Maintaining a swimming pool or spa requires regular attention. Between checking the pH and disinfectant levels and monitoring the temperature, swimming pool and spa owners are looking for ways to simplify their maintenance routine. At Ondilo, we have designed ICO, a connected water analyser, to act as your water’s invisible guardian by continuously analysing its quality and providing personalised recommendations via the ICO app.
We also know that, for some people, true convenience lies in centralising data. That’s why ICO doesn’t just work with its own dedicated app: it integrates seamlessly into your favourite home automation ecosystems.
By opening up its APIs as early as 2019, Ondilo immediately established itself amongst the French pioneers in home automation (eedomus and Jeedom in late 2019) and then with the global open-source giant Home Assistant in 2021.
Whether you’re a Home Assistant user, a Jeedom enthusiast or a loyal user of the eedomus box, your smart home system can communicate directly with your ICO. This full interoperability allows you to manage your home and your swimming pool from a single interface. Discover how this synergy will transform your daily life as a smart swimming pool owner.
Integrating your ICO into the heart of your home automation system goes far beyond mere technological convenience: it is the ideal way to simplify the management of your pool whilst greatly enhancing the capabilities of your smart home. Here are the main benefits of this centralised system, with practical examples of what you can set up in your smart home.
Whilst the ICO app remains your perfect companion on your smartphone for monitoring the Water Index, integrating it into a home automation system really comes into its own when it comes to comprehensive display, historical data and overlay functions.
If you use a touchscreen tablet mounted on the wall in your living room or kitchen to control your home, you can integrate key data from ICO into it. No need to search for your phone to check whether the water is at the right temperature before you have a bath.
Track changes in your water quality over several months or seasons directly via the graphs on your home automation system to better understand and anticipate fluctuations.
The real strengths of home automation systems lie in their ability to enable devices from different brands to communicate with one another. Data from ICO acts as a trigger for other connected devices in your home.
For enthusiasts of the Home Assistant open-source ecosystem, the official integration of Ondilo ICO allows you to instantly track all your device’s key metrics. Water temperature, oxidation-reduction potential (ORP/Redox), pH, total dissolved solids (TDS) and battery level can all be fully utilised.
Using the data retrieval protocol (Cloud Polling), Home Assistant regularly queries Ondilo’s secure servers to update the status of your pool.
https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/ondilo_ico
Just like Home Assistant and eedomus, Jeedom is ideally suited to this and offers highly advanced features thanks to its modular architecture.
Users of the Jeedom community also benefit from optimal compatibility thanks to the dedicated Ondilo ICO plugin. This gateway enables the physical measurements collected by ICO’s sensors to be converted into virtual commands within your home automation hub.
The official plugin (developed by Hotfirenet) also uses Cloud Polling.
Once the connection has been established, Jeedom automatically generates a ‘Tile’ (a widget) on your dashboard. It brings together all the information controls and, as a handy extra unique to Jeedom, it also displays official ICO recommendations directly within your home automation interface. You can even confirm a recommendation (mark it as ‘done’) straight from Jeedom.
There is a very popular paid plugin (around €4) on the Jeedom Market simply called ‘Plugin Piscine’. This plugin is brilliant: you just enter the water temperature from your ICO and it takes care of EVERYTHING. It manages the automatic filtration schedule, takes into account EDF’s off-peak and peak hours to save money, controls the operation of a booster pump (robot), and even features an active winterisation mode (running the pump for 5 minutes if the water temperature approaches 0°C to prevent freezing).
https://market.jeedom.com/index.php?v=d&p=market_display&id=3998
https://hotfirenet.github.io/jeedom_docs/plugins/ondilo/fr_FR
The eedomus box stands out for its ease of use, and its integration with ICO is no exception. Thanks to its native connector for the ICO pool sensor, the device can be added in just a few clicks.
https://doc.eedomus.com/view/Eedomus_et_Ico
On the eedomus box, it works in much the same way as Home Assistant, but with the philosophy specific to the eedomus ecosystem (focused on simplicity and guided scheduling).
Just like Home Assistant, eedomus uses the Cloud Polling protocol via Ondilo’s Cloud API. eedomus retrieves all the essential data (redox, pH, temperature, battery).
Once you’ve logged in, eedomus automatically creates a visual ‘widget’ for each measurement (pH, temperature, redox, battery) on your home screen or in the ‘Swimming pool’ room. You can keep an eye on everything at a glance.
Although less well known than Home Assistant, eedomus does, however, have a custom graph tool. Via the web portal, you can create a graph and manually add several different devices to it.
The eedomus rules engine is very powerful, and often provides more guidance.
The box offers a built-in ‘turnkey’ programme called ‘Pool Filtration’. This is eedomus’s main selling point.
https://doc.eedomus.com/view/Gestion_Piscine
| Features & Criteria | Home Assistant | Jeedom | eedomus |
| Type of integration | Official native integration (via Cloud Polling) | Official dedicated plugin (plugin-ondilo via the Cloud) | Pre-configured native device (via the Cloud) |
| Level of difficulty | Easy (configuration via the graphical user interface) | Intermediate (installation via the Jeedom Market) | Easy (configuration via the device catalogue) |
| Gesamtübersicht (Dashboard) | Highly customisable : Creation of bespoke maps (Lovelace) that can be integrated into a wall-mounted tablet. | Full : A tile-based layout and virtual controls on the main interface. | Simple and minimalist : Automatic widgets organised by measurement, with the option to hide unnecessary channels. |
| Data storage | 100% Local : ICO data is stored directly on your device (on an SD card, SSD or hard drive). There is no reliance on third parties for the history. | 100% Local : The data is stored in your Jeedom box’s internal database (MySQL/MariaDB). You retain full ownership of your data. | Secure cloud : The data is stored on eedomus’s remote servers. Local access is still possible, but the long-term history depends on their servers. |
| Data historicisation | Default local storage via the Recorder component (duration can be adjusted to suit your storage capacity). | Very powerful : A robust and detailed history engine, with no time limit. | Natively integrated (data retention for up to 2 years with Premium access). |
| Overlaying curves | Yes, without limit : Ideal for use with advanced charts (such as ApexCharts) to manage multiple Y-axes. | Oui, nativement : Allows you to easily cross-reference water usage data with data from other sensors. | Yes : Using the custom chart tool available on the web portal. |
| Speaker alerts | Yes : Via automations linked to your speakers (Google Home, Alexa, Sonos, etc.). | Yes : Through workflows linked to your distribution or notification plugins (SMS, Telegram, etc.). | Yes : Creating simple text-to-speech rules for your speakers. |
| Filtration management | Made to measure : Requires you to create your own automations or use community modules. | Progress : Through custom scripts or third-party plugins designed for comprehensive swimming pool management (e.g. Plugin Piscine). | Turnkey : Offers a native ‘Pool Filtration’ programme that automatically calculates the running time. |
As you can see, all three solutions cover the full range of monitoring and automation features. If you’re looking for a turnkey solution to manage your filtration system without any programming, eedomus stands out. If you prefer extensive visual customisation, go for Home Assistant, whilst Jeedom will be perfect for users who value detailed logs and complex scenarios.
To conclude
By supporting the major smart home protocols, the Ondilo ICO is much more than just a pool analyser: it becomes a key component of your smart home. Whether you’ve chosen Home Assistant, Jeedom or eedomus, connecting your ICO offers unrivalled ease of management and complete peace of mind. Take it to the next level today and let your home take care of your swimming pool!