Hello!
I moving to a new home with a small pool and I was thinking of buying a pool sensor.
Right now I’m searching for something simple like temperature but would be nice to have ph and others.
I’d like it to be local, no cloud, and right now something cheap, I love DIY stuff.
So, any recommendations? Any experiences with these kind of sensors? My searches lead to pretty expensive stuff that can measure all the pool parameters and cloud based.
Thanks for reading!
I built a pool water temp sensor using an ESP32 and a DS18B20. I drilled a hole in the pump intake pipe, installed it and now I always know the temp of the pool.
I cant find the original page I used to build it but it wasnt hard and there are similar guides online. Here is the code I am using on the ESP32
esphome: name: esp-pool-temp
esp8266: board: esp01_1m
Enable logging
logger:
Enable Home Assistant API
api:
ota: password: “fa053faa36e5d6600a5613086aaca3ca”
wifi: ssid: <SSID> password: <password> fast_connect: true
Enable fallback hotspot (captive portal) in case wifi connection fails
ap:
ssid: “Pool-Espboard Fallback Hotspot”
password: “MCueN8HiEEvS”
captive_portal:
Example configuration entry
dallas:
- pin: GPIO4
Individual sensors
sensor:
- platform: dallas address: 0xE93C01D607349D28 name: “Pool Temperature”
- platform: wifi_signal name: “WiFi Signal” update_interval: 60s
Nice idea! Will study the possibility in my pool. Thanks!
I went with inkbird for something similar. They are Bluetooth, with a cheap wifi module as well. Wide range of sensors. Cost me 60 in total to monitor my hottub temp when I’m in Mexico and it’s -40 at home
Thank you! Just checked it and it looks really nice. How do you integrate it with home assistant? I’ve been checking the inkbird integration and it seems to be Bluetooth only. I’m afraid Bluetooth is not an alternative, the HA server is in the basement and is not going to reach the pool by Bluetooth
I set this up recently with an ESPHome Bluetooth proxy on an m5stack atom. As long as the proxy can be on WiFi and see the Inkbird, works great.
I know you said “cheap”, and this isn’t exactly that… but I thought I’d mention it as an option anyway. I went with the Atlas Scientific pool kit when automating my pool. It gives me pH, Temp, and ORP. They also have a dosing pump if you want to automate chemicals. It’s based on an Adafruit ESP8266, so you can flash esphome on it, making integration with Home Assistant dead simple. https://atlas-scientific.com/kits/wi-fi-pool-kit/
You can go the DIY route for temperature with a $5 ESP8266 off Amazon and a $1 thermistor, but I don’t think there are similarly cheap options for pH and ORP.
That looks amazing. But it’s out of my budget right now. Thanks for the suggestion!
I’ve been thinking about the DIY route for some time but creating a water and weather proof enclosure it’s not easy.
I don’t think you need to stress too much about weatherproofing your DIY enclosure. You can get “weatherproof” boxes off Amazon for ~$20, and as long as you mount it somewhere out of direct exposure (e.g. near your pool controller under an eave) you’ll be fine. For example, I built an irrigation control valve for an unrelated project into one of these boxes and mounted it to the back of my garden shed. It even comes with 2 cable glands. https://a.co/d/j7hkyDX
Then you can just run a cable over to a section of your pool’s PVC piping (probably just after your pump), drill a small 1/4" hole and stick a thermistor into the flow. Something like this is designed for exactly this purpose: https://a.co/d/994WUHf It’s even got an o-ring to seal the hole, you just hold it onto the pipe with a cable tie. Whether you get a Pentair-branded temp sensor or not, they’re mostly all 10kOhm thermistors, which you can easily add to ESPHome as an NTC sensor: https://esphome.io/components/sensor/ntc.html
Hope that helps. I’m also a big fan of DIY :)
That is pretty good idea. Just learned about that kind of thermistors, thanks!
I don’t integrate with home assistant. Not really sure the benefit. I guess asking Alexa to check the temp?
Have you looked into the wifi module? Then it’s not wifi only
I love the graphs and the seeing how every variable make changes in what I’m measuring.
But that is just me
If your willing to home brew a solution, check out the esphome project. It’s very easy to implement and runs on very inexpensive esp32 boards.
I’ve got something similar, but less ambitious running at my place (temp only). It’s been solid for about 6 months now.
Thanks! I have a few answers with same suggestion, will check all this out!