A smart water controller may not be one of the more common smart home tech categories, but it’s maybe one of the most important in terms of saving energy and money if you have a sprinkler system.

The Eve Aqua Smart Water Controller is our top pick in our guide to the best HomeKit sprinkler controllers. With it, you’ll no longer need to watch your water meter like a hawk or accidentally give your garden too much water, thanks to the auto shut-off function. 

The Eve Aqua Smart Water Controller is the only irrigation solution that integrates with Apple’s HomeKit that can connect directly to a standard hose spigot, and it’s compatible with all popular hose systems and water distributors. This means that the Aqua can work with traditional above-ground sprinklers and irrigation systems and is highly flexible. 

What can you do with a smart water controller? 

With a smart water controller like the Eve Aqua, you can turn your sprinkler or irrigation system on and off from your iPhone – whether that’s through the Eve app or with Siri.

But it’s more than a fancy on/off switch. With the Eve Aqua, you can also set up schedules. These schedules allow you to automatically water your garden independently of your iPhone and home network, which means it works even if you’re away from your home and without the need for a hub or bridge – a standard requirement of other smart home devices.

You’ll also be able to see insights about the way you irrigate your garden. The Eve app enables you to see information in real time about how much water your garden has consumed.

Although we’ve focused on the Eve Aqua’s HomeKit integration, it also supports Thread. So it can sync up with other Thread devices in your network, and will also add support for new smart home protocol Matter.