So I bought an Aqua Systems Electronic Digital Tap Timer at Bunnings in Brisbane (Australia). The main advantage of digital tap timers over the manual ones is that you can set a watering schedule lasting a week, instead of a daily schedule. I wanted my pot plants watered twice in a week for 20 minutes, not every day, and that’s where a digital tap timer comes in. Just a note: the Bunnings blurb says “ The timer also has a manual ON – OFF watering feature and also a Rain OFF function which will pause the program during bouts of wet weather.” When I read this I thought it meant that the Rain OFF function automatically stops watering if it is raining.
You need to go to the unit and press the OFF button.Quick review of the Aqua Systems Digital Tap Timer: Despite being the cheapest digital tap timer at Bunnings it worked brilliantly – easy to set up, easy to install, and most importantly it works – all my pot plants survived the ridiculously hot 2017 summer when we went away for a week thanks to this tap timer. On the downside, you need to unscrew the hazy cover to adjust anything, so it’s a pain to make adjustments, and once the cover is off the battery is right there and it looks rather not waterproof, so I fear you could destroy it just trying to stop a watering cycle. The more expensive ones have buttons that you can access without unscrewing. But if you want a cheap, once a year use, week long programmable timer, this is great.
If you want something you will leave in place and can modify often (or pause when it rains), look to the more expensive ones.Owner’s Manual: Well, as usual, I misplaced the owner’s manual – it is just one sheet of paper folded up to the size of a business card, so it is easy to lose (that’s my excuse anyway). I searched online for instructions on how to set the timer but could not find them.
So when I finally found the paper instruction manual again I scanned it in. Below is a copy of the instructions. Sorry the quality isn’t great. The instructions are printed in black and white on cheap (greyish) paper, and are a bit small, so I have enlarged them as well.How to Set the Aqua Systems Digital Tap Timer.
Hi DanielBought mine a few months ago, and love it!!! I have 19mm black poly pipe for the micro watering system for my front and back yards, it seems to work good until I added 3 raised garden beds, connected one bed the first day and 6 micro sprays worked great, connected the next 2 raised beds and the micro sprinkers just tend to drip out rather than spray.
I am wondering is it possible to calibrate the unit to allow more flow? Checked filter, no obstruction, took unit off and compaired the difference in flow, it seems slower going through the unit. Tried to find manufacturer or distributer, but only Bunnings? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Cheers Carlos. It’s a design flaw! I’ve had 2 fail in this fashion.
The last plastic gear in reduction drive inside the housing gets to much torque from the water pressure and the shaft snaps off. This leaves the gear floating around on the snapped shaft and the motor is unable to transfer force between the gears anymore to start or stop the water (depending on when it snapped) Cheap shit plastic, but more importantly a poorly designed product! They could easily design this weak point out if they chose to, but that’s the world we live in unfortunately.
Take it back, get a refund, and tell them to tell their supplier of the issue. The only thing that hurts companies is a hit to the hip pocket these days!. 3110829 Aqua Dual Outlet Electronic Tap TimerAbove unit is as good or better than most 2 outlet and a controller for both outlets.Only for all solenoid units not under warranty and for all purposes the unit is going to the rubbish bin.My tip ti anyone – Who switches off a timer for winter & will not work once summer starts & controller is required again. Visually the unit works on the screen but will not allow water flow.
Once new batteries are fitted & still no flow. Take controller off the tap & set an air compressor to 40 – 50 psi – blow air through unit – Opposite Direction to normal water flow, symbols show water should be flowing through the outlet. Fit a trigger nozzle on air hose. Blow backwards through Controller outlet in very short time blasts until air is felt or heard from inlet tap connection. For safety, fit a tap clip-on fitting – controller outlet.
A perfect seal not required & DO NOT push blower nozzle too deep or deeper than a clip on nozzle tap fitting. This will avoid damage to controller unit. Compressor pressure should be increase in small increments.
Hello.I am very disappointed with one very important element pertaining to my Aqua two dial electronic tap timer (s).I have had to replace my timers due to the very weak connection wires to the battery holder. I had this problem with my first timer (which I did not keep). I purchased a second timer and a third and yesterday I purchased my number 4 timer. I have a very small garden and my timers have only been used at the one location.I have keep 2 timers now useless and I am sure they would be able to be used if the wire conection was fixed to the battery holder. I am hopeful my new one will last longer than the others.Do you have any suggestions.
Hi Robert!Sounds like a real pain! I don’t have a two dial timer, so I can’t comment on it directly, but here’s a couple of ideas:1.
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Return it to Bunnings. Even if you don’t have a receipt, Aqua Systems is exclusive to Bunnings, so they should refund or replace.2. I have found the electronic one quite reasonable for the price.
Try it instead. $34.50 at Bunnings.3. Try another brand.
I think Aqua Systems is a Bunnings own brand – like a Home Brand. So it’s the cheapest they could make it without it being unusable.
So try something made better. You get what you pay for.
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I bought a cheap one because I only use it once a year when we go away on holidays, so it works fine for that.Hope that is some help. My experience with the Aqua Systems two dial electronic timer from Bunnings was that it worked flawlessly for a couple of weeks on brand new batteries and ordinary tap water connection, keeping newly seeded (and very expensive) native-grass slow-growing lawn damp during a hot period. I was happy as it was doing as I’d hoped it would.Then, however, it decided to turn itself on overnight with one timer failing to close its valve again, and the second timer failing to even open its value in the first place. The result in the morning was a lot of the soil and seed washed away by the lawn being flooded for several hours before detection.
It now needs reseeding in large parts, so my happiness waned.So it is not a fail-safe unit because it defaults to an open valve situation – so I’ve learned the hard way that you can’t fully trust it to run unsupervised.I agree that the wiring from the batteries feels very flimsy, but this appeared to be a problem with its electronics. I tried replacing with another fresh set of batteries, and even leaving it without batteries in so as to potentially reset its electronics. The result was that both valves now keep cycling open/closed without stopping, rendering the unit non-functional.I am about to return it to Bunnings and look for a better quality dual timer unit that I can trust. Hi Arzan!Sorry, I forgot to scan the back page, and now I can’t find the manual. I had a look, but I think I might have thrown it out after scanning.However, I think you are right – I believe this is only sold at Bunnings – I think it is their own brand.
Bunnings try to either do their own brand, or sell things not offered at other stores – it’s how they can afford to match prices because no-one else sells the exact same thing 🙂 However on the plus side it means that even if you return something like this timer without the packaging they will often still refund or replace it because you had to have bought it from them.