WaterGuru Sense Review

There aren’t a lot of smart pool water monitors out there, but the few that we’ve tested all float around in your pool and require a hub to connect to your network and to a mobile app. The WaterGuru Sense ($295) takes a different approach: It sits inside your pool’s skimmer reservoir and connects directly to your home network via a built-in Wi-Fi radio. It doesn’t offer voice control, but it’s easy to install, doesn't require a subsctption fee, and will tell you when you need to add chemicals and how to balance your water chemistry. All this makes it our Editors' Choice winner for smart pool monitors.

No Hub Needed

The WaterGuru Sense monitor uses a waterproof optical sensor tethered to a round skimmer lid. The sensor uses a replaceable smart cassette that holds 60 days worth of pads that measure the free chlorine and pH levels of your pool water, as well as the water temperature and flow rate of your pool pump. The optical sensor reads the pads in a way that is similar to how a typical test strip uses color to gauge these levels. You'll get around two months of readings per cassette based on a single reading per day, but if you take more than one reading per day, you’ll use the cassette up faster. Extra cassettes go for $19.95 each.

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Built in to the underside of the Sense lid are a watertight battery compartment, a Bluetooth radio, and a 2.4GHz Wi-Fi radio. The device is powered by four C batteries, which are included in the box along with one smart cassette, a mesh bag that you place around the sensor to keep it free of skimmer debris, and a quick start guide. You also get two test tubes and two prepaid mailing envelopes that you can use to send in water samples for a free lab-based analysis that tells you the iron, phosphate, salt, copper, total alkalinity, calcium hardness, and cyanuric acid levels of your pool water. If your pool skimmer is square (like mine), you can order a square adapter lid for $25.00.

Whereas the cFloat and pHin smart water monitors float around in your pool, the WaterGuru Sense sits inside your skimmer reservoir where it takes measurements while remaining completely out of sight. Here’s how it works: The sensor takes measurements once a day while your pool pump is running and sends the data to the cloud. The results are then pushed to the app, where you’ll receive a Well Balanced notification if everything is OK, a Heads Up alert if one or both measurements are close to their thresholds, and an Address Now alert if the levels are dangerously out of whack. You can then view the actual alert, see what your levels are, and tap the Advice button to see how to correct any chemical imbalances. Advice is free and doesn't require a subscription, unlike the pHin monitor which requires an annual $99 fee. The app also tells you the current water temperature and the flow rate of your pool pump.

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A word about water chemistry: In order for your pool’s chlorine-based sanitizer to do its job, your free chlorine level should be between 2 and 4ppm (free chlorine is the amount of chlorine that has not yet combined with already chlorinated water to rid your pool of contaminants). For chlorine to work effectively, your pH level should be between 7.2-7.8 (on a scale of 0-14). Low pH can lead to cloudy water and result in itchy skin and burning eyes, while a high pH level can also cause skin and eye irritation and damage plumbing components.

The Sense doesn’t support Apple HomeKit, nor does it work with Alexa voice commands like the pHin, but it does come with a thoughtfully designed mobile app (for Android and iOS) that makes it easy to see what’s going on with your pool water. When you first install the app you’ll be asked to enter some pool information, such as your water capacity in gallons, what kind of sanitizer you use (chlorine tabs, salt generated chlorine, liquid chlorine), what type of pool you have (in ground, above ground), and pool construction (plaster, vinyl, fiberglass, other). This information is used to measure your pool chemistry and offer advice on how to maintain proper chlorine and pH levels.

When you open the app, you’re presented with a screen with a big status circle and a Well Balanced, Heads Up, or Address Now message. Inside the circle are three small gauges that tell you the current free chlorine and pH levels and the water temperature. Tap the circle to see what triggered the alert and view a timeline of the pH and chlorine levels. To take another reading, tap the Measure Now button.

Below the status circle are Status Alerts, Conditions, and Supply Levels buttons. The Status Alerts button takes you to the same screen that you’ll see when you tap the status circle, and the Conditions button opens a screen with a historical timeline view of chlorine, pH, water temperature, and flow rate measurements. To see how many weeks of reading you have left on the smart cassette and to checkthe sensor’s battery level, tap Supply Levels.

The gear icon in the upper right corner takes you to the Settings screen where you can update the pool name, set the time of day for measurements to take place (while the filter is running), enter equipment information such as pool capacity and construction, enable push notifications, and edit Wi-Fi settings.

Installing and Using the WaterGuru Sense

Installing the Sense is easy. I downloaded the mobile app, created an account, tapped Add Pool, and selected Sense from the device menu. At this point you can watch a brief setup video that shows you how to add the batteries, insert the cassette, and secure the mesh bag around the sensor.

Using the square adapter (my pool has a square skimmer cover), I submerged the sensor in the skimmer reservoir and placed the lid on the opening. I pressed down on the round Sense cover to have it snap into place and create a watertight seal with the battery compartment, but one side always remained slightly higher than the other. A WaterGuru representative suggested that I install the device and stand on it to force a tight fit, which did the trick.

With the Sense installed in the pool, I tapped the Activate Sense button in the app and gave my pool a name and configured my Wi-Fi settings. The app informed me that it needed 8 to 10 minutes to complete the first measurement, after which the installation was complete.

The Sense monitor worked very well in testing. I have my pool filter set to come on automatically at 7:00 a.m. so, I set the Sense to take a daily reading five minutes later.

After my first reading, the app gave me a Heads Up alert that my pH was low (7.3), so I tapped the Advice button and followed the recommendations to add four cups of pH Up (soda ash/sodium carbonate) to the deep end of the pool. The following day my pH level was at 7.5 and my status was changed to Well Balanced.

A few days later, my free chlorine level dropped to 1.0 due to lots of pool use and a couple of days of direct sunlight. The app told me that I had an issue to Address Now, so I tapped Advice and followed the recommendation to increase the rate of chlorine flow from my automatic chlorinator. The following day I received a Well Balanced reading and my chlorine level was at 3.0ppm. Most importantly, the sensor’s readings were right in line with readings from my test strips.

Pool Maintenance Made Easy

With the WaterGuru Sense, you can forget about taking water samples to your local pool supply store or using test strips to see what’s going on with your swimming water. Simply place the Sense in your pool’s skimmer, download the app, and receive daily chlorine and pH level updates without lifting a finger. If you receive a Heads Up alert, just tap Advice and the app will tell you which chemicals to add and how much to use in order to maintain your pool water’s chemistry. You can also order chemicals directly from the app, view historical chemical reading levels, check your current water temperature, and monitor your pool pump’s flow rate. All this earns the WaterGuru Sense an Editors’ Choice award for smart pool monitors.

WaterGuru Sense

4.0Editors' ChoiceSee It$295.00 at AmazonMSRP $295.00

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The Bottom Line

The WaterGuru Sense smart monitor sits inside your pool’s skimmer and monitors chlorine and pH levels to let you know when you need to add chemicals and how much to add.

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