press the manual button and have it run for days.I put the unit on a splitter so I have a normal hose and a timed irrigation line. Really easy, super low cost.The unit survived being in direct sun in temperatures above 106 F. I'm impressed.

AS much as I paid for this thing, I think I will get battery powered instead. I have morning sun in front of house with faucet. I have evening sun in back with faucet. So I bought two. First thing is unless in direct sun all the time the internal battery will not hold charge over night. So can't use timer, only manual on and off. I have to wait for the sun to hit back yard just right around 4:30 before I can manually turn on for flower beds. Then one afternoon the unforgivable happened. The plastic screw on at the faucet month just shot off the timer. tried to slip the plastic back on, but would not stay. So its useless. Made mistake one night leaving front on manual for 2 hours for hose walker to turn off, next morning still on and no power to turn off water valve. So all night the wheels dug down in dirt and water bill escalated. Tried to add pictures, would even hassle with video to show how it shoots off the faucet if I could get return.

This timer worked fine for three months. But while it was getting light it was apparently not enough to charge it and it stopped working. The deer then came in and munched a bunch of my plants since the scare sprinklers were not operating due to this gadget failing.If you are like me and need a really reliable timer I would get a battery-powered one. I find the batteries last a whole season so if you change them once a year you will have a more reliable timer overall. I am going to try to add a run of hose to get the timer itself more in the sun, and see if that will solve my problem with this unit.Edit: two months after moving it to a more sunny spot it is completely dead - the screen is blank even after sitting in full sun for many hours. Not reliable and not recommended.