Does Easytouch warm the spa when freeze protection is active?

[grunky_peep]

Last week, I walked outside in the morning to empty my Betta basket and noticed that there was steam coming off my spa, and it was somewhat warm to the touch, despite the pool water being in the low 50s F. I thought one of my kids may have used it the prior night or something, but it turns out that no one turned it on. The air temps have been in the low-to-mid 30s for the past couple weeks, so the freeze protection has been active overnight, which is completely normal. I let it go another couple days, and each morning the spa was obviously much warmer than 50'. I checked the history graph in my Screenlogic app, and it does seem that the spa is turning on around midnight. And last night, it looks like it activated a second time around 1 or 2am.

I've tried googling around and can't find a straight answer for this, but while the normal freeze protection mode for the pool circuit, can it also activate the spa periodically? It would sort of make sense to get some water moving through those pipes, but I have never noticed this before.

I attached a screenshot of the history graph. It's sort of weird that the midnight activation brought it to 80', while the one around 1 or 2am brought it up to my spa limit at 95'.

 

[mknauss]

If you have SPA selected for Freeze Protection, it should be operating when the Pool is in Freeze Protection. The Heater should not operate when in Freeze Protection.

It switching to SPA when not in Freeze Protection means you have a schedule set for it to occur.

 

[grunky_peep]

If you have SPA selected for Freeze Protection, it should be operating when the Pool is in Freeze Protection. The Heater should not operate when in Freeze Protection.

It switching to SPA when not in Freeze Protection means you have a schedule set for it to occur.

Ok, I just read the manual and it states that if freeze protection is on for Pool and Spa circuits, it should alternate between the two every 15 minutes (I'm assuming it will not kick on the heater since the purpose is just to move water) as long as the air temp is 35' or under. The only problem is my spa isn't set for freeze protection (I should probably change that):



I'm thoroughly stumped how it's switching over to spa and turning on the heater. These are my only schedules:


I have 2 Pool schedules going at the same time in the winter, but I extend the weekend one to run until 9pm during the summer when we do evening swims. My only non-12-hour egg timers are the spa, booster pump and spillway, so it shouldn't be doing something wacky since I'm under 12 "schedules."

Brainstorming some more, I have all the pool controls exposed to HomeKit via the Pentair Homebridge plugin on a Raspberry Pi. I do have home automations set to turn all my pool equipment off at 11pm and then again at 1am. I thought maybe I had some automation backwards (like turning it on instead of off), but after double-checking, it doesn't seem so.

My only thought is that I do have that 5-minute delay to turn the filter pump off for heater cooldown set to on, so maybe when these "turn off" commands are sent to the Easytouch (despite the pump being off at 11pm/1am), it's triggering this 5-minute delay, which causes the pump to turn on, then shut off after 5 minutes. I'm not sure why it would be flipping the valves over to spa mode and turning the heater on though. Typically it just runs the pool circuit for 5 minutes after I turn the spa off manually. Zooming in on the previous history graph I posted, it does seem to coincide with 11pm and 1am activation times, so maybe I'm onto something. I'm going to have to play around and see if this is the case.

 

[grunky_peep]

I just went outside and tried:
- Shutting off pump
- Sending "turn off pool/spa" commands from Homekit

And nothing happened. I'm guessing the pump has to be on and in freeze protection mode to reproduce this.

So if my pump is on and in freeze protection mode, and Homekit issues "turn off pool" and "turn off spa" commands, it's going to trigger the turn off delay. I assume it will then shut off the pump, and freeze protection mode will turn it back on? I still haven't the slightest clue why it would turn the heater on though...

I went ahead and disabled my 11pm/1am off automations for tonight to see if it makes a difference. I suspect that this will solve it, but I still want to know why the heater is coming on. I don't even want to think of how much gas I've wasted in the 4 years we've been in this house lol

 

[mknauss]

Easytouch will not do what you say, so it must be your add on.

 

[wireform]

Your signature doesn't show a heater.

 

[grunky_peep]

Your signature doesn't show a heater.

Thanks, will update.

Of course, temps didn't get down to freezing protection range last night, so I couldn't test it out. I know I can mess with the temp calibrations, but it's already been out of whack and I've readjusted it a few times lately, so I'd rather just leave it alone. Judging by the weather forecasts, it's going to take a few weeks for the temps to drop low enough at night.

 

[ajw22]

Thanks, will update.

Of course, temps didn't get down to freezing protection range last night, so I couldn't test it out. I know I can mess with the temp calibrations, but it's already been out of whack and I've readjusted it a few times lately, so I'd rather just leave it alone. Judging by the weather forecasts, it's going to take a few weeks for the temps to drop low enough at night.

Stick the air temperature probe, likely dangling at the bottom of your EasyTouch system, into a glass of ice water, and you can trick the system into FREEZE MODE anytime to test it.

 

[grunky_peep]

Ok so I finally had low overnight temps last night. The freeze protection kicked on last night around 11pm so I gave it a shot and had Homekit set the "turn all my pool stuff off" scene as I watched it in the app. It turned the valves from the pool to the spa and kicked on the heater, so I found my culprit. I have absolutely NO idea why it wants to heat the spa, but at least I found my problem. I removed my pool/spa off commands from my 11pm/1am automations and everything is all good now.