Irrigation with home automation

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David321

507 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 105

#324287 24-Mar-2026 11:26

Hi all,

A little (well big) project I am working on at home at the moment, a pop up irrigation system for my front lawn, which I will later expand to the entire yard and lawn.

I'm doing this all properly to what I believe is a professional install level after a ton of research and talking to pro installers and looking at parts used in quotes friends and family have obtained.

I am very happy with how its all gone so far apart from a few hiccups along the way and I am now at the stage where I need to select a controller and compatible valves so I can go from turning on this system using the master ball valve to setting times and schedules etc with a controller.

Turns out there is a crazy amount of controllers out there to choose from and some have some pretty cool features, such as WiFi and automatic weather adjustments based on internet forecasts.

I also like the idea of being able to integrate my controller to Google Home, which I understand some are capable of. So I was curious if any of the home automation gurus here have an irrigation controller hooked up to Google home? The idea of being able to say "Hey Google - Water the front lawn" or something like that is pretty cool (although more novelty than practical, but I want it anyway).

I am considering the B-Hyve 12 station controller by Orbit, or the Rainbird RC2. But from what AI tells me online the Google Home feature of the Rainbird is only available in some countries (such as Australia) but NZ is not on that list, some people have a work around of selecting Australia as their country, but then the weather forecast adjustments are not accurate. Which means I am leaning towards the Orbit B-Hyve.

Does anyone here have that controller and have it integrated with Google Home? or perhaps another type of controller they have with Google home? I am curious to hear!

_David_

MikeAqua

8024 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3817

#3473081 24-Mar-2026 11:44

I've had years of good service out of Open Sprinkler. I've not tried to integrate with home automation software, but I have read that it will integrate with HA or GH.

We just moved to place with a RainBird controller (DC six station) installed and I'm not a fan. It's headless so app control is the only option. It connects only via Bluetooth, so you have to be quite close. The app is clunky. At $800 .... I wouldn't buy one.

Mike

richms

29098 posts

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Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#3473096 24-Mar-2026 12:17

I bought a rachio from the states to control a 24v valve manifold that came with some orbit thing that sucked. Also used its power adapter.

It manages to do weather and saturation skips for me ok. It can be controlled from alexa and home assistant.

I do not have to worry about something homemade leaving water on because it missed an off command which was my biggest concern.

Richard rich.ms

snowfly

549 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 112

#3473110 24-Mar-2026 13:23

Perhaps take a look at LinkTap: https://www.link-tap.com/#!/

You can integrate with Google Home via IFTTT: https://www.link-tap.com/#!/google-home-via-ifttt

Personally I use 3 x LinkTap Q1 4-zone devices: https://www.link-tap.com/#!/four-outlet-Q1-water-timer/en
Two of them for lawn sprinklers (currently 7 different zones, mix of between 2 to 6 MP rotator pop up sprinklers per zone, covering approx 700m2 of lawns)
And one Q1 device for raised vege gardens.

I don't use via Google/IFTTT, instead I use the native LinkTap app (does auto skip when rain is forecast, configurable, e.g. skip when 10mm rain in last 24hrs), as well as Home Assistant integration via this HACS component: https://github.com/sh00t2kill/linktap_local_http_component (which gives me manual options to turn on sprinkler X for X minutes)

The Q1 devices have been great and rock solid for the last 6 months, only had 1 issue straight out of the box, where flow meters weren't working, but customer support was excellent (via Australia), they sent me a replacement, and shipping label to return the faulty one.
The flow meters are useful to also only water for X number of litres per zone.

At a previous property I setup a custom lawn irrigation setup with pope 25mm solenoid values, controlled via 25vac and a wifi relay to turn them on/off, with home assistant integration.
But prefer LinkTap now.