Intellicenter Users - Freeze Protection warning

Turbo1Ton said:

@MyAZPool

Here are a handful of screenshots from the iOS app as I performed the same test again. Not sure what exactly is needed.

Nowhere in the app does it say freeze protect is active, even after I turned freeze protect back on for both pool and spa circuits.

If there is a photo of a specific menu or other information that is needed, please let me know.



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--Jeff

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Jeff,
Using your first screenshot, scroll down under Features and hit the "Features Menu" button. Then on the top bar, there's a "Pool" button, if you go there, you'll get the old UI which shows Freeze Protection. I'll grab a photo tonight when mine turns on and show you.

Here’s where you can see Freeze Protection. Not the best font contrast but you can see the Spa is under Freeze Protect.

PdInc said:

I don’t know the why’s or how’s, but I’ve always had freeze protection “ON” for pool and spa in the Intellicenter that was installed this summer. Woke up yesterday to 7º temps here in Texas and the pump and lines were frozen - freeze protection was not enabled!

Tented the equipment and left a heat gun blowing for a few hours and was able to get the Intelliflo pump started, but realized the NEW Intellichlor is cracked and leaking. Not sure what else has been damaged, but Dang I’m ******.

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Update.

I spoke with Pentair, they are not going to provide assistance or warranty. Though the woman was very nice and understanding, ultimately the responsibility for ensuring freeze protection is operating falls on the consumer.

I am quite upset as I know the freeze protection has always been on for both the pool and spa circuits - how it was disabled I don't understand. Why would any pool system even allow disabling freeze protection?

Hopefully the cracked salt cell is the only issue.

I just can't believe Pentair is not going to help - at all. It really is disappointing.

PdInc said:

Update.

I spoke with Pentair, they are not going to provide assistance or warranty. Though the woman was very nice and understanding, ultimately the responsibility for ensuring freeze protection is operating falls on the consumer.

I am quite upset as I know the freeze protection has always been on for both the pool and spa circuits - how it was disabled I don't understand. Why would any pool system even allow disabling freeze protection?

I just can't believe Pentair is not going to help - at all. It really is disappointing.

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Some companies do the right thing, others do the right thing after a judge tells them to. This is likely a bean-counter decision, that any possible bad publicity from Pentair's negligence won't cost more than replacing damage from it would. And I don't mean to say a failure of their equipment was necessarily negligent, but failure to alert their customers of this known issue, also known to cause expensive damage, certainly is (IMO).

I would argue that "ensuring freeze protection is operating" means purchasing equipment that includes freeze protection and reasonably expecting that protection to work as advertised, as the included manual states. That, and only that, is the consumer's responsibility. It is not reasonable for the provider of such equipment to expect you to double-check "protection is operating" every 15 minutes. It is reasonable for a consumer to assume such a protection would be designed to recover from periodic power glitches, or full on failures, which are totally expected operating conditions (once in a while). And by recover I mean be able to restore its settings after such glitches or failures.

Would you expect a refrigerator to turn itself off because of a power failure? And that it would be your fault that your food spoiled while you were away, because the refrigerator was programmed not to begin cooling again after a power failure? That would be ridiculous. That's Pentair's policy. It's one thing if a power glitch blows up your electrical equipment. That happens. That's really the fault of the power company. But under normal conditions, it's reasonable to assume electrical things will continue to function after a power failure that doesn't include any errant power spikes.

Anywho, whaddayagunnado? You could sue Pentair in small claims court (Texas SCC goes up to at least $10K). See what happens. That'd only cost you $85 or so if you lose. That might be worth a shot at recovering your loss (what, $1000 or so?). They can't send a lawyer. I doubt they'd even send anyone. If they don't, they'll have to send you a new one (or a check) when you get a default judgement.

What's even more frustrating is that we built this pool in 1998 and for the last 25 years have never had an issue with freeze protection. The original mechanical (?) freeze protection has never failed. The very first year we installed the $$$ IntelCenter, it failed to activate. I know it was set to Freeze Protect for both the Pool and Spa circuits because it protected just fine during the cold months earlier this year. Something changed - and we didn't change it.

