Hozelock 25 Automatic Pot Watering Kit

Good price, I bought the 20 Pot Drip Watering Kit for £57 (12th July 2025) Slightly underwhelmed when I unboxed it all, as the Select Timer (2803) instructions were a nightmare to follow. I have attached the instructions which I downloaded off the Hozelock site, which were much easier to understand. The Timer does not have a digital display, to confrim the settings, but after setting it up and having a play with the settings it is perfectly OK. Just set it up and go. I chose the 6 hour settings and 5 minutes duration, so every 6 hours it turns on for 5 minutes, this equates to 500 mls of water from each dripper 4 times a day. Which is perfect for my pots, troughs and tomatoe plants Timer: Great once you get your head around the settings. Ease of use: Very easy to install Watering capacity: Perfect for pots, troughs etc Value for money: Best value for money I could find, with all of the components you need to have a complets irrigation system Quality: Solid, well built, quality components, not the flimsy rubbish that breaks and leaks from China Persevere with the timer settings and you will have a solid reliable system that works.

Setting up was easy. The AC1 timer (Also known as AC Plus) is plasticky but feels reasonably sturdy. You unscrew the battery panel, insert 2 C Size batteries (not included) and screw the panel back on ensuring you don’t lose any of the rubber seals provided. You then attach the timer to your tap with the provided threaded fittings and attach the pressure reducing adaptor to the bottom of that. The tubing feeds out of the adaptor. You get a reel of tube (15 metres) that you cut to lengths with scissors and push connect together with the adaptors supplied. You use them to branch off the pipping to your pots as needed. At the end of each branch just push on a Dripper stake and stick it in the plant pot soil. When the water is flowing you get a nice constant dribble of water direct into the pot. All parts have good seals with no leaks. Only problem is, 15 metres really doesn’t go a long way. You may need to buy more. The AC1 timer itself is a bit trickier to work out. You have 3 coloured sections on the dial. RED – For Manual watering. GREEN – For ‘Auto Start’ timed watering periods. BLUE – For ‘Auto Start’ predefined program watering periods. RED Manual allows you to override any ‘Auto Start’ settings and simply turns the water On and Off. It also has an option to stay on for 60 minutes (no idea why). GREEN ‘Auto Start’ timed watering periods has options for 2, 5, 15, 30 and 60 minutes. Once you’ve set the ‘Auto Start’ time, it will turn ON for this period of time and turn itself OFF again. BLUE ‘Auto Start’ predefined program watering periods has a set of 8 predefined schedules that you cannot edit but are kind of useful e.g. On for 10 minutes every 12hrs. On for 2 minutes every 6hrs etc Again, you need to set the ‘Auto Start’ time first. SETTING AUTO START TIME. In the Blue section of the timer is an option for ‘Auto Start’. To get the Auto Start to work you first need to turn the dial to this position to set the time. At the time you turn it to that position, it remembers it. So if you want to water your plants at 7am, you need to get up at 7am and turn the dial to that position. Note: That you don’t get any visual indication that it’s worked, but it does. ONCE THE TIME IS SET, THE TIMER WILL MEMORISE IT. YOU DON’T NEED TO SET IT AGAIN. Once you have set the time, just turn the dial to the Green / Blue Auto Start watering period you desire. So if you want to water you plants for 30 minutes at 7am. At 7am, turn the dial clockwise to ‘Auto Start’ then turn it back round anti-clockwise to the green 30 minutes option. If you then turn the dial to Manual ON/OFF, you can override the timer but once you turn it back to one of the Green / Blue ‘Auto Start’ watering settings it continues at the last time you set. If you subsequently want to change that time you need to turn the dial to the ‘Auto Start’ position at that new time. Overall, all good. I’d give it 5 out of 5. There are better timers out there with more options but for the price of the kit, it’s pretty good.

