he world of automation technology is constantly evolving. It seems as if nearly every day some engineer has designed another new product that will revolutionize life as we know it.
Manufacturers in the pool and spa industry are striving to keep pace with the latest developments so they can offer products that make owning a pool or spa even more convenient and enjoyable.
As we look toward 2003, Pool & Spa News spoke with manufacturers to discover which new or improved automation products they would be offering next year. We also asked them about the reasoning behind the creation of these new products. Following are their comments.
What new or improved products will your company be offering in 2003?
Russell Roark — “For 2003, we have [three] new products. The AK110, the Absorb-It, and we’ve also upgraded our AK-color unit. [The AK-color unit] now combines chlorine so the user can measure the combined chlorine levels and know that if there are chloramines in the water, they can then either shock it or add monopersulfate or enzymes based on that [information] instead of just feeding on a timed cycle.
The AK110 is an upgrade from our AK100. It does everything the AK100 does, but we’ve added temperature monitoring to it, made the programming easier and the interface more user-friendly.
Tim Ruesch — A new product we’re working on is an in-house remote that works in conjunction with the Max Plus controls that we currently offer.
Robyn Gabel — We have the AquaLink RS One Touch Wireless and it now has rechargeable battery capability, so it’s portable. Our product offers wireless control of 32 backyard features, such as the pool pump, water temperature, lighting and program cleaning cycles. It’s currently offering more information on the chemistry of the pool and [water] flow.
Cullin Tate — I think probably the biggest development has been on the communications side. Our controller controls water chemistry, whereas some other controls control more physical or mechanical things. So we automate the water chemistry for a pool and our communication package, called Data Cat, is ever-evolving with new features. The Data Cat provides for remote access to our water chemistry controller, so the water chemistry readings can be logged and downloaded from a PC at a later time. That communication also allows for outbound notification of alarm conditions, such as a loss of flow or chemicals out of range.
Brian Lee — The IntelliTouch represents a family of control systems for pool/spa combinations, pools without spas, custom spas, and pools and spas with two separate sets of equipment — one for the pool and one for the spa. In addition, we have some expansion units that will allow our top-of-the-line models to be expanded to control even more auxiliary circuits.
We’ve left the door open for the IntelliTouch to handle chemistry because the platform it’s built on is wide open. It’s a microprocessor tied to an LCD screen graphic display in the house. That graphic display typically shows the functions of the pool, such as the lights, fountains, filter pumps, heating elements and the like. (But it’s not to say that we couldn’t put up on the screen the pH of the pool or the chlorine in the pool. Those are ideas we have in mind for the future, but it’s not available right now.)
Vern Louden — We’re offering two robotic cleaners: the AquaJet and the Thunder Jet IG. They are both the same mechanically derived product, but physically we’re offering one line to one [type of] customer, and the other line to another customer, so two people in a competing market will not be bumping heads with the same product.
[Our pool cleaners] are fast. ... We can clean any inground pool in under an hour. We’ve also got more suction power — we pump 85 gallons a minute and filter to 2 microns ... and we operate at a cost of about 5 cents a day.
Our cleaner also allows for water conservation. With most suction-side or pressure-side cleaners, you have to backwash the filter every 1-1/2 to two months. Backwashing takes hundreds of gallons of water that literally go down the sewer, [but] our product can reduce backwashing frequency by up to 70 percent.
From a service standpoint, it’s also very simple. There’s only one moving part and that’s the motor … so you don’t have a lot of repair issues on this item.
Guy Erlich — We have a robotic cleaner that was previously sold strictly in Europe. I needed to bring in a new type of product that isn’t available (in the States) at all.
The Blue Diamond has a four-year warranty and it can clean the pool in an hour’s time. What we’ve done is reduce the running time, thereby making all the parts of the machine last longer. The other problem with robotic cleaners today is that they can be very cumbersome and difficult to carry. So we made a cart for our cleaner.
The Blue Diamond also has sensors inside that “sense” the pool wall, or corner, or ladder — and the cleaner reverses itself. It also doesn’t climb the wall every time. Our patented technology allows the cleaner to clean more efficiently on the floor instead of wasting so much time on the walls. We also have a remote control model so pool owners can spot clean the pool.
Stephen Moran — We’re selling saltwater chlorinators. It’s a pretty automated product as it is, but I think the market is moving more toward having the ability to interface these units with controllers. So you’ll have a controller or sensor in your pool measuring the ORP, and you can hook these devices to an ORP controller and it can turn the chlorinator on or off. Another new feature we’ve added is an interface that allows the unit to connect to an ORP [system]. The second thing we’re working on is a remote control display.
Joe Stone — We’re launching four new product categories. We’ve launched the Balboa Dolphin remote, a waterproof, fully floatable, truly universal remote that will operate not only all of the pool and spa equipment, but also all of the owner’s home theater equipment. It has 6,000 codes pre-programmed into it for all home entertainment systems — and for anything that’s new, it will learn them.
We’ve also launched what we call Spa Connect. This is the ability for the technical service community to use a standard Nextel Java-based telephone to connect to a pool control or spa control and do complete control monitoring and diagnostics work. It also enables the user to go from a PC anywhere in the country and view that same pool equipment and monitor and control it.
