There was a pool pump survey last year built to improve detection. I was wondering how refined pool pump detection was at the moment. I have 2 pumps, 1 fixed speed and 1 variable. Has pool pump detection been dialed in or should I expect more of a wait? These are both big power consumers and make up a large chunk of my “other” category right now. Any additional info you can provide would be helpful, thank you.
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One of my two pool pumps has been discovered. At first a single phase of the 240v, then about a week or two later, the 2nd phase joined it automatically. My second pool pump is yet to be discovered but turns out it was failing and went out a couple weeks ago. Not sure if the fact it was failing made its signature difficult or not. New one installed now and we’ll see.
How long did it take for your pool pump to be recognized?
About 1 month. But detection seems better in my house when I shut a lot off. So I set timers to shut off all computers, dvrs, anything I could that wasn’t already detected while the pool pumps were running at night. I also ran the pumps for a few half hour intervals during the day when I was home with other things off.
I really want to track my pump usage too! 
Also important I guess, my pumps are NOT variable speed.
Well my 2nd pool pump was found this last week. The one I mentioned earlier getting replaced. Interestingly, this one was picked up as 2 devices and the average power used by each different by about 5 watts. I’m currently going through a period of random sense reliability on detecting the 2nd one coming on. Hopefully that improves. If you’d like, I can share data on them.
Do both of your pumps run at the same time?
They used to. Since installing sense, I configured the filter pump to come on 15 min before the cleaning pump and stay on 15 min longer. I also broke the timers into 3 on off cycles instead of 1 long one all night. That allows me to have them off around the midnight-1am time frame when Sense may get a firmware update and reboot but still get a good long total daily run time in for keeping the pool clean.
Still waiting for pumps to be discovered. I may try to stagger them like you did to see if that helps. They are a major user of electricity in my home so I’m hoping I can get sense to find them, especially with summer upon us.
The latest I’ve noticed with my pool pumps is the variable speed that I run throughout most of the day was getting picked up as “always on” power. I’ve tweaked it to run at a higher RPM for less hours and it has gone back to the unknown category. Are others on this forum having better luck with their pool pumps?
No luck, although not a pool pump, I have a variable speed well controller. I have been talking with Sense back and forth a bit on it and it supposedly doesn’t have an unique enough start pattern.
Looking at the signature of the turn on from a distance it looks very obvious, but they shared a close up of the initial turn on and it is actually very ‘soft’. The controllers must be more ‘gentle’ at turning them on than a simple switch.
None the less, I believe this area needs tons of improvements because thats the direction most modern power usage is heading…
I have a constant pressure (holds within about 2 psi, regardless of flow) variable speed well pump. It’s from Franklin Electric and while Sense hasn’t been able to detect it, the even bigger problem is that it’s “noisy”. That’s their word for a very very distinctive (if complex) power signature that’s outside what Sense’s algorithms can handle. It prevents Sense from doing meaningful monitoring, much less device detection, whenever it’s running.
Since the well supplies our domestic use and our geothermal system (heat and cooling, depending on time of year), that has pretty much prevented Sense from doing anything useful. Oh well.
I appreciate the feedback and see that this may be a weakpoint in detection. I also have a non-variable pump that turns on each day which isn’t detected either. I’m hoping someone from Sense can speak to these concerns.
I’ve had my sense for almost three months and it still won’t detect my pool pump. I have a Hayward super pump that is on a timer and only runs about 75% of the time.
and @senseinaz and @jcash757
You’re totally right that this is an area we need to improve on. Variable speed motors are just incredibly challenging to detect (the same can be said for switching PSUs). In addition, if your pump runs 24/7 or pretty close to that, it can be hard to get a device label assigned to it. Instead, it’ll appear in your Always On.
There’s really not a simple solution here. I’d recommend working with Support as they can help figure out what’s going on and address the likelihood of getting a detection. Device detection is our #1 priority though, so hopefully in time we can get all of these pesky pumps detected.
I have a similar issue that my Variable Speed Pool Pump not detecting even after 3-4 months. How can we get this pool pump detected?
When my pool pump starts (Jandy FHPM1.5) Sense thinks it’s my AC (Stage 1) running. Did it this morning for almost an hour before throwing it in to Other.
Ken did you tell sense that your AC wasn’t running? This will help with your device detection.
I have before, but missed it this morning since I’m traveling.
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