Orbit watering timer failure

-
I had an Orbit watering timer fail again yesterday. It was a replacement for the one that failed a couple of months ago. At that time, I contacted Orbit and they assured me that it was a failure of a seal inside of it, so I returned it to Home Depot and got another one.

I had really liked the Orbit timers. They were easy to use, and had nice big lettering that I could easily see without my reading glasses. But two failures in as many months is a clear sign that I shouldn't be using them here at The Tropical Paradise. I suspect heat, which has been intense. But I have been using battery-operated timers here at The Tropical Paradise for years and it always gets hot in the summer. Besides, the last one failed before the really serious heat came on.

And it gets worse for Orbit. When the unit fails, it pours water out all over the place. I really wouldn't mind if it would fail by not working, but when it fails by releasing water at a tremendous rate (luckily it happened yesterday afternoon and I saw it right away), I have to draw the line. No more Orbit!

So I've planned a trip to Home Depot to go back to using the Toro timers, which I had been using for the last couple of decades. Sure, they're not as pretty, and the lettering is smaller, but they don't suddenly burst like these Orbits have done.

Well, I'm experimenting mostly. Consider this experiment a failure.

Update later the same day. Couldn't find the Toro timer at Home Depot. Went to Lowe's and all they had was Orbit. The manager there said that there his customer had been having problems with the Orbit timers. Apparently they have a contract, so they are stuck. Will keep looking for Toro, hopefully at an Ace Hardware, or somewhere, tomorrow. They are available on line, but I need one, like right now.

Dang, now I gotta replace all three of these before they fail. Too late for me, hopefully you will see this post before you are tempted to buy an Orbit. What a shame that they fail like that - they look great!

Update July 5. Ordered three new Toro timers online from Home Depot. They aren't as pretty, but I know that they work.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to tell if your cycad (sago palm) is alive or dead

-
Image
Cycads are strange plants. They're beautiful, and look like small palm trees, or large ferns. They grow very slowly, and can be very expensive, even common ones like "sago palms". But sago palms, in spite of their common name, aren't palms at all. They belong to a group of plants called cycads. They are wonderfully weird, and grow in strange ways. And sometimes they lose all of their leaves. Of course, if it were a palm tree that lost all of its leaves, you would know that the plant was dead. But it's not true of cycads. So don't dig that cycad up and throw it away! Not yet. If you've recently transplanted a cycad, and the leaves have all faded away, hang on. Take a look at the top center of the plant, at what I call "the pucker". There you will see some stubby, soft fronds, no more than an half-inch or so. At least that's what you should see. That means that the plant is still alive, and has dropped its leaves to focus on building r...
Read more

Rooting sago palm pups for more plants

-
Image
Once a sago palm ( cycas revoluta ) reaches a certain level of maturity, it starts to create pups. Like agaves, these are little plants that are exactly the same as the parent plant, only smaller. And yes, you can trim them off and grow them into new plants. This is how to do it. Cut them off from the parent plant with a sharp knife. If there are any roots at the bottom, try to save them, but chances are there won't be any. That's not a problem. The next step is rooting them. Douse the cut part and the bottom of the plant with some garden sulfur and some rooting hormone powder. Rooting hormone powder is pretty easy to find at your local Home Depot. I had to go to a real nursery to get garden sulfur. Anyway, the idea is to keep the little plant from rotting while giving it time to grow its own roots. Sago palm pups being rooted Bury them fairly deep in some free-draining mix. It should include volcanic pumice, if you can find it, and if not, you can use perlite. I ...
Read more

Growing sunflowers from Pennsylvania in Arizona

-
Image
It's October 21st, and I just received some sunflower seeds from a friend in Pennsylvania. Their season is ending and the season for planting here in Arizona is just beginning, and I'm kinda wondering if the seeds are wondering what's going on? It's spring again already? If you're new to the Phoenix, Arizona area, and are from back east it must seem kinda strange that fall and winter is our flower season, but it is. By springtime it will start to get so hot here that the flowers will die, and of course back east the season is just beginning.  Sunflowers growing in Peoria, Arizona, about a mile from where I live I've seen sunflowers blooming around my neighborhood of Glendale, which is a suburb of Phoenix, in the winter, and although I've never grown them I understand that they're easy to grow. I guess I'll find out - I learn best by doing! The seeds arrived safely, and it's my understanding that they were still connected to the spent flower (I do...
Read more