Garden 4-Zone Watering Computer Automatic Irrigation System Controller Water Tap Hose Timer with 2 Solenoid Valve, Grey

As per other reviews, turning the flow is a bit stiff for the first time and you are thinking you are going to break it but it’s fine. The different timers work great and has saved me getting different timers for the different irrigation areas. Would recommend this if you need the multiple different timing for different zones and still require an always on hose.

Although the unit failed after a few weeks I must say the company were excellent and gave me a full refund. It is only when things go wrong you experience what a company is really like. I did not expect anything back. I would use them again and would have probably tried a replacement but had already purchased another brand.

At approx £50, this unit is considerably cheaper than the heavier-duty units from makes like Hunter so it’s to be expected that it’s not as rugged as more expensive models.As other reviewers have noted, the English language instructions are pretty rubbish - a laser-printed sheet poorly translated with the minimum of information. But the programmer is pretty straight forward and the big dial makes it quite easy to figure out, so not a huge problem.The unit is supposed to be water resistant, but I’m not convinced that the seals will really hold up outside throughout the year, so I have made a rain cover for it from an 8L plastic waste bin (about six quid from Amazon) which I have lined with silver foil bubble wrap insulation, this should also protect it from extremes of heat which might crack the plastic.I have set the unit up to water my front garden and so far it’s doing a good job, though I’m only two weeks in so that could change.My only real complaint is that it is listed as a four-way controller, but you only get two solenoid valves with it, so it’ll only work as a two-way system unless you buy additional solenoid valves (at about £15 a pop). A fully populated system would set you back around £80.

So I brought this about 6 months ago, and it has been in use one cycle per day ever since. Initially I thought this was great, but the battery has just ran out and this has made a number of problems clear.A bit of background - the valves use a bi-stable type of relay, which means that no battery power is used unless and untill it is actually switched on or off. It does not use any power while it is on or off, only momentarily when it switches. A pulse of normal polarity power switches on, a reverse polarity pulse switches off.I used quite cheap batteries, to be fair, but still did not expect the batteries to run out after 6 months. If I had used 4 valves, 4 cycles a day, the batteries would have lasted perhaps 10 days. This type of valve, I would say is not suitable for battery usage I would say because it uses too much power for a small battery.A menicus valve would have been a better choice as in some other water timeclocks.I had noticed some days it did not come on, and had noticed the on-screen battery monitor was flashing. But then one day it had enough juice to turn on but not off. The water ran for 25 hours, and then turned off. So 2nd time round, perhaps it was a bit warmer and it just managed to turn off. This is dangerous because it could result in serious flooding. This is not a fit and forget item. You need to check it. But the whole point of a timer is you should not need to do so. I should not have used a cheap battery, and I should have taken immediate notice of the low battery warning. A technical way to mitigate this would be to put a resistor in circuit when turning on, that is absent when turning off, so if anything fails it will be the switch on cycle.Lastly, I should say that I changed the battery, and although I did this as fast as I could, all information has been lost, the time, the cycles. Set up is complex and so far I have not been able to re-program the unit, so its broken untill I find the online manual and spend time running through it. Thats not acceptable in my view: a decent power storage capacitor and a fast batery change should keep the settings.Review is for the Aqualin Garden 4-Zone Watering timer and the Aqualin New Solenoid Valve Suitable For Garden Water Timer Controller, Grey

Needed a 4 channel watering system while on holiday and this looked to fit the bill. Ordered a few weeks ahead of needing, just as well as the first one had a bit missing on the battery case. Contacted the seller who replaced within 3 days with a whole new unit. The instructions are a bit tricky but once you work out how it works (10 mins playing should do this) it is really very good. I bought the extra solenoids to accompany it, may invest in the rain sensor for future use.It was a good choice overall and although it will need full resetting for next time, it is only a few minutes once you have understood it.