Company Bio
Tonick Watering, (Tony and Nick) started in 1995 to make 2nd-source irrigation decoders to replace 6 different brands that had proved unreliable. They offered a 5-year warranty including damage by lightning, which was an industry first. Over the next few years, about 2/3rds of the 3000 golf courses in UK and Ireland were using Tonick’s to a greater or lesser extent.
In 1998, Tonick launched the Rainmaker RM-1 controller, which would retrofit to any of the 6 decoder types, replacing worn out original controllers. Many hundreds of golf courses converted to this.
Together with Underhill International in California, Tonick developed a plug-in module for the world-famous Hunter ICC multi-wire controller that turned it into a 2wire decoder system. Many thousands of these were sold into landscape watering, particularly in the USA.
Working with Underhill, Tonick further developed the Sapien and NOVO irrigation controllers for USA. For the EU market. Tonick developed the TW3 controller to retrofit to the most popular golf decoder systems.
A potential market was identified for manufacturers to adapt their own controllers (multi-wire or PLC) to use 2wire. Tonick then developed the "Blind Translator" family (BT2) which allowed them to 'bolt-on' 2wire decoder capability to their own machines, so avoiding the heavy technical risk in trying to develop their own decoders. All subsystems, thus adapted, were own-branded by their manufacturers. Several took advantage of these in the Middle East, Israel, South Africa, Australia, USA and Europe.
Tonick, noticing the relentless shrinkage of electronic components, developed a decoder so small, it could be encapsulated into a few millimetres of extra height as part of a normal valve's solenoid. This was called the DIAS. (Decoder InA Solenoid). It and variants have become the decoder of first choice in many places around the world.
At the end of 2017, Aquamonix in Australia, one of Tonick's longest standing customers, negotiated to buy some of the Tonick decoder technology and now sells it under its acquired "Tonick Watering" brand. The former Tonick in EU, under a new company name, TWL Irrigation Ltd., sells the familiar range of 2wire (TW/2W, TW/TOR and TW3). More controller products are scheduled to be released later in 2021.
To complement the decoder technology, TWL Irrigation markets a large range of the famous Underhill watering products. These include many different types of professional hose watering nozzles (Magnum), water removal hand pumps, (Gulp); fertiliser applicators (Pellet & Liquid Pro); and many very useful golf course maintenance tools.
TWL Irrigation is run by Claire Mathieson (claire@twl-irrigation.com) and Lorraine King (lorraine@twl-irrigation.com). Tony Ware (tony@twl-irrigation.com) continues to provide technical support.
Decoder products are manufactured in Hungary, EU, whilst TWL-Irrigation holds stocks of 2wire decoders and Underhill watering products in Scotland for next day delivery.