Pentair offered absolutely no assistance other than to provide a local telephone number to hire a repair technician.

On principal alone, I will file suit in our local small claims court.

Filed

Awesome! I wonder if @MyAZPool would be willing to share a copy of the email he received from Pentair regarding this matter, which IMO proves Pentair was well aware of this issue. That could be done privately.

Also, we’re pretty badly hijacking this thread. Maybe @Turbo1Ton wouldn’t mind, or maybe @Newdude can decide if this should be moved to a new thread. And/or dude can weigh in on whether TFP would frown on this particular topic being aired out on this forum.

I may have misspoke. Check your local info. A small claims defendant cannot be represented in court by an attorney in California. That may not be true in TX. Practically speaking, I’m gonna guess that shouldn’t matter. I can’t imagine Pentair would send an attorney to TX before they would send you an SWG, but ya never know.

Pentair released a new IC firmware today:

Turbo1Ton said:

I have downloaded it to the panel. I am currently on lunch break. Not enough time to test. If I can get time this evening, I will run through the previous test and advise.

It does look promising, as Freeze Protect was still enabled after the reboot.

--Jeff

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OTA didn’t work. Going to try USB now.

USB worked. Lots of bug fixes cited but just bug numbers from JIRA, not actual useful text. I’ll post pics in a second.

I did just reboot the panel twice and freeze protection remained on!

New iOS app today, revised/refined UI. I get a warning to update my app when I launch even though I have the latest version. Clicking "Not Now" works:

DB-Cooper said:

USB worked. Lots of bug fixes cited but just bug numbers from JIRA, not actual useful text. I’ll post pics in a second.

I did just reboot the panel twice and freeze protection remained on!

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@DB-Cooper
Thanks for the update. That's great. Hopefully, they got the infamous "Freeze Protection" bug fix incorporated in V2.006 correctly.

I think I'm going to hold out for a while and see if I get the firmware "auto-push" . Since I don't use the Freeze Protection feature, I'm really in no hurry at this point.

Besides, I had the opportunity to try out a beta V2.02 "Re-Arch and it completely destroyed my njspC. It was a mess and I had to get them to help me
revert back to V1.064 and then it was a nightmare getting njspC back up. First time that happened. So hopefully V2.006 won't have that problem. No more firmware "beta's" for me.

Yea, I was running the beta iOS version 2.5.36. Fantastic improvements!

I'll see if I can get a hold of public releasable readouts on those internal Jira bug tickets. Not sure.. Would be nice to see what was actually addressed.
r.

MyAZPool said:

@DB-Cooper
Thanks for the update. That's great. Hopefully, they got the infamous "Freeze Protection" bug fix incorporated in V2.006 correctly.

I think I'm going to hold out for a while and see if I get the firmware "auto-push" . Since I don't use the Freeze Protection feature, I'm really in no hurry at this point.

Besides, I had the opportunity to try out a beta V2.02 "Re-Arch and it completely destroyed my njspC. It was a mess and I had to get them to help me
revert back to V1.064 and then it was a nightmare getting njspC back up. First time that happened. So hopefully V2.006 won't have that problem. No more firmware "beta's" for me.

Yea, I was running the beta iOS version 2.5.36. Fantastic improvements!

I'll see if I can get a hold of public releasable readouts on those internal Jira bug tickets. Not sure.. Would be nice to see what was actually addressed.
r.

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I run HomeBridge and use HomeKit automation a lot. I was a bit nervous. I run: GitHub - dustindclark/homebridge-pentair-intellicenter: Homebridge plugin for Pentair IntelliCenter and was worried it might get hosed, but so far it looks like it's all working. Presumably, the APIs haven't changed.

DB-Cooper said:

I run HomeBridge and use HomeKit automation a lot. I was a bit nervous. I run: GitHub - dustindclark/homebridge-pentair-intellicenter: Homebridge plugin for Pentair IntelliCenter and was worried it might get hosed, but so far it looks like it's all working. Presumably, the APIs haven't changed.

Click to expand...

Are you using the "Homebridge Alexa Plugin" as well? If so, how do you like it?