Basic Pool Automation & Monitoring Questions

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Yev

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Jul 29, 2014
558
Independence, KY
I have a very simple IG pool (No electronic valves, no heaters, no spa, no waterfalls, no pool light, etc.). I have a Pentair IntelliFlo VS SVRS. I would like to be able to do 2 thing with my pool that I cannot currently do.

1.) Manipulate the pump from somewhere else besides the pump keypad. This could be my phone, a laptop, a remote keypad, etc. With this, I am open to the use of any type of DIY Homemade system such as Arduino or Raspberry Pi based, or with a commercial based system. However, I am not made of money, so with commercial I am trying ot find the cheapest possible option. Since I dont have fancy stuff, I dont need one of the automation systems that can do a thousand things, and thus cost thousands of dollars. So can someone help me with identifying the cheapest options that I can.

2.) I would like to be able to know the temperature of my water. Ideally with my phone. I have seen the floating digital thermometers, but have heard that a lot of people have trouble with getting those to last for a long time, so I am nervous to go with this option. Any feedback on this would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.
 
Unfortunately I know of no way to interface with an intelliflo pump other than a Pentair automation panel which is on the expensive side of things.
The automation panel should solve your water temperature desire as well.

For my pool I use an out door weather station to keep tabs on my pool temp. For two years it's worked perfectly with the probe staying in the pool.

The weather station is This and the pool sensor is This.

I can pull up the info on my phone from anywhere.
 

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Yev, for convenience, you do have to pay for it...

Re your pump, how often do you have to "manipulate it" and what kind of things are you trying to do? There could be other approaches.

Re automation, since you do not have a lot of things to control, you could go w a every entry level system. But, you'll have to perform the cost to you having to go to the pad and make your changes and see if you feel the investment is worth it...

if you do not go w automation, chuck above provides you w a way to check your temp's. BTW Chuck, could the mini-weather station you have be set up remotely 55 miles from your primary home to monitor another piece of property? Does the remote place need wifi or satellite to work w primary home? thanks
 
Re: Basic Pool Automation & Monitoring Questions

tstex said:
Yev, for convenience, you do have to pay for it...

Re your pump, how often do you have to "manipulate it" and what kind of things are you trying to do? There could be other approaches.
Click to expand...

I am aware that all things pool are free. My biggest issue is that my pump is on the other side of a fence on the side of my house (also the pump is slightly above the water level). What I would love to be able to do is to help with manual vacuuming the pool. I do not have a robot, I actually enjoy vacuuming the pool.

Anyway, when I vacuum the top stair of my pool, sometimes the pump will trigger an error. SO then I have to set the vacuum down, walk around the house, come back to the vacuum, get it out of the water since it has sunk by that point, and then start again. Sometimes I have to do this once or twice before I can get back to normal operation.

Then when i am done vacuuming, I need to go shut the pump down so I can get the vacuum plate broken away from the skimmer basket bottom. Then once I put the vacuum away, I have to go turn the pump back on.

Again, these are first world problems, I get that, but it can be a pain, and some automation, either to a control pad closer to the pool or on my phone would make me a much happier person.

- - - Updated - - -

kadavis said:
This is Pentair's entrylevel communication,IntelliConnect<sup>TM</sup> - Control and Monitoring App - Pentair
Click to expand...

Do you use this device, and are you happy with it?
 
Yev quoted:

"Again, these are first world problems, I get that.."

that's a great quote and I am going to have to remember that when my pump's breaker trips or the like...

With all that walking to pump from pool, I can see if you vacuum a lot that it's a pain, but look at all the time you can just float in your pool instead of having to swim laps bc you already got all the exercise you needed walking so much :) I'm not familiar w the product you listed, but before I would use any type of "automation" other than a true automation set-up, I would make sure from plenty of people that it really works, there's no hick-ups or major work-arounds and that the users has been successfully using it for 3+ yrs or more...

The other option is to hire a nborhood kid to vacuum your pool and while you boss him around, you could be drinking some cold ones :cheers: this would surely cut down on the walking, but you might have to now swim some laps to get some exercise as well as swim off all those beers you had :)

You might want to get some proposals from Pentair dealers bc you have a Pentair pump and get diff ideas and quotes to solve your problem - good luck, tstex
 
CJadamec said:
Unfortunately I know of no way to interface with an intelliflo pump other than a Pentair automation panel which is on the expensive side of things.
The automation panel should solve your water temperature desire as well.

For my pool I use an out door weather station to keep tabs on my pool temp. For two years it's worked perfectly with the probe staying in the pool.

The weather station is This and the pool sensor is This.

I can pull up the info on my phone from anywhere.
Click to expand...

I also use this for the last year and it seems to work fine for me:cheers:
 

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