Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
For the purposes of this review, Irrigreen sent me a kit that can be attached to a garden hose, so I don’t have to dig up the yard just to try out the system. I’ve tested Irrigreen in two previous iterations, so I was familiar with how it works, but first-time users will likely feel a little underwhelmed by Irrigreen’s unique approach—each sprayer is connected to the next via a dedicated cable—and its inexplicable lack of setup documentation beyond a few YouTube videos. I’ve long complained that Irrigreen’s instructions are entirely online and unnecessarily complicated. If anyone needs a high-quality printed installation guide, it’s Irrigreen.
However you set things up, the heart of the operation is the Irrigreen console, a semi-industrial box designed to be mounted on the wall that provides some basic controls to allow for simple manual operation. You’ll need the Irrigreen app for just about everything, so these controls aren’t likely to see much use. While plumbing must be run on each sprinkler head, Irrigreen runs on a single control cable, which is connected via two screw shafts down a front-mounted manhole. Unlike standard irrigation systems, you only need to connect two wires to bring the entire system online, with subsequent heads connected in series.
Photo: Chris Noll
The Irrigreen supports up to 16 sprinkler heads, so any reasonably sized yard should be fully coverageable. Note that if you have existing sprinkler lines, you’ll also find additional screw-in posts in the box that allow connection to up to eight conventional sprinkler valves – so you don’t have to completely rip out old lines if you’re just starting out with Irrigreen. (However, the magic is in the Irrigreen sprinkler heads, so while the controller can work with older valves, you won’t be able to take advantage of the main Irrigreen features.)
Watering the world
Connecting the Irrigreen sprinkler head to a garden hose isn’t particularly difficult, and I was able to configure the components — plumbing and electrical — in just minutes. Irrigreen also sends an iPad preloaded with its control software for testing, and my problems didn’t start until after I paired the controller with the app.
As mentioned above, Irrigreen’s hydrographic system works by spraying narrow streams and rotating through 360 degrees — the same process I described in my review of the Aiper IrriSense 2. To control your casting distance, it first has to calibrate itself based on your water pressure, but the Irrigreen app repeatedly failed me when I tried to complete this process. The issue seemed to be related to the sprinkler head firmware update, which didn’t take long, and after hours of trying I finally gave up. After a weekend of slowness, I returned to the unit Monday morning and found that it was finally working properly; It is assumed that the firmware update occurred during off hours.