Experiences Gardena Bluetooth Integration with ESP32 Bluetooth Proxy

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1

I use the following Gardena products in my garden:

  • 2 Water Control Bluetooth (01889-20)

  • 2 Irrigation Valve 9 V Bluetooth (1285-20)

  • 1 Garden Pump 6300 (9058-61)

For communication I use a BT Proxy based on ESPHome on an ESP32.

My experiences:

  • The BT Proxy can keep a maximum of 3 connections open. Although I have 5 devices, one proxy is enough. The connections between clients and proxy are not permanently open.

  • Originally I had used ESPHome 2024.9.1. I had to restart the proxy from time to time because connections were not released and after a while there were no more free connections.

  • I am currently using ESPHome 2025.6.1 and no longer have this problem (I think BLE has been improved with 2025.2).

  • The stability of the connection strongly depends on the distance between client and proxy. The Water Control, for example, also connects over a distance of 4 m, for the pump I had to bring the proxy within 1.5 metres.

  • As soon as I initiate a command in Home Assistant, it takes approx. 10-15 seconds for the valve to open (establishing the connection to the BT client).

1 Like
2

what esp32 are you using? with my level lock I switched to an esp32-c6 (ble 5) and connection was a lot faster.
Ive read that an Ethernet connection to an esp32 will speed it up also.

3

Thanks for the hint. I am currently using ESP32s, which is obviously not an ideal choice for this project.

4

How to avoid that the valve’s are not reachable anymore from the inegration. I need to wake them up by pushing the button on the valve manualy. How did you forcome that.

5

I had a similar issue with the pump. Possible solutions

  • Update the firmware on your valves
  • Reduce the distance between valve and BT proxy