Intellicenter - spa mode has come on overnight, anyway to prevent this?

[heckofagator]

Hi all,

3 times now over the past month I have woken up to see the hot tub and heater running. one time I had used the spa the night before but it was 99% shut off as I grilled dinner later that night and would have noticed the spa on. The 2nd time teenage son use the spa the evening prior, said he turned it off, but I figured ok maybe not and didn't think further. Well this morning I woke it, pool was running and nobody use the spa last nite.

So first two times I said "probably wasn't something we did but maybe" but the 3rd time now I really think it has come on by itself.

If there any way programmatically to prevent this sort of thing? I just have 2 timers set in Intellicenter, one for the pool and one for the lights.

 

[JJ_Tex]

Interesting. So if you pull up your schedule, the spa is never scheduled? Here is a view of my page on the Intellicenter, which also does not have the spa scheduled:

If you confirm that the spa truly is not scheduled, could it be that something else like Alexa, apple watch, etc. could be used to turn on the spa.

I think it is also good practice to turn off the heater in the spa before switching back to pool mode. That way if the spa is accidentally turned or, or the freeze protection tripped, you are just running the spa jets and not randomly heating the spa.

 

[heckofagator]

Yeah, super simple here. The pool mode does return to the spa which overflows to the pool. Spa mode we trigger manually.

Seeing your different skim levels, I would like to set something up like that. I have the pump run all day at 1600rpm but do want some more surface agitation and better skimming.

Also the pool builder/Pentair rep set up my lights on a "feature" and I think I want to fix that too, one of these days.

I have thought about turning off heat mode, thanks for the reminder. Not sure the kids will remember that but will remind them. But yeah, the $400 propane tank fillup is the first thing I think about when I walk out in the am and see/hear the spa running.

 

[Ahultin]

I don't have a clue why it would come on by itself but 2 things I would do
1. Confirm you are not on intellicenter firmware 2.006, that can cause unpredictable operations
2. Add an egg timer to spa mode (mine is set to 2hrs which I find a good balance between the inconvenience of having to turn it back on and the possibility of someone leaving it on and using ~250 gallons of propane)

 

[heckofagator]

1. I am on 2.006 and it says that's the latest. I will have to look about how to download outside of the panel.

2. Egg timer sounds good. I didn't k own that was an option but yeah I think 2 hours is a good medium

 

[Ahultin]

Egg timer is on the circuits page
2.017 is on pentairs site for usb install

IntelliCenter® Control System Firmware Download

Stay up to date with the newest software. Download the latest versions of our software's here.

www.pentair.com

 

[heckofagator]

Perfect yes timer on the spa was 12 hours. Thx.

I see your lights are also set up as a feature. Do your lights also show up in the Light section? Mine do not and I was under the impression this was incorrect. I asked before as I was having trouble getting he color to stick after turning them off and back on.

 

[Ahultin]

Do your lights also show up in the Light section

Yes, my guess is the circuit type is not configured as one of the "light" options

 

[heckofagator]

View attachment 512259

Do you mind explaining this setup? I would like to implement at least another item here so I can bump up the pump rpm for part of the day

So are Skim Med and Skim High separate circuits? Where you can control the pump rpm independently? Does your "pool" circuit run 24 hours a day and then the Skimmer circuits take over when their schedule comes up?

 

[BDY]

The pool runs at the highest rpm scheduled. For example if you set low rpm 24/7 and then a higher schedule comes up the pump increases To higher rpm’s and then at the end of the supplemental schedule it goes back to lower rpm.

(Assuming VS pump compatible with Intellicenter)

 

[JJ_Tex]

Do you mind explaining this setup? I would like to implement at least another item here so I can bump up the pump rpm for part of the day

So are Skim Med and Skim High separate circuits? Where you can control the pump rpm independently? Does your "pool" circuit run 24 hours a day and then the Skimmer circuits take over when their schedule comes up?

My pool circuit runs 24/7, think of it as a baseline. Then the other circuits are used to up the RPMs. Right now I have mine scheduled to:

Pool (24/7) - 1,200 RPMs - Note I will change this as the filter gets dirtier to keep up the flow requirements of the SWCG. Typically this ranges from 1,100 to 1,400 RPMs
Skim Med - 1,900 RPMs - Note this one is fairly new, but my spa is the same level as the pool and I will get leaves that get stuck on the overflow from time to time when at lower RPMs from pool. I run the medium skim for a bit in the middle of the night and mid-day to push the leaves into the pool to keep them from sinking to the bottom of the spa.
Skim High - 2,400 RPMs. I like the output of this when I am most likely going to be looking at or using the pool. I rarely change the RPMs on this one, except if I want to run my water feature.