The world of swimming pool maintenance is about to leap into the smart home era, and it's all because of a newly filed patent from pool equipment manufacturer Pentair. The patent, number US20230279684A1, seeks to revolutionize the way people can monitor and control their pools and spas - from anywhere in the world.
Pentair has identified a practical struggle among home and business owners who own water-related facilities such as pools and hot tubs. The traditional operation of these pool devices like chemical controllers, pumps, heaters, and skimmers has been manual, offering little flexibility for users, particularly when they are not physically present at the location. Critical factors such as maintaining the right chemical balance or temperature adjustments were impossible to manage remotely.
The newly patented technology put forward by Pentair aims to alleviate this problem. It proposes a system that uses data from your pool's chemistry controllers and sensors and sends it to your device - be it a computer or a smart phone. The user can then give commands from their device to control various aspects of the pool, such as adjusting the pool's chemistry or turning on the water heater.
Moreover, it introduces a responsive interaction to the mix. The proposed method would alert the user if the chemical level in the chemical controller is low. Not only can you instruct it to adjust the chemistry accordingly, but it will also provide notifications once the task is completed and when it's safe to swim again.
Ponder the possibilities in this post-patent world. Gone are the days of coming home to an unexpectedly chilly pool or the panic of an unbalanced chemical level due to the sudden weather change. You can tweak the warm soak in your spa while stuck in traffic and be ready to dive in as soon as you get home. Property managers with multiple pool properties will be able to monitor and maintain pools without needing to be on site.
While this technology has been patented, it's worth noting that a patent is not a product. The presence of a patent does not guarantee that we will see it come to life on the market. Keep an eye on the Pentair brand in the future, though. If it does, it could represent a massive shift in the pool maintenance sector, bringing high-end automation within reach of a typical homeowner, and marking yet another household system that can be controlled at the touch of a screen.
Note to readers: This article describes a newly published patent and doesn't promise the arrival of this technology in the market.