WiFi Pool Heater Recommendations?

[Luke Carl]

I’m sick of demanding guests and need to get upstream of the pool Hester.

Does anyone have a WiFi system for their pool heater?

Heater Reader looks pretty good does anyone have experience?

http://www.heaterreader.com/heater-reader-smart-wifi-pool-control-app

What’s your system? Thanks!

Thanks

[Paul Sandhu]

I have a wood burning heater for my outdoor hot tub.  I adjust the temp by adding wood.  More wood = more heat.  One time I left it alone for a few hours and the water was 130 degrees.  I just added more water from a garden hose to cool it down.

[Joe C.]

You can use a simple on/off switch to apply power to the heater or not:

https://smile.amazon.com/Migro...

Just put one of those tamper resistant clear covers over the pool heater controls so nobody can alter the temp or touch any buttons.

Hayward and Pentair make replacement breaker panels with complete control available over every single circuit and timer but the prices seem to be very high.

[Luke Carl]

@Joe C.

Wow this thing might actually work. Have you used it? Seems to do the job.

The only down side I see is it will only turn on and off and will not change temp. I suppose if I tell them the temp is “XX” in the listing they can’t really complain.

[John Teachout]

So you have tenants that want a different temperature for the pool? I've never owned a heated pool but isn't there a huge lag in temperature changes due to heating/cooling thousands of gallons of water?

[Joe C.]

No, been considering it for my own pool but with the virus been home so much it's not a big deal. Sometimes if I travel I forget the pool heater on and waste the money so thought it would neat to be able to turn it off remotely. The temp is almost always fixed on the heater, it's just whether you are going to use it or not. Not sure how much the heater reader is but I'd assume you still need to cover the main heater control panel so nobody can override it from the heater.

[Rohin Dhar]

Spent at boatload of money this fall installing a gas heater and automatic pool cover to extend the busy season of one of properties with a pool. 

As the final step our pool folks are installing the Intelli Connect automation system for about $1K ($500 for the device, $500 for the installation). There were tons of price quotes for automation systems that were much higher than that. We haven't installed it yet, but the reviews were generally decent. We haven't installed it yet, so I can't vouch for it yet!

For now we've just set the pool to 80 degrees all the time so we haven't had to mess with the temperature. If guests want it higher, they have to pay an additional fee and our cleaner has been manually turning it up for them. For the month we've had the heater, only one guest has wanted it higher than 80 degrees.

[Sean Todd]

Luke Carl thanks for all you do!  Do you have any updates on the pool heater remote control system?  I am curious to your opinion.  I am currently installing a heater and need to add the control to keep the guest from being able to do it themselves.  Also, you need to do another episode on the podcast soon!  

[Devin Ponda]

Following this too and would love to know what you decided.

We have a gas pool heater at our WI primary res and an electric heat pump at a soon to be FL STR. I'll probably install solar there to offset some electric costs, but I too was looking at heater reader. Being a pool owner for over 10yrs and doing all the maint, I do have an issue with their product. Drilling a hole into the pipes then simply inserting their thermo probe. No glue, nothing! Just drill and insert, it does have an o-ring, but there's a lot of pressure running through these pipes and I would be concerned with that thing shooting out then spraying water everywhere. Or someone pulling it out.

I may do the similar suggestion above.  Set pool temp, lock system access in some fashion, charge extra above a certain temp.  But I'd love to lower the pool temp if the unit was not occupied for a while. 

All in one control boards like the pentair one mentioned are stupid expensive.  The IntelliConnect one quoted above is fair cheaper than what I was quoted. I'm checking with vendor on what they quoted. 

[Brian Oney]

I installed a HeaterReader and it has been mostly good. Some issues with connectivity from time to time…think it’s about $600-$700, whereas the Pentair/Hayward systems are $1500-$2000 usually. I think they may give you more features.

[Devin Ponda]

I'm going with the full Pentair automated solution since it can control not only the heat pump but the diverters for solar.  So ideally I run solar all day, heat pump only kicks in when the air temp is right and when it make sense. And I can view/control it anywhere. 

[Brian Oney]

Whenever I get tired of HeaterReader I will likely upgrade to the Pentair automated solution, as it would allow me full control of the Pentair VS pump that I recently installed. Also doing the automated solution makes a lot of sense if you have more cool stuff with your pool like lights, fountains, etc...ours is just a basic pool.

[Jeremy Brackston]

Quote from @Brian Oney:

Whenever I get tired of HeaterReader I will likely upgrade to the Pentair automated solution, as it would allow me full control of the Pentair VS pump that I recently installed. Also doing the automated solution makes a lot of sense if you have more cool stuff with your pool like lights, fountains, etc...ours is just a basic pool.

Brian, is your Heater Reader still functioning? We had an issue, and it has been *impossible* to get in contact with the company. Number is disconnected, they don't return any e-mails, nothing on Facebook. We may have a $695 hole in our pocket here and will have to go with Pentair.

[Brian Oney]

Don’t jinx me! Haha

I have had to replace the sensors once already, but otherwise still working. And honestly I think I may upgrade to Pentair or something when we have enough reserves established because it isn’t a big enough issue to worry about just yet.