Turn the pump on/off from inside the house

Is it possible, yes.

Cost and difficulty depends o0n the details of your house. You need to get some quotes from electricians.

There are some non-wifi options as well, remote relays that work by signals sent over the power line or by radio signals from a dedicated remote control.

ba67 said:

Is it possible to get an on/off switch installed inside the house for the pump? If so, would it likely cost a lot to get this switch installed by an electrician? There are always bees near the pump so I'd like to be able to turn it off and on from inside the house. I know that I could buy a wifi timer which would allow me to turn the pump on and off remotely with my phone, but my internet isn't that good on that side of the house since it is so far from the router/cable modem so I worry that a wifi timer won't work well. We currently don't have a timer because I like to turn the pump on and off at different times each day, depending upon the weather because we have a lot of trees. (If it is windy or a storm is expected, we turn the pump off so the skimmer doesn't fill up with leaves and damage the pump. ) I'm not very knowledgable about electricity so I'm hoping someone on here can help me. There is an electric box mounted on the brick wall next to the pool pump and salt water generator (which is currently broken), and there is an office on the other side of that wall. There is a larger electrical box in the utility room that controls the entire the house and one of those circuit breakers is labeled "pool."

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Or Amazon.com

Why don't you try to do something about the bees?

In my opinion, @1poolman1 has given you the best and worst solutions.

I wouldn't use X10 tech for a lightbulb, let alone a pool pump. Frankly, I wouldn't use any WiFi or "smart home" devices for a pool pump or SWG or pool heater. Nothing pool-related. They are just not reliable enough. You need something that won't go off on its own, and absolutely cannot energize a pump on its own. And a solution that absolutely will go on and off when it's supposed to. The pump turning off might be considered relatively harmless, but coming on at the wrong time could be extremely dangerous. Or not being able to turn it off reliably is just as bad. Residential Wifi is just not mission critical tech, and neither is X10. I used to have a house full of X10 products, and they had a mind of their own. I struggled with them for years, and finally got rid of all of them after coming home a few times to every single X10 device turned on. The end.

On the flip side, 1's recommendation for that 20A switch would be reliable, simple and bullet proof. Have an electrician wire it right through your office wall, located opposite that pool pad breaker box. You'd just go into your office to flip the switch. No WiFi, no extenders, no fussy electronics or programming, just a plain ol' dumb switch.

I would go with something like this one. It's rated for 277 volts and 30 amps and has both a lighted switch handle and a pilot light. So it'll be illuminated all the time, to make it easy to find at night, and then lights up brighter when the pump is on, so you'll know from inside at a distance if the pump is on. And Leviton is a good brand.


Someday, if budget allows, you can install a reliable pool automation system bundled with a new SWG and control everything from a computer or smart phone, from anywhere inside your house, or out in the yard, or anywhere in the world.

Again, IMO, a dumb switch or a dedicated pool automation system (the two opposite ends of the cost spectrum) are the only two choices I'd recommend.

I would agree that X10 is not a good idea. I've had plenty of experience with it, and while it can be made to be reasonably reliable it can often take a lot of work and troubleshooting to make it so. FWIW I have never seen issues with X10 "going off on it's own" the typcal problem is that the it doesn't go off at all or only on the 3 or 4'th attempt at pushing the button. There is a similar, newer technology called "Insteon" that is much more reliable (and I have a whole house full), but I would hesitate to recommend that as well as the original company went bankrupt a few years ago. A group of investors has resurrected the product line but I'm not sure of the long term stability.

If the wiring is such that Dirk's suggest of a switch inside the house on the wall opposite the panel can be done with minimal labor the indeed that's probably a good solution.

I'll let the other techies chime in with suggestions for WiFi switches and WiFi extenders as I have not played with those to any extent.

My pump timer is on the wall in the pool area, but the pump itself is under my deck. I got tired of having to crawl in and out to control things for things like the filter backwashing or hooking up my vacuum and all that.

So I have a simple two-pole switch near the pump. Power goes from the main panel into the timer, then from the timer through the switch to the pump.

So I can turn the pump on at the timer (or leave it on) and then turn the pump off and on right at the pump/filter as needed for convenience sake. Perhaps something similar might work for your situation?

flynwill said:

There is a similar, newer technology called "Insteon" that is much more reliable (and I have a whole house full)

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I have a houseful of Insteon, too. And it is significantly more reliable than X10. But I would never use it on my pool equipment (other than the light). I have found my pool automation controller (EasyTouch) to be 100% reliable, but Insteon is not. And neither is WiFi. Not in my house, anyway.

There's a reason they still use mechanical knobs and switches on the Space Shuttle (and aircraft).

At the end of the day, you're not switching life-support here...it's a pool pump. Worst case, it doesn't turn on or off and you have to reset it. Not sure anyone is gonna die. Are there more reliable, bullet proof ways to do it, probably, but you asked for a wifi switch

I ran a Wifi-timer/switch for over a year with zero issues. It integrated with Alexa and my phone, and would alert me if the switch was unresponsive or anything. It automatically caught up if there was a power outage or internet issue etc - I guess I maybe had one time where I had to reset it so it synced back up, but that was after a series of power interruptions from the power company. It used an app on my phone (doesn't everything these days) but it was one that I already had for some other wifi-appliances anyway.

The one I had also had a manual button that would toggle on/off. 2.4Ghz wifi is pretty pervasive, and extending wifi these days is also fairly easy - I have multiple 'nodes' on my mesh setup where I get 5Ghz wifi in the polebarn 100ft from the main house without issue - its a sub-$100 problem to be honest.

Suraielec 40A 2HP Wifi Pool Timer/Switch

The only reason I replaced it was I switched to a VSP - but to be honest, the build in scheduling on the new pump isn't any where near as reliable/flexible as the wifi-switch app was.

