experience and comments on this moisture sensor

[grassman177]

http://www.autorain.com/uploaded_doc...t=brochure.pdf

there is a link to the particular sensor i was looking at. anyone use these yet? im sure they work nice, but i am worried about the durability and placement of the probe in the lawn. seems our mowers would crush them, etc.

i would like to sell a moisture sensor that worked well, instead of a rain sensor. this would be great to prevent over and under watering of course.

thoughts?

thanks fellas

[Wet_Boots]

I would never be sure that any soil moisture sensor "works real nice"

If the Toro sensor uses polycarbonate plastic, instead of the ABS they make sprinklers from, it might just hold up.

[agrostis]

I'm not impressed by toro irrigation (golf) equipment. I remember when the 1990's moisture sensor came out, those metal probe's would rot and fall off. I have a lot of reason's not to use toro irrigation stuff.

[cppendergrast]

I have the same skepticisim, but I do have one of those sitting on my desk to put in on a trial, somewhere I will watch it like a hawk... I was on the verge of installing three Rainbird Soil Sensors a couple of years back when the rep called and said "don't install, they have been recalled." Lucky me!

[grassman177]

thanks guys, interested in your results with it as the year progresses cppendergrast. i am not fan of toro irrigation at all, but i could live with brand unloyalty for something that worked well. i have not found anything else to compare it to. is there any moisture sensors you guys are using, or know of that do work?

[Irrigation Contractor]

The only moisture sensor that I could recommend is the Baseline WaterTec S100 since we have installed several on projects where it was specified. It does work, but it is by far perfect.

http://www.baselinesystems.com/produ.../watertec-s100

Lately, it seems the soil on all of our projects have been 50% clay and the remainder large to small rock

Because of this, the moisture sensors required allot of adjustments and we could never dial them in even with manufacturer assistance. Once a sensor was dialed it to a certain point in the season it would require more as it warmed / cooled etc.

Maybe the clay, but soil sensors are as reliable as ET systems. When have use ET systems also for many years and have realized not one manufacturer has ET programming that works for our area at least.

[grassman177]

greeeeaat. not what i was hoping to hear. i was wondering though.