Selling a $3,000 automation system along with a $50,000 pool gives Russ Watters peace of mind. Watters, president of Watters Aquatech in Las Vegas, wants his customers to get the most out of their investment. He knows automation makes them use their pools and spas more than they would if they had to resort to manual control.
“People like being able to push a button from the house and have the spa heat up,” Watters says. “It beats going out at night with a flashlight and fumbling to turn on a valve and heater. It’s all about convenience.”
Watters, like other pool builders, is still learning all the capabilities of the latest computer-controlled automation systems. Control isn’t a tough sell to most clients. “Automation is something our customers expect to go along with a pool that costs $45,000 to $50,000,” he says. “We don’t do it on 100 percent of our projects but it’s at least 75 percent.”
Hard-wired control systems have revolutionized the pool and spa market. Paul Benedetti, president of Aquatic Technology Pool & Spa in Morgan Hill, Calif., doesn’t even call these high-end systems pool controllers. That’s too limiting. “They’ve become outdoor environment controllers,” says Benedetti. That encompasses powering on and off of basic pool functions including filters, pumps, cleaners, and heaters, along with pool covers, waterfalls, and lighting. Thanks to fiber optics and other options, lighting, too, has become a popular feature of high-end pool control systems.
Intuitive keypad controllers give homeowners simple control over pool and spa functions—from inside the house or from wireless controllers that can be carried inside or outside the house. Benedetti says owners enjoy programming features themselves for fun, convenience, or energy savings. “One of our clients programmed his Controlled Environment system to use his solar panels to preheat the spa every day at 3 p.m. so he doesn’t have to turn the gas heater on.”
Aquatic Technology offers clients landscape lighting control—for both low- and high-voltage loads—because of the extra security the hard-wired system provides. “The landscape installers say to us, ‘Why is your system any different from putting the lighting on photo cells or timers?’” Because, Benedetti says, “with photo cells you have the things running all night when they really don’t have to, and with timers, if there’s a power outage all your clocks are out of whack. And twice a year for daylight-saving time you have to run around and change a timer for each light.” The AquaLink system has an internal clock with its own backup battery. All lights are controlled from the master and can be set to come on in sequence or at the same time.
Today, most pool designers use fiber-optic lighting, says Al O’Neal, president of Spectrum Design Waterscapes in Carlsbad, Calif. Fiber optics can provide spot or rim lighting in the pool and deliver soft illumination. The lights can be linked into an auxiliary input on the control system. O’Neal says he frequently installs Pentair’s Spectrum Amerlites (SAM) and AquaLights (SAL) which can be programmed as a single color or in a rotation of alternating colors.
The SAM and SAL lights are controllable by Pentair’s new IntelliTouch keypad. IntelliTouch has 10 buttons that can be assigned to various operations such as pool cleaner, spa cleaner, waterfall, or fountain. A green LED next to the device lets the homeowner know that the function is on. The hard-wired keypad mounts to the wall, and the MobileTouch wireless controller can be carried inside and outside the house. The wireless controller has a range of 300 feet from the base station.
Lights are a major part of the IntelliTouch system because of the automation capability of the Spectrum Fiberworks, Amerlite, and AquaLight lights. The latter two are halogen underwater lights whose color wheels allow consumers to change the color of light from a remote control. Homeowners can choose to have all lights on or off, or in Sync mode, which rotates all lights through the same colors simultaneously. Using lighting choreography enables owners to show off features of their backyards and pool areas including gardens and fountains.
Automation is advancing on all fronts. Cover-Pools recently introduced control products that it claims offer enhanced convenience and integration to pool owners. Cover-Pools’ wall-mountable, wireless touchpad allows the pool cover to be operated from a remote location in sight of the pool. An accessory controller automatically powers on and off waterfalls, fountains, and fiber-optics in conjunction with the operation of the pool cover. And a new automatic shut-off sensor features built-in LEDs showing operational status.
Automation of pools and spas is a no-brainer, according to Michael Manley, president of Champagne Aquatech Pools of Florida in Orlando. He convinces three out of four clients that remote control operation of a pool and spa is as important as the remote that comes with a TV. “Think about it,” he says. “You have a beautiful pool and a beautiful spa and then you have to go outside, around the corner, turn on the pump, turn on the heater, power up the blower, get in the spa, get out of the spa, turn it off, turn the blower off, and turn off the heater because if you don’t it’s going to heat up the pool the next day and all your gas will be gone.
“You have a TV in front of you in your house, and no one gets up to change the channels anymore,” he notes. “Everybody’s got a remote control in their hands. Why would you want to get up and change the channel on your pool?”
Manley says the level of consumer buying interest is at an all-time high. “Whether it’s pool functions, landscape lights, spas, waterfalls, or tennis court lights, you can control anything from a simple panel inside the house,” he says. “You’re never going out to the pump and filter again.”
Rebecca Day specializes in writing about home electronics. She can be reached at customhomerd@aol.com.
