Pool automation and smart controls: what they do

Every pool has an equipment pad: the pump, the filter, a heater if you have one, sometimes a salt cell, and the valves and electrical that connect them. Without automation, each piece has its own switch or timer, and you walk out to the pad to change anything. Automation puts a controller at the pad that runs all of it and talks to an app on your phone.

Pentair, whose pump, filter and lights come in every one of our packages, describes its smaller IntelliConnect system as a way to schedule pumps, change water temperature, turn on water features, adjust sanitizer levels and control light shows from the Pentair Home app. It can also show the real-time status of the filtration system, so you can run extra filtration after a storm or a pool party without walking to the pad.

That is the whole idea. The pool does the same things it always did. You just stop managing it by hand.

There are two main tiers, and the choice mostly comes down to how much equipment you have.

Pentair also sells an IntelliCenter Lite for owners who want IntelliCenter features at a lower entry point. The older EasyTouch and IntelliTouch systems were discontinued in 2023, so if you see them on a used-equipment listing or an old quote, know that you are looking at the past.

Our general advice: a plain fiberglass pool with our standard package and a heater is well served by IntelliConnect. Once you add a spillover spa, a sheer descent, landscape lighting or a second pump, IntelliCenter is the right controller, because the spa and pool valve switching is built into it.

The savings come from the pump, and the automation lets you use it properly. Every one of our packages includes a Pentair variable-speed pump. ENERGY STAR explains why that matters: cutting pump speed in half lets the pump use about one eighth as much energy. A variable-speed pump saves money by running slow for long stretches instead of fast for short ones.

The trick is that different jobs need different speeds. Filtration can run low. A cleaner, a waterfall, the heater or spa jets may need more flow for a while. A controller runs a schedule of speeds through the day: low for filtration, a higher speed for an hour while the feature runs, back down. Without automation, most people set one speed and leave it, and that speed is usually higher than it needs to be.

We set up the pump schedule at startup and show you how to change it. After the first summer most owners have a feel for how little run time a clean, covered pool really needs.

Freeze protection is a controller setting that watches an air temperature sensor and runs the pump when the air gets close to freezing, so water keeps moving through the pipes, pump and heater instead of sitting still and freezing. Pentair's IntelliCenter lets you assign freeze protection to each circuit, including lights and features, and set a freeze cycle time from 5 to 60 minutes.

In Northeast Ohio this matters in the shoulder seasons. The pool is winterized for the dead of winter, with the lines blown out and plugged, so freeze protection is not what keeps the pipes safe in January. It earns its keep in the weeks after opening in spring and before closing in fall, when a clear night can drop near freezing while the pool is still full and running. If you are away or asleep, the controller catches it.

Two caveats. Freeze protection needs power, so it does nothing in an outage. And it does not replace a proper closing. If you keep the pool open late into fall, talk to us about when to close. A cold snap in November with the power out is how equipment gets cracked.

For a spa, automation is the difference between planning ahead and waiting around. IntelliCenter can schedule the pump and heater to warm the spa or pool to a set temperature by a set time. Its spillway function diverts pool water through the spa and spills it back into the pool when you want the look, and switches the valves to spa-only when you want it hot.

For a pool heater, the same scheduling means you can warm the pool for a Saturday party without leaving the heater on all week. On a cool Northeast Ohio weekend in late May, that is real money saved, especially if the pool is covered overnight.

There is also an egg timer on each circuit, which turns something off after a set time if someone switches it on and forgets. IntelliCenter defaults to 12 hours. It sounds minor until a teenager leaves the spa heater running.

Yes, and this is the part most people use every day. The Pentair MicroBrite color LED lights in our packages can be wired to a light circuit, and IntelliConnect's own brochure lists controlling light shows from the app. Group the pool lights, a spa light and landscape lighting on the patio, and one tap sets the whole backyard for the evening.

Water features work the same way. A sheer descent or deck jets can run on a schedule or on demand. Because a feature often needs the pump to run faster, the controller can bump the pump speed while the feature is on and drop it back when it is off.

The controller earns its place differently through the season, whether the pool is in Medina, Warren or Tallmadge.

• Opening, late April to May. Freeze protection goes on first, because clear nights can still get cold. If you heat, schedule the heater to bring the water up for weekends rather than running it all week.
• June to August. The pump settles into a low-speed filtration schedule, with short higher-speed runs for the cleaner or a feature. Lights and features run on evening schedules or from the app when friends come over.
• September. Days are warm and nights cool off. Heat on a schedule, keep the cover on overnight, and let the spa take over the cool evenings if you have one.
• Closing, October. After the pool is winterized, the schedules stop and the equipment is drained. The controller keeps its settings for next spring, so opening is a matter of turning things back on.

Owners who travel in summer get the most out of the alerts. If the pump stops or a heater faults while you are away, you hear about it from your phone instead of from a green pool when you get home.

• Network at the pad. IntelliCenter connects over Wi-Fi or wired Ethernet. Equipment pads here often sit well away from the house, behind a garage or down a slope. If your Wi-Fi does not reach, plan a wired run or a wireless connection kit now, while trenches are open.
• Electrical. The controller is part of the electrical work at the pad. Deciding before the build avoids reworking the panel later. The run from your house panel to the pad is a separate item from the package, and automation is easier to price in at the same time.
• Equipment list. Count what you have and what you might add: heater, salt system, spa, features, a second pump, landscape lights. That count picks the controller.
• Who has access. If a service company, including ours, will look after the pool, decide whether they get access to the controller's alerts.

For a basic pool with a pump and lights, it is a convenience. You will manage fine with the pump's built-in schedule. For a pool with a heater, it starts paying back in heater and pump run time. For a pool with a spa, multiple features or anyone who travels, we think it is close to essential, because it turns a system you have to babysit into one that looks after itself and tells you when something is wrong.

Automation is an upgrade on top of the package, and it prices in with the rest of the pool so it can be financed together. Tell us at the design stage what you want the pool to do, and we will match the controller to it.