We also launched the EL series class of controls with our M7 technology in them. These control systems have an enormous amount of adaptability and versatility built in. Basically, there are three platforms that will cover the A to Z requirements for any hot tub manufacturer.
The fourth thing we’ve launched is a new LED lighting technology. We signed a license agreement with ColorKinetics so we’re now the exclusive supplier to Mexico, United States and Canada for the entire LED lighting technology that’s available to the spa industry. We’re also going to be developing some brand-new entertainment and lighting features.
Kevin Smith — For 2003, we have a controller tester called the PortaProbe. It’s not Chemtrol-specific. If a technician is working on an Aquasol, a CAT controller and Chemtrol controller, it facilitates that operator to be able to send a signal into the controller to make sure the controller is doing its job, and also to test the sensors to make sure they are working. It’s a versatile unit in that respect. It also gives them the capability of putting ORP probes, pH probes and TDS probes into the pool as a portable water chemistry tester, too. So it’s not just for troubleshooting the controllers.
Iain McMillan — We have a new in-line salt-chlorination system. The unique part of it is that it’s actually a modular unit that can come apart for service and installation. We’ve separated some of the electronic components from the power supply, which makes it a little easier to service, transport and install. Extra features include LCD digital readouts, more bells and whistles — things that appeal to the dealers from a sales standpoint and make the product easier to use for the consumer.
Gary Harvey — We have one new pool control we’re offering: the PoolBoss. It’s basic automation for pools. It can run four major functions for your pool — pump, heater and two auxiliaries. You can also run a clean pump on that.
On our wireless controls, we’ll be bringing out some enhancements. It’s our current configuration with new software. It allows you to have a lot more functionality in the pool.
Why did the market need this product now?
Harvey — Well, with PoolBoss, we felt it gave every homeowner the ability to automate their pool. Whereas on the PSC control where it’s wireless, it’s a little more technical and runs a lot more functions such as waterfalls, any type of spa treatments, crazy light shows or anything like that. [Our product] gives everybody the ability on any pool, whether it’s a $10,000 pool or a $50,000, to have simple automation. They don’t have to do anything manually anymore.
Gabel — Our builders and customers were asking for it. We design all our products by going out to the builder network and the consumer network and interviewing them extensively — both current users and nonusers. If they’re a current AquaLink user, [we want to know] what we can improve, and if they’re not an AquaLink user, what would it take to get them to use the product?
Lee — The reason the IntelliTouch is necessary is because the new, higher-end pools and spas today have so many features on them: lighting circuits, color wheels and additional valve actuators that are used for diverting water to fountains and waterfalls. You need so many control circuits so the builders can do what they need to do, so they can imagine and make their visions come to reality.
It’s one thing to react to what the market needs, but it’s another to go out and figure out what we can develop — what can we bring to the party — that maybe people haven’t thought about.
For one thing, with our [pool] lights, we’re able to do some animation on the pool that you couldn’t do if you didn’t have a control system. For example, with IntelliTouch and SAm or SAL colored lighting, we can offer features whereby each light can be programmed to a specific color. With the Swimming Colors program and at least two lights, we can even make the colors transition across the pool and spa. And if you’re a builder who is using Fiberworks for water features, we can tie those into the system as well so they can swim along with the rest of the lights.
Stone — Reliability is one of the cornerstones of everything we do. We’re looking to enhance reliability. We’re also looking to create not only compelling, ground-breaking technology, but real convenience for the end user. We believe it’s very necessary to bring all of these products to the [industry] because it allows them to have more versatility in the products they’re selling to the consumer. We think it will provide some great success stories for retailers.
Smith — The industry is growing and [we were seeing a need] for a test device for controllers. You don’t see [other manufacturers] coming out with portable test devices, tester sensors and tester controllers, so that’s why we decided there’s another avenue. There are other controllers on the market [and] dealers and service technicians are looking at the products, so this ought to be a good unit for the professional service industry to have.
Moran — It’s market-driven. It’s something consumers are asking for. What we’re focusing on is making sure we have very reliable product because that’s another thing consumers want — something that is going to work.
One of the things that has traditionally been a problem for saltwater chlorinators has been their reliability. In the beginning, part of that was because of manufacturers and part of it was consumers not really understanding how to take care of the units.
So we’re concentrating on making the products more reliable, but also providing the bells and whistles consumers want. They want to be able to interface these units with controllers that will control their swimming pool lights and fountains, so it’s basically add-ons for convenience.
McMillan — I think the consumer is becoming much more aware of what is out there because their neighbor has it on their pool. They’ve been in the pool and they want the same thing, so they’ve been asking the dealers for those products. So now a lot of the dealers are responding more to basic, overall automation requirement requests.
Roark — Our product [AK110] falls in line with Acu-Trol’s whole philosophy that you don’t have to pay a lot of money to get a lot of features. All of our products give users a lot of bang for their buck. Just like with all the electronics out there, the prices are coming down, so we can supply a lot of features for the same or less money than we were able to five years ago.
Ruesch — The reason [for the product improvements] was to provide better flexibility and convenience for the consumer. We realize that the convenience of controlling pool functions from inside the house is a nice feature that many people would take advantage of.
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GUY ERLICH