I have installed this kit in my garden to water 22 pots (currently and a wall rockery. Positive points: When finally installed and working it does exactly as claimed. The included timer is simple and gives several alternative watering programs. We have had a hosepipe ban here in Cornwall since spring 2022 but this kind of drip irrigation system is one of the few exemptions to the ban. The fittings are all mostly push fit with screw fit for timer to the tap so no tools are required. The small pipe fittings may prove difficult for people with arthritic or weak hands. Negative points: 1. The instructions are a joke !. The photos are so small you can't make out the detail and there is insufficient corresponding written explanation. I installed the drippers in the 13mm pipe the wrong way around at first and had to remove and turn around to the correct way. There is no further detailed information on the Hozelock website and the photos there are no better. The pressure reducer required an extra rubber washer to seal it to my tap to stop it leaking. Fortunately I carry lots of spare bits and pieces. There is no information in the instructions but I suspect if you install the pipework without the pressure reducer it will probably result in a burst pipeline. There should be a strong warning about this. 2. If your water pressure is good like mine you may find the pressure reducer oscillates producing a slight water hammer in the pipework which can reverberate through your house. Solution is to restrict the water flow to the timer or better still just add more drip points. The extra flow seems to reduce the likelihood of this happening. 3. I had to buy more 13mm pipe (25m) and more drippers but there was plenty of 4mm pipe. The extra packs you can buy are ridiculously expensive for what they are. I found you can buy exactly the same spike drippers from another company at more than 50% lower cost. So Hozelock are buying them in and making more than 100% profit on them. Most of the Hozelock add-on packs are £9.99 or thereabouts and are not worth the money and you can get the same or equivalent elsewhere much cheaper. Overall i'm very pleased with my system but as a retired engineer and experienced DIY'er I get frustrated when company's don't produce satisfactory installation instructions which would cost no extra for them to produce.

I bought this system to water outdoor potted plants while on holiday. The first thing I noticed was that the timer included in the kit isn’t great. It’s difficultl to set and offers a very limited set of options. I will eventually buy a new timer. To have the timer water the plants in the middle of the night, you have to get up in the middle of the night once to set the timer! The irrigation system was pretty straightforward to install until I began installing the drippers. They barely dripped (and my water pressure is more than adequate]. The drippers are not adjustable, so big pots get the same amount of water as tiny pots. I quickly replaced the drippers with https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B075M65J74/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1, which work 100 per cent better than the Hozelock drippers. The system works, but is lousy value for money. In retrospect, I should have bought the more expensive Gardena system.

Great item, seems like a pain to do when you first open the pack, you need to measure lengths of hose and cut it and clip in the drip spikes but actually it takes about 20 minutes all in. Look for instructions to the timer unit online if not clear, the enclosed pictogram instruction sheet leaves a lot to be desired.

I saw the reviews on this product and purchased for my pot plants (situated outside) whilst planning a holiday. The timer was easy to set up and worked well. My problem is with the dripper stakes and their connection to the hose. Despite turning my water tap to very low,(which meant the control unit dripped) the pressure control in the device was obviously not up to the job, resulting in many of the hose to dripper connections blowing apart. This meant the water supply stopped at where there connections should have been, drowning some pots and leaving others dry. I have tried to secure the hoses to the dripper stakes with duc tape, but no go. The whole system is now back in its box, probably awaiting a rubbish collection. A complete waste of money in my case. I wonder if this system is more suited to a greenhouse environment where external factors like wind and rain are unlikely to put pressure on the joining of the hoses to the dripper stake?

Really, really good! I was sceptical at first but the on/off motor works very well and the whole thing is simple to use. There's easily enough bits for 1/2 a greenhouse of pots (in my case 16) and there's plenty of tubing. Had to buy an adaptor from B&Q to make it easy to connect and un-connect a hose from the thinner tubing, but if they included that adaptor (Hoselock 2289) they'd be onto a serios winner.

Used this drip irrigation system for the second year and still working very well . It’s discrete with the smaller tube and pressure valve great idea.