Irrigation flow meter that tracks water usage and detects leaks. Customers said it's "easy to install" and provides "great information" when paired with compatible controllers. Praised for detecting broken pipes and preventing costly water bills. Some concerns about reliability over time and installation requirements.
- 5 stars: 19 (83%)
- 4 stars: 2 (9%)
- 3 stars: 2 (9%)
- 2 stars: 0 (0%)
- 1 star: 0 (0%)
Works as stated
I added this simply because I am away from home often, and it has the great feature to be able to sense if water is exceeding what is normally flowing during a watering cycle from a zone, you will get an alert. You can then react and shut down the system and avoid major issues.I have also found it really interesting to see how much water each of the different zones has been using.
Great price and fast shipping
Just replaced my Hunter HC100 flow meter. First one installed January 2021, failed June 2023 (warranty is 2 years, but from the *manufacture* date, which was June 2020). The reed switch on my original unit failed open circuit. No response in two months from Hunter tech support regarding options, so just bought another. But! After several hours digging, pulling old unit, and installing new HC100, noticed there is a back-up reed switch, not documented in the manual but shown inside the lid diagram (which of course I could not see down in the hole.) So next failure, I’ll try connecting the back-up before the expense and effort of replacing the entire meter.The HC100 flow meter in conjunction with my Hunter ProHC-1200 controller lets me configure irrigation and then detect problems via the Web interface. Have found cracked risers (back when I could afford water for turf) and cracked pipes where neighbors turned too wide and ran over sprinkler heads. With my top water rate in Vegas $15/1000 gallons, tracking irrigation performance is very important.Regarding shipping, the HC100 was shipped via USPS in a plastic bag, resulting in a beat-up box. Meter seems OK. You would think with something heavy costing $150 they could afford to ship in a box?
Great to track your water usage
I can now watch for broken lines and sprinkler heads. I added a dummy channel to the Hydrawise controller to know how much water I added to the pool.
Works perfect easy to install i thought looks like good quality heavy satisfied here
Tied together with the Hydrawise Pro HC 6 this helps keep my water usage in check, along with alerting me to a leaky or broken pipe. I just got a new install from a contractor and had both this and the Pro HC 6 installed at the same time. I'm able to report usage from this to my local water utility to lower the sewer portion of my bill. The big savings would come if even once I had a leaky or broke sprinkler head. I can imagine that just one billing cycle with an out of control sprinkler system would more than surpass the cost of this sensor. If I'm on vacation it's peace of mind knowing I'd get an alert on my phone so that I can shut the system down until my contractor can fix it.
I purchased the 1” Hunter flow meter primarily to measure water usage on the lawn to determine correct water usage. I am using this meter with the HPC Hydrawise compatible face panel replacement with my old (2017) Pro-C controller. Many recommendations for watering a lawn are in gallons per square foot/week or inches per square foot/week (easily convertible to gallons). Irrigation controllers typically are time based. With this meter I can now get a good estimate of how much water is going onto the lawn and make adjustments accordingly.I installed this meter between the anti-siphon valves and the zone valves boxes. According to the installation instructions I left about 12” straight inline on the intake and exhaust sides. The instructions also recommend to remove or bypass and drain the meter if you live in a climate where you need to winterize. To do that I installed the meter with L union PVC fittings and built a replacement piece with compressor fitting for winter blowout (see image). The meter has a solid brass body so can imagine would not do very well if full of water and frozen. One other consideration is that this meter does have some drain on water pressure. According to the charts in the installation manual I can expect about 4psi drop using the 1” meter and 10 gallons/min draw (my maximum). With a starting pressure of 62psi that was not a problem for me.Initial tests comparing the utility water meter (in cu/foot) and this Hunter meter (gallons) show that they are fairly close. A much cheaper way to get water estimates is with a tin can and measuring stick. That works unless you have subsurface drip irrigation, but in any case not as much fun as measuring/controlling usage from your laptop/phone. So far I have been able to reduce lawn water usage in half using measurements from this meter. I was overwatering using the time based irrigation method. Using this meter and the Hydrawise app to adjust for weather and seasonal variations is working great.
Well worth the money and easy to install. Monitors water usage when used with HC12 controller. Any over or under usage of water and an email is sent. Unnoticed broken pipes and you could have 300.00 water bill. With this your protected from page bills.
Adding this flow meter dramatically increases the usefulness of the Hydrawise sprinkler management system. I dug up the area around our back flow preventer device and added this flowmeter downstream in a straight length of pipe. Requires straight pipe at least 10 inches upstream and 5 inches downstream of the flowmeter.The signal output flex conduit is relatively short, but by loosening the mounting screw I was easily able to rotate the meter display assembly to allow the flex conduit to exit directly towards my junction box. The thread on the end flex cable takes a M6-1.0 nut (from Home Depot) to mount into a hole in a junction box.
The flow meter was easy to install. I need it to show if my irrigation system has any leaks since the main meter to the house is fifty yards away and down a steep hill. Now I can quickly check for leaks after repairs. I have older Hunter irrigation controllers, so I could not connect the meter to them for automatic leak sensing.
Meter not Registering. Support sends files to read and all simple stuff done. Will not have human being call me to solve issue. If they don't, I'll return.It took several emails to get support to provide call number. Tech support was great. Walked through all of the troubleshooting and confirmed item was not working. Returning via Amazon. Waiting for replacement. I updated my rating to 4 stars from 2 stars. Let's see if the new one functions properly.
Not an accurate flow meter but works well as reference for Hunter Controller
Accurate but a bit sensitive to lightening. Gives occasional false flow, even when using shielded cable and grounded.
Very nice instrument. Highly recommend
The meter tells you how much water is used in gallons.
Great Funktion and a long connection cable
Amazon review 4/29/2018. Useful accessory for the Hydrawise irrigation controller.There are a few different versions depending on the pipe size.This accessory installs near the water meter in the irrigation line and is wired to the Hydrawise controller. This allows the user to monitor water usage. Smart logic in the Hydrawise unit can alert you (via in-app messages or optionally via SMS alerts using their paid subscription service) in case of breaks such as cut heads or broken pipes.I'd recommend having this installed professionally.
highly recommend it! the reason i choose hydrawise over other brands (rachio, rain machine) is the flow sensor. you can monitor individual flow. create allert for leak, under or over use of water per zone.
Works great, easy to install and now displays water totals for my lawn.
The meter works great - but pay close attention to the installation requirements. This needs a substantial amount of straight, level pipe (think feet) without any elbows before or after... It does NOT install vertically. Other than that - works GREAT.
Hooked up and works great - great to see the consumption per zone with the controller and app!