SJPoe said:

At the end of the day, you're not switching life-support here...it's a pool pump. Worst case, it doesn't turn on or off and you have to reset it. Not sure anyone is gonna die.

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"Not sure..." Uh, huh. I don't know the Hayward super pump, but many pool pumps are powerful enough to eviscerate a person, or cause other serious injury, should a person's skin or fingers get too close to an open suction port (like while cleaning a skimmer or pool pump basket). If the OP or anyone working on the pool is 100% diligent about turning off the circuit breaker to the pump while working around its intakes, then any potential dangers associated with a "smart" switch would be negated. That's fine. But who does that?

The goal in building a pool control system is to make it as bullet proof, idiot proof, as possible, including anticipating possible failure scenarios. I am just of the opinion that smart switches are potential dangerous failure points. And admittedly I am more cautious about such things that most people.

I just realized that the advice about installing a mechanical switch in the office has a significant flaw. While it will still be possible to shut off the pump from the pad using the circuit breaker (in the event of some sort of emergency), the opposite is not true. If the office pool pump switch is in the off position, and you're outside and want to turn on the pump, you won't be able to. You'll have to go inside to flip the switch. Just something to consider.

That's a "pro" for a smart switch solution, because you can turn them on manually from the pad, and via phone app from wherever you happen to be (assuming you have your phone on you).

I have a pool automation controller, so don't have these issues. It's safe and reliable and I can control my pool pump, including its RPM settings, from anywhere, using any computer, my phone, my wall-mounted panel or while at the pad.

How's your pump? Is it old? Is it single speed? If you've ever considered a new one, that would solve your problem, too. Modern variable speed pumps not only save you money (and eventually pay for themselves), some can now be controlled by apps. And they have on-board computers that can be programmed with schedules.

Dirk said:

I just realized that the advice about installing a mechanical switch in the office has a significant flaw. While it will still be possible to shut off the pump from the pad using the circuit breaker (in the event of some sort of emergency), the opposite is not true. If the office pool pump switch is in the off position, and you're outside and want to turn on the pump, you won't be able to. You'll have to go inside to flip the switch. Just something to consider.

That's a "pro" for a smart switch solution, because you can turn them on manually from the pad, and via phone app from wherever you happen to be (assuming you have your phone on you).

I have a pool automation controller, so don't have these issues. It's safe and reliable and I can control my pool pump, including its RPM settings, from anywhere, using any computer, my phone, my wall-mounted panel or while at the pad.

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LOL - I was just about to write a 'hey, I can turn mine off from the pool deck where I'm watching the pump try to eat the stupid neighbor kid that stuck his hand in the hole' rebuttal...and you rebuttall-ed yourself
Besides...if the neighbors kid is stupid enough to unscrew the grill covering the vaccuum port and then put his hand in it, he kinda deserves a little pain...purely as negative reinforcement...training if you like. Ironically, we liked the option to turn OFF the pump when the grandkids were in the pool pretty much for this exact reason...and then the timer would turn it back on at midnight if I forgot etc.

I replaced a corroded, 'mechanical' switch (the one with the pins you put in the dial for on/off, big clunky contactor), which best I can tell wasn't even sized appropriately for the load, and was missing the front cover of the box it was mounted in, wired into a single-pole light switch that switched only one of the two live conductors while the other one continued uninterrupted back to the 50A breaker in the panel. Did I mention this was all wired with 14/2 romex ? And they used to have a pool service that maintained this death trap.

By just about any measure, the sleek, watertight, solid-state (well, relays at least), smart switch,( now connected to a GFI breaker, via 10awg cable in conduit) that I could operate and observe from just about anywhere in the world, was 1000% safer than what was there already. Its certainly not as good as a full-blown automation setup...but it was $50...not $500

SJPoe said:

LOL - I was just about to write a 'hey, I can turn mine off from the pool deck where I'm watching the pump try to eat the stupid neighbor kid that stuck his hand in the hole' rebuttal...and you rebuttall-ed yourself
Besides...if the neighbors kid is stupid enough to unscrew the grill covering the vaccuum port and then put his hand in it, he kinda deserves a little pain...purely as negative reinforcement...training if you like. Ironically, we liked the option to turn OFF the pump when the grandkids were in the pool pretty much for this exact reason...and then the timer would turn it back on at midnight if I forgot etc.

I replaced a corroded, 'mechanical' switch (the one with the pins you put in the dial for on/off, big clunky contactor), which best I can tell wasn't even sized appropriately for the load, and was missing the front cover of the box it was mounted in, wired into a single-pole light switch that switched only one of the two live conductors while the other one continued uninterrupted back to the 50A breaker in the panel. Did I mention this was all wired with 14/2 romex ? And they used to have a pool service that maintained this death trap.

By just about any measure, the sleek, watertight, solid-state (well, relays at least), smart switch,( now connected to a GFI breaker, via 10awg cable in conduit) that I could operate and observe from just about anywhere in the world, was 1000% safer than what was there already. Its certainly not as good as a full-blown automation setup...but it was $50...not $500

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I will twist myself in knots trying to imagine every scenario in which some dummy would have to twist themselves in knots to get hurt at my pool, and then try to devise a defense against that! (Many here have had a good laugh at my expense over my efforts and warnings!) It's just my nature.

The bottom line is: no matter what you do, or how much you safeguard, a body of water in your yard is a life-threatening hazard. We each decide for ourselves how much of one, and what we want to do about it. It's a personal choice. I overcompensate for some dangers, and ignore others. Whaddayagonna do?

Our conversation about these issues is our due diligence for others here. We present our choices and opinions, provide the info, so that readers can make their own informed decisions... And maybe contribute their own solutions someday for others (including us!).