Product Review: DIG hose timer for watering

I have a two zone drip irrigation system, which uses two different timers: this DIG timer (green on in the photo) and an Orbit 91213 timer (blue one in the photo). DIG timer stands for Digital Irrigation and is available from The Drip Store either on Amazon or on their web site. The DIG timer has been in use for 3 summers so far. This DIG timer is better in a number of ways described below.

I LIKE:

1. Programmable options are extremely flexible. I can complete control on how frequently the watering occurs within one day as well as how many minutes it lasts
2. Despite all the options it is simple to use
3. It has a manual override if I need to give the plants a little extra water
4. It works on one 9 volt battery, I am able to use rechargeable 9 Volt batteries.
5. It does not use a lot of juice, rechargeable 9 volt battery is not discharged by the end of the summer
6. The time is well built, it long lasting, this will be my fourth summer using this timer
7. I have zero leaks from it (I use teflon tape on each connection)

I DO NOT LIKE:

1. nothing at all

COMPARISON with ORBIT 91213 in side-by-side use

1. Orbit programmating is very limited. The minimum time period you can set it up for is every 6 hours. It has to be exactly 6 hours apart, that means it will water 4 times a day. However, I do not want to water in the middle of the night as might promote root rot. What I want is to water more frequently during the day, but not at night. This timer does not give that type of control, where as DIG timer does.

2. Orbit timer eats batteries at a very fast clip. It could not last on re-chargeable batteries more than 2 weeks. I had to switch to regular batteries and change them once a month. I went through 3 sets of non-rechargeable batteries last summer (the first year I had a two timer system).

3. Orbit timer has a bigger LCD screen, and I find it to be a bit easier to read. This is useful as I need to keep an eye on it to know when to change the battery!

4. Orbit time shape (flat) is a little easier to work with when the timer is not mounted.

I am attaching a photo of my irrigation system with two timers side by side.

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.


Ali Julia review ★★★★★