Rain8net vs. Rain8net Pro

[potts.mike]

I will be buying one of these soon but cant make up my miind if the surge protection and physical switches matter to me. I will be ocntrolling it through CQC and will have touchscreeen interface that run on my phone so I dont really see a need for the hard buttons. Also, I rarely get lightning where I live so the surge protection is prob not needed either.

Do people find the hard buttons worth having?

Just looking for peoples thoughts and experiences before going the cheap route.

-mike

 

[JonW]

When I'm testing/checking zones I always use my phone, so I couldn't really see the need for the hard buttons.

 

[wuench]

Considering the number of reports about these biting the dust during lightning storms I am not sure that the surge protection is sufficient. I have been considering one of these as well, and I am thinking of going with the pro with the buttons to make it easier on the service guy.

 

[potts.mike]

Since I'm installing the system myself I will prob. Be the service guy as well.

 

[standon]

For me, about 1 in every 6 Thunder/Lightning storm seems to bring doom and gloom. I live in the northeast outside of NYC.
For reference: Last year I lost the serial port my Rain8 Pro was connected to, the Jandy serial controller and my pool heater board were fried. This year (just a few weeks ago) I had my Rain8 Pro and Expansion repaired, 1 POE port on a switch, 1 Cat5 POE cable, 1 hard drive and my Jandy Aqualink controller go.

When I lived in CA, I didn't have a care in the world when it came to lightning. Probably why I was so lax about protecting against surges and such when I moved out here. If you've never had any problems with storms and surges, probably doesn't matter though. If you have even one major storm a year, the time and expense of adding protection after the fact may just pay for itself.

Edit: When my system gets serviced, they company just walks around to each valve and turns it on manually.

 

[ellisr63]

When I'm testing/checking zones I always use my phone, so I couldn't really see the need for the hard buttons.

How do you use your phone?

 

[JonW]

How do you use your phone?

 
I use the @HOME app for controlling the HAI panel.  HAI is just sending UPB commands to the Rain8 to turn zones on and off.

 

[pete_c]

Here damage to my rain8net's from a storm happened only once in about 10 years. 
 
I do though today have two Rain8nets in my old Rainbird sprinkler box with a software controller on the network and touchscreen control above the Rainbird box.  That said I couldn't fit the Rain8net Pro's inside of the rainbird box that I wanted to keep in place.
 
Personally then it was just the size footprint of two rain8nets versus the rain8netPros.  Nothing else.