Eve Aqua Review: Easily Turn Any Hose Into a Smart Irrigation System – MUO – MakeUseOf

The Eve Aqua is a great way to keep your plants or lawn watered without needing to lift a finger. You simply attach it to any outdoor faucet to automate watering. Compatible with Apple HomeKit, you can use the Apple Home app and Siri for quick and easy control. The Eve app is a great way for more control options, including scheduling, along with additional features like showing how much water has been used.

The key to keeping your lawn or plants healthy is something we all love to hate: frequent watering. Especially in the summer, when we all want to stay cool and comfortable, its probably time to head outside and find the sprinkler for the grass or the hose to keep your flowers hydrated.

Thankfully, Apple HomeKit fans can take advantage of the Eve Aqua to help automate the watering process, to save time while keeping your patch of the great outdoors healthy. Let's take a look at the smart irrigation controller.

Eve Aqua is a small irrigation control valve that screws into any existing hose faucet on the outside of your home. Before doing that, youll need to insert two AA batteries into the rear of the controller. That should provide you with up to five months of power before needing to be replaced and should last through the spring and summer. Youll want to remove it during winter to prevent it from freezing up.

Another big plus of the Eve Aqua is that it doesnt need a full-time internet connection; especially important since your Wi-Fi signal might not reach the furthest areas of your yard. Once you set it up, its completely autonomous and doesnt need any additional internet connection.

To get the most use of the controller, youll need an Apple Home Hub. Once you set up a Home Hub (which can be an Apple TV, HomePod, or HomePod mini), you can unlock a number of other features including scheduling and additional automation features.

While the Eve Aqua will normally communicate with a Home Hub via Bluetooth Low Energy, it can also use the Thread network if you have a compatible hub and another full Thread device like a lightbulb. A Thread network provides several advantages, including longer range and more stability than Bluetooth. Ive been using the Eve Aqua on my Thread network and have been impressed with the stability of the connection.

Getting the controller set up takes just a few minutes. After installing the batteries, attach the Eve Aqua to the hose faucet. Then attach the hose to the controller itself.

If you havent already, download the Eve app for iPhone. While you can still add the controller to Apple HomeKit using the Home app, the Eve app is a must-have. Along with being able to add the device to your Home setup, it provides a number of other features not available through Apples app.

In the Eve app, head to Settings and choose the + in the top right-hand corner. Follow the instructions to complete setup.

As mentioned, the Eve app provides the most functionality for anyone using the Eve Aqua. First up, you can easily turn the water flow on and off. While the controller uses HomeKit and the Eve app, you can also turn the flow on and off with a button on the front of the Eve Aqua itself.

Another great feature is the ability to schedule watering. You can create up to seven different schedules with a specific time to begin and the watering duration. There is also an opportunity to use times around sunrise and sunset.

Ive been using the scheduling feature for a few weeks, and it has been great. While I have an automated sprinkler system for my lawn, I have a large flower pot that needs to be hand watered. Ive set the Eve Aqua to water for a few minutes late at night for maximum water retention. You can set a maximum of seven watering periods per day. While I just have a single flower pot, you can easily add a larger irrigation system.

Below the scheduling feature in the app, you can see exactly when the Eve Aqua was turned on. You can also customize the default duration for how long the Aqua will turn on after manually starting the water. If youve ever started watering and forgotten to turn off the hose and woken up to a flooded lawn, that feature is priceless.

At the bottom of the Eve Aqua control settings is a quick view of approximately how much water youve used with the control valve.

You can also use the Home app to control the Eve Aqua, even though there are fewer features available.

Through Home, you can turn the controller on and off. You can also change the default run time and view the battery. One of my favorite HomeKit features of the Eve Aqua is Siri control to turn the hose flow on and off.

My hose faucet is tucked behind a number of bushes and is difficult to get to, but I can use a quick Siri command to turn the water flow on or off from anywhere. That has turned out to be massively helpful when watering and even washing my car. Even if I dont have an iPhone nearby, I can just use Siri on my Apple Watch.

The Eve Aqua is a great way to help automate your watering on a daily basis. But there may be days when rain is forecasted, and you dont want to over water. Eve includes a great way to help you easily suspend watering for the day when the weather is rainy. You can use a Check Watering shortcut that taps into Apples own built-in Shortcut technology.

To install the Check Watering shortcut, open the Eve app and select the Eve Aqua. Next, choose Schedule and select the gear icon under Schedule. Scroll down and then tap Schedule Suspension. Finally, tap Install Siri Shortcut and then follow the on-screen instructions. Youll need to set your homes location and the chance of rain threshold above to pause watering.

When set up, there are two ways to run the shortcut. Along with a quick Siri command, it can also be accessed through the Shortcuts app. If you run the Shortcut before 12 p.m., the chance of rain is checked for the day in Apples built-in Weather app.

If the precipitation chance is above your set threshold, watering will be paused for that day. When accessing the Shortcut after 12 p.m., it will check the forecast for both today and tomorrow and adjust the watering accordingly.

Ive used the shortcut since I installed the Eve Aqua, and its worked exactly as advertised. It is a nice way not to use water when its not needed.

While the Eve Aqua is a bit expensive for what it provides, it does exactly what it promises. Even though youll need to be an Apple HomeKit user to take advantage of the watering automation features, it provides a truly set-it-and-forget-it way to keep your lawn and plants healthy.

Along with making life a bit easier indoors, smart home technology also makes working outside your home simple. So, enjoy keeping cool indoors while the Eve Aqua takes care of the thankless watering task.

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Eve Aqua Review: Easily Turn Any Hose Into a Smart Irrigation System - MUO - MakeUseOf