I love my Rachio; but I also don't know anything about the other option you are asking about. Just my $0.02.

 

Noting that I just have an old Toro non-wifi controller and I have just been looking and planning on an upgrade.

I think in the future while I want Wifi I think its important to me to also have a display and controls on the unit. I keep thinking about times when the wifi could possibly go down or the app breaks with an update. Also many times when I am outdoors I may not have my phone on me. So having physical controls on the unit would allow me to still turn it on and make changes.

 

Rachio can be controlled at the unit itself fyi

 

Rachio can be controlled at the unit itself fyi

The same with the Hunter Pro-C models

 

Rachio can be controlled at the unit itself fyi

There are physical controls but they are very limited. Isn't all you can do is just cycle through each zone, each one will run for 3 minutes? Mine is inside a locked outdoor enclosure so I almost never touch. And I've never used the physical controls at all.

 

@TSGarp007 I believe you are correct in that statement. I've used mine only one time when I didn't have my phone nearby.

 

Rachio can be controlled at the unit itself fyi

The same with the Hunter Pro-C models

And if you have one of these and want to keep it and stay in the Hunter ecosystem, Hydrawise is the only option. I will be installing the Hydrawise upgrade next Spring for this reason. That's the only reason I never looked into other brands.

 

Noting that I just have an old Toro non-wifi controller and I have just been looking and planning on an upgrade.

I think in the future while I want Wifi I think its important to me to also have a display and controls on the unit. I keep thinking about times when the wifi could possibly go down or the app breaks with an update. Also many times when I am outdoors I may not have my phone on me. So having physical controls on the unit would allow me to still turn it on and make changes.

Allyn Hane had a video about Toro controllers and wifi sometime in the last few months. I think there may be an upgrade available for you.

I wouldn't want something without settings on the controller, either.

 

I also thought that I wanted settings on the controller but the more I thought about it, I realized that it wasn't really necessary as how often are you outside without your phone and are like "oh, I need to turn my sprinklers on". I usually have my phone in the garage anyway if I am working out in the lawn so it's not that big of a deal. I can also say that I have had my Rachio for a couple of years now and not once have I wanted or needed to use the controls on the unit itself. Using the app is so much easier. Don't get me wrong it would be cool to have an LCD display on the wall in the garage but in reality it's not as useful as you might think.

 

I think it's also worth noting if WiFi is lost the Rachio continues as scheduled so you wouldn't need the manual controls in that instance either.

 

I have a 100% Hunter system and I absolutely love it. Pro-HC controllers are great!

 

I had a dumb hunter controller installed at the time the sprinkler was put in, the one with rotary dials and pushbuttons. To make it Wi-Fi and smart (like rain skip) my installer guy said it would be $500 more. Bought my Rachio 3rd gen for $210 and installed it myself easily. The negative I found about the rachio was the complexities in understanding the parameters used in programming the schedules. Crop efficiency ratio, depletion limit, and other mumbo jumbo were the problems. It was very frustrating for me (and others on the rachio forum) to program it accurately. I had to spend hours googling and reading and playing with the app. This controller is not for the faint of heart or the lazy, if you want to fully take advantage of the smartness of the controller. You can use it like a dumb controller if you want and program it to run on fixed schedule and still have some of the nice built in features like rain skip or spend some serious time to understand and use it like it is meant to be used. But once you get it dialed in though, it is truly a set and forget controller. There is really no need for the manual controls at the device itself.

One problem I had with it (and other people too) was a defective power adapter. It was a year into owning it that the power adapter went bad and caused the controller to be non functional (powered on but non responsive). The company sent me a brand new unit in exchange for the old one, even though in my mind they could have just sent me a new adapter.