‘WIRED FOR SUCCESS’
Can your electrician or service technician install a different brand of product if you have another brand of automation? The answer is a qualified yes. Before attempting the replacement of any pool or spa equipment, check to ensure you are in compliance with your warranty if it is still in effect, as this is important. Also, employ qualified service technicians and licensed electrical contractors to ensure installations are in accordance with all codes and standards. This is even more important.
The first qualification for a positive answer is if the product is simply On/ Off. If the product simply turns on and off when prompted by the automation timer, there should be no reason a different brand would not work. An example of this is a booster pump operating a waterfall. I will use my own pool for illustration. My current home had a pool and spa when we purchased it. It has a Jandy AquaLink automation system and a PDA to operate features remotely. The circulation pump is a Jandy, but the booster pump that operates the waterfall and deck jets is Hayward; both are single-speed. I set the schedule on the PDA, and each pump turns on and off at the same time each day. The controller simply sends power to the pumps and then stops sending power at the scheduled times, hence the requirement for On/Off only. In this case, the controller does not consider brand; it simply sends power to that circuit, or it doesn’t.
The other qualification for a positive answer is if the product has its own automation. I refer to this as stand-alone automation. My pool had a 120V white light in the pool and one in the spa. Obviously, being in the industry and manufacturing our own lights, I was not going to keep the 120V lights. Our 24V infinite color LED lights connect to our smart transformer, which is operated with our own app. I have the controller send power to my transformer 100% of the time, and that’s the only function the controller performs: constantly sending power on that circuit. Therefore, I use the app on my phone to set the on/ off schedule, change the color on the infinite color wheel, select a theme, adjust brightness, etc. Again, the controller does not consider brand; it simply sends power to that circuit all the time.
I personally see stand-alone automation as the future of our industry as long as the cost remains low. It allows the industry to serve a portion of the market where the demand is not met, such as an older single-speed pump that needs to be replaced but the homeowner can’t afford an automation system to run a variable-speed pump. If the pump has stand-alone automation, like our new VS pump, it can be operated on the touchpad or our app, and a control center is not required.
The same applies to replacing lights or any product, such as actuators for valves; if the product has stand-alone automation, the homeowner gets the upgrade without the high cost.
For those with automation systems, they would possibly not be beholden to the manufacturer of the original system, such as myself, who will soon have two new variable-speed pumps that are my company’s brand, slowly rendering my controller obsolete.
