I am about 3 months in on my Rachio system. I think it is too early to tell the impact since we haven't really entered watering season yet. I also think I am still working on the right "profiles" based on the types of plants/soil I am watering. You also can't truly measure water usage without a flowmeter which I have decided against for a number of reasons.
I love how they are connected to the local weather station, that I can control while traveling and that it does rain/wind skips of the schedule. Their recommendations seem to warrant longer running times than I had before but they do update on a daily basis according to the weather. I am 100% confident I have used less water this spring because I would have already started my "summer watering schedule" by now and it has dramatically decreased my water usage in the spring - mostly because I am lazy to program a spring and fall schedule into my old controllers.
I also like that it gives me a history of all of my watering - so I can easily tell what has happened at any point in time. It is so much easier to program than traditional controllers and it will water different sections independently/differently - trees vs bushes vs lawns which is pretty cool. I suspect by the end of summer I will have worked out all of the kinks but overall I am happy I made the investment.
