Wifi and Internet for Artic Spa

[rosewoodsteel]

Well, I finally extended my wifi with a new router and got my Artic Klondiker "wired".    It's pretty cool accessing the tub's controls from my family room.  Also got it on-line.  I'm looking forward to setting the temperature up in the winter, on my train ride home.  I love it!

[sksmoker]

Can you program it so that it decreases the temp when not in use and then ramps the temp back up? Kind of like a programmable house thermostat..

[rosewoodsteel]

Yes, it has a number of energy saving settings. You can adjust ozone, heater, filter etc by peek periods / time of day and days of the week.  The cool.thing, with the wifi / internet, is you can make seat of the pants changes whenever you feel lke using the tub.   I'm sure Water Boy can add to this.

[sksmoker]

That is very neat.

[rosewoodsteel]

Thanks, Sksmoker.

It took me sometime to set up, but that was only because I didn't have router coverage in my family room. (I did hard wire "pulls" prior to the installation of my FIOS system, so I was basically Wi Fi ignorant.)   At any rate, after setting up the router in the family room (which was my closest interior location to my hot tub), I went through a "step by step" video (one of many that Artic has on their web site) and got both Wi- Fi and the Internet activated.   My tub is located pretty far from my house, so it will be nice to "fire it up" from the warmth of my house, on a sub-freezing / snowy evening.

[Vinny]

Just be aware that the tub won't instantly be at the set temp. It could take hours to hit the set temp depending on how low you set the "regular" temp. My tub heats at about 4° per hour so if it was set for 80° it would take 5 hours to hit 100°. Typically I just leave the temp alone and just go in when I want without worrying about the tub being cold/cool.

[rosewoodsteel]

Vinny,  I will be raising the temperature no more than 8 degrees, so it won't take longer than a couple of hours, at the most.  I understand where you are coming from, but, If I want to, I can have the temp at 80, all week long, and  and re set it to 104 while I'm at work and have it waiting for me when I come home.  I think it is abgreat feature.

[Vinny]

I'm not doubting it can be a great feature especially if it can send you alerts that something is wrong with the tub or you can check various parameters other then temp. I used to have a wireless thermometer in the tub and after a few months I stopped worrying about the temp ... it was at set temp all the time. I don't fiddle with settings other then when I go on vacation and I guess if you can stream music to your tub via wifi then I can see another use for it.

If you are the only person using the tub then if it works for you that's all that matters.

[rosewoodsteel]

Vinny, at this point, the software does not send out alerts.  As with any application, it has updates that can be loaded.  Perhaps that will be a future update..? (Artic... do you hear me?)  But, you can access the various parameters, not just temperature, and reset them on the fly.   Pretty cool, imo. 

[Water Boy]

Arctic just added a new feature to the app where you can track what your hot tub is costing you to run each month. You can enter your local electrical rate, and the app will track what your hot tub is costing each month. Pretty cool new feature! You can see more about it herehttp://youtu.be/9o1OdO2gkHw

[sksmoker]

Very neat. Now all we need is a few chambers for chemicals in the tub and it can auto dispense them based on the readings it pulls from the water Talk about lazy mans water balancing 

[rosewoodsteel]

Water Boy,
Is the app currently available? 

[Water Boy]

It's actually part of the my arcticspa dot com website. There is a tab built into it now where you can enter your rates to track it.

[rosewoodsteel]

Thank you, Water Boy.
I checked it out a few minutes ago.   Awesome!   I'll grab an electric bill when I get home and plug in the rate information.   Artic is a great company.  This is one of the reasons I decided to own one of their tubs.