I'm interested to find out if other people in this community have information about chlorine sensors or if they are interested in what I have done with my Jacuzzi J-375 hot tub to automate it.
I bought the Hot Tub in 2015 or 2016. The water used to last about 3-6 months, the pool service did not keep the levels right and I was running the pumps about 16-20 hours a day. Then I found out about TFT and started to maintain my own chemicals.
About a year ago, I decided to automate the Hot Tub control. I reverse engineered the electronics between the buttons and the control until. After that I installed a wi-fi based Raspberry-Pi computer and then I installed a peristaltic pump to add a little chlorine every day. Right now, I test chemical levels about once every 3-4 weeks. Generally I need to add di-chlor, to move the CYA levels back up and a little dry acid to move the pH down a bit. The system is very stable, I run the pumps about 2-3 hours a day and I only do that on cheap rate night electricity, which saves me about $75 a month on my electric bill. Basically I heat the hot tub to 105 or 106 in the morning and it's right about 103 when I want to go into it in the evening. I add about 50mL of chlorine a day, which is about 2 ppm in a 470 gallon hot tub. All the pump and chlorine scheduling is controlled by the Raspberry-Pi.
The current water is just over 2 years old, it has very high hardness levels (550) and is right on the edge of my ability to balance. I am about to dump and replace about half the water to get the hardness back down to a reasonable level. So I figure this means the water lasts about 4 years compared to the 3-6 months I used to get.
I started to write up a blog earlier this year which is at DIY: WiFi my Hot Tub. A lot of functionality has been added since I did that blog, which I have not written up yet.
Has anybody else out there built there own hot-tub controller, Do you measure the chlorine levels or just add some each day as I do. Is anybody out the adjusting pH automatically ?
Thanks to all those that have made this forum great and for providing the basis for me to have done this project.
Bruce
I bought the Hot Tub in 2015 or 2016. The water used to last about 3-6 months, the pool service did not keep the levels right and I was running the pumps about 16-20 hours a day. Then I found out about TFT and started to maintain my own chemicals.
About a year ago, I decided to automate the Hot Tub control. I reverse engineered the electronics between the buttons and the control until. After that I installed a wi-fi based Raspberry-Pi computer and then I installed a peristaltic pump to add a little chlorine every day. Right now, I test chemical levels about once every 3-4 weeks. Generally I need to add di-chlor, to move the CYA levels back up and a little dry acid to move the pH down a bit. The system is very stable, I run the pumps about 2-3 hours a day and I only do that on cheap rate night electricity, which saves me about $75 a month on my electric bill. Basically I heat the hot tub to 105 or 106 in the morning and it's right about 103 when I want to go into it in the evening. I add about 50mL of chlorine a day, which is about 2 ppm in a 470 gallon hot tub. All the pump and chlorine scheduling is controlled by the Raspberry-Pi.
The current water is just over 2 years old, it has very high hardness levels (550) and is right on the edge of my ability to balance. I am about to dump and replace about half the water to get the hardness back down to a reasonable level. So I figure this means the water lasts about 4 years compared to the 3-6 months I used to get.
I started to write up a blog earlier this year which is at DIY: WiFi my Hot Tub. A lot of functionality has been added since I did that blog, which I have not written up yet.
Has anybody else out there built there own hot-tub controller, Do you measure the chlorine levels or just add some each day as I do. Is anybody out the adjusting pH automatically ?
Thanks to all those that have made this forum great and for providing the basis for me to have done this project.
Bruce