Hyper Pet WR2-RFC A553100 Wireless Rain and Freeze Sensor

I purchased a combo pack of this item along with the Rain Bird ESP-TM2 12 Station WiFi Ready Indoor/Outdoor Controller | TM2-12 and the Wi-Fi snap in to control the our 20 year old Rain Bird control panel. I left a review on the controller and it is a huge improvement over our original Rain Bird controller which was starting to wear out. The moving parts had started to break off and the controller had some issues with a couple of the zones. They worked most of the time, but occasionally they would not work for a couple of days we’re allowed to water. Here in Texas , we are on water restrictions almost every year now. This is a great unit for turning off the water if it’s raining outside. The design is far better than our original add-on model on our 20 year old Rain Bird controller. The whole system, except the pipes were made by Rain Bird. The witless rain sensor was another brand and it didn’t last for two seasons. The design was terrible as it took a C cell battery and the battery was installed through the top of the sensor. I tried to change it and the sensor was full of water. Basically we had to go into the garage and manually turn the system off. After 3 years , the sun had baked the whole sensor and it just fell off the molding strip at the roof line near the area where the controller is located. This model is plastic as well,but seems like it is thicker than the original one. It can be attached to a gutter with the mounting hardware or lower down to make the much better battery design easier to change out. The outside unit has a coin type battery that loads on the bottom, so I don’t think it will fill up. I mounted ours on the backside of the controller and it is in a hidden location from sight and it will not get baked by the Texas sun. Basically the indoor control panel is on the wall inside with the outdoor sensor mounted right behind the whole system. The indoor module was mounted close to the new controller and it has a way better method of letting you know when the outside sensor gets low on power. So far it has worked great and it still shows that the rain sensor battery is fully charged. This was actually a really good deal for the three devices, but we have a smart home controller and outdoor camera units that we can see if it’s raining and turn the system off with an App. We water our yard starting around midnight and into the morning. So, I still like having this sensor installed as if we are going away for a few days, it will not run if it’s raining. I have the inside module that connects to the main controller and I can see if the battery is getting low or should be replaced. The old model was an afterthought and the battery was up really high , so it got neglected. The inside was screwed onto the box and the indicator was a red and green light. So it would be green and turn red in just a minute or two. You basically didn’t know the battery was going dead until it was completely dead. Well made sensor and works very well with the Controller we purchased. The sensor is not mounted up too high that you need a ladder to change and it doesn’t get nearly as much sun as the old model. Highly recommended for any of the compatible models and the design is much better than any other sensor we have owned.

ND

The rain sensor unit is mounted remotely outdoors and needs no wires between it and the receiving unit. The connection is string and no issues. The receiving unit (highlighted in red border) is easily installed and comes pre-programmed for both freeze temp and rain volume. The pre-programmed points can be easily changed within a few seconds too.

Rainbird A553150 WR2RFS Rain/Freeze Sensor Only First of all my installation from the contractor used to be a Toro soil sensor. This was "recommended" to me rather than the traditional rain sensor... This soil sensor NEVER worked well. It was ridiculous. Calibration of soil moisture level was impossible and completely unreliable.... I gave up and ripped it out. I finally decided to get a rainbird wr2. It was an easy 10min install for the controller. The decision for placement of the sensor was another decision point. ... I had trouble installing in the gutter? For whatever reason my gutter is shaped differently so the gutter Mount just didn't work. I ended up mounting it on my wood shed high up... I needed to find a place that I can access easily with a ladder whenever I needed to change the cr2032 battery for the sensor. Martin approximately 100 m away in the backyard shed. Two inside my garage where the controller was installed gave me three bars out of four signal strength. Configuring this thing was quite simple and it's very easy to program. Big buttons. Big display. Easy to see m you just need to control the freezing point, rainfall level threshold... And the mode. In terms of the mode, euhan set it to program mode which is your regular program cycles wherein if the rainfall trigger point or the freeze point is met or surpassed, it will pause your program. The other mode is a complete 72hr bypass, or a complete 72-hour override mode. Super simple. The rain Bird wr2 range sensor is by far way more reliable than the ridiculous soil sensor that my contractor recommended. I highly recommend using the rainbird wr2 over any fancy soil sensor. Hand down best upgrade. Get rid of your soil sensor and upgrade to a proper rain sensor.

The setup is quite simple with basic hand tools. It works as advertised. It would be nice if Rainbird offered a variable rain sensor that would adjust the amount watering based on the total rain fall rather than just an on off switch. Or better yet, a soil moisture sensor.