Sutro Pool & Spa Water Smart Monitoring Device | Tests Alkalinity, pH, Chlorine | Digital Water Tester

Summary: I wasn’t sure if the Sutro would be helpful in my pool care routine, until I started using it, and now I don’t want to maintain a pool without it. I have a cleaner pool and save both time and money.Details: Having taken care of my pool myself for years, I had a routine that generally kept it in good shape, save for some occasional algae on the sides of the pool. I tested the water once or twice a week with at-home test kits (TFP-100 and Taylor DPD), adding chemicals (typically chlorine or muriatic acid) on the weekend attempting to have it last through the week. This generally worked well except for the warmest summer months, which had lots of sunshine and water temps in the 90s, causing more rapid chlorine degradation. This would require me to spike up chlorine on the weekend and have it degrade through the week. Chlorine degrades faster at higher concentrations, which meant that this method used more chlorine overall, was riskier as the chlorine levels could drop below the acceptable sanitizer level, and was harsher on skin and clothing if the pool was used early in the week.How it works: Sutro works by performing 3 tests a day. It tests chlorine and pH 3 times a day and alkalinity once a day. It measures the water temperature hourly. It uses the same liquid reagents that are used in at home tests or in the pool store. In side-by-side testing with my at home kit and pool store testing, I’ve found the Sutro results to be extremely reliable (with testing margin of error).Results: The Sutro improved upon my prior method, allowing me to reduce the amount spent on chemicals, totally eliminating any signs of algae, saving me time, and providing a better maintained pool. I’ve used the Sutro for two seasons, and liked it so much that I just bought a second one as a gift for a family member. Now, rather than spending a few minutes testing the pool water, I just open up the Sutro app and check the levels. When I saw the sanitizer was getting low, I would add a small amount in the morning or evenings, which typically lasted 2-3 days.Update #1: I subsequently added a Hasa Liquid Feeder to my system to provide a steady stream of sanitizer (chlorine) while my pool pump runs. Using the Sutro with the Hasa Liquid Feeder is a perfect combination. I use the Sutro to monitor the sanitizer levels daily, and adjust the flow rate of the Hasa Liquid Feeder to keep the pool water at a consistent sanitizer level. This system works even at lower temperatures when salt-based chlorine generators don’t. Other than brushing my pool once a week, changing the Sutro cartridge once a month, and refilling the Hasa Liquid Feeder every month or two, I don’t have any additional work to maintain my pool.

I really wanted to love this product, but after my experience I feel like not only have I wasted my money, I wasted a lot of time hoping that their experience would get better with software updates. The bottom line is that the hardware looks really nice and professional, but the software behind it is absolutely horrible. This company needs to fire everyone on their software team because they are clearly incompetent.I had such a terrible time setting this up. Just connecting it to Wifi took hours. Over an hour fiddling with it myself to no avail and then close to two hours on the phone with their tech support. The tech support agent had me doing the same process over, and over, and over again until it finally connected. I must have unplugged the hub and plugged it back in over 20 times during this process. Not a single change was made to my Wifi. The problem was solely on their software side.Then once it had wifi setup I put the device in the pool and the let it start doing it's work. Every time I would open the app, the app would tell me that I needed to setup an account which I was fine with. However, every time I tried to setup an account it would never allow me to complete the process. I would start the process and one of the steps in the account creation process would just never complete. No error messages, no indications of a problem at all, just click the button to move to the next step and wait forever for nothing to happen. Clicked it over and over again and nothing.Nevertheless, the device was still showing me some data, but the data didn't seem very accurate and the user interface was very lacking in pleasantries. At this point it was hard to take this thing seriously.The only reason I wasted so much time on it is because the hardware is actually really nice and well made. It gives the illusion that this is a good product, but it's not. If the thing had shown up and looked like poor hardware I probably would have saved myself a lot of time by not taking it too seriously from the start. Unfortunately it's a beautiful piece of hardware that misleads one to think that it's a great product. It's not.I buy a lot of tech products and many of them disappoint, but this one is definitely the biggest disappointment of the year. It's like this company hired a high end product designer and engineer to build the hardware and then hired their neighbors 13 year old kid to write the software. It might just be the most significant mismatch of hardware and software that I've ever encountered. Incredible.

This product is a great way to keep your pool water clean and safe. The accurate readings and real-time updates make it easy to maintain your pool chemistry, and the alerts help you to prevent problems before they even start.I really like that the Sutro monitor provides real-time updates on water chemistry. This means that I can always be sure that my pool water is safe and balanced, even when I'm not home. I also appreciate the alerts that the monitor sends. They've helped me to prevent a few problems before they started.e.g. one time I was away on vacation and the monitor sent me an alert that my pool water was getting too acidic (pH was getting low). I was able to take action right away (I texted my neighbor) and told her to add some baking soda to the pool, which prevented the pH from dropping too low. This could have caused a lot of damage to my pool if I hadn't been alerted.The monthly subscription for the Sutro monitor is a bit steep, but it's still worth it for the peace of mind that it provides. I would definitely recommend the Sutro Smart Pool Monitor to anyone who wants to have a worry-free pool experience. It's easy to use and the most accurate sensor out there.I've read some reviews that say that the customer service for Sutro is bad, but I haven't had any issues myself. I've contacted them once with a question, and they responded quickly and helpfully. So, I can't really comment on the customer service, but I can say that I haven't had any problems with it.If you're looking for a way to make your pool maintenance easier and more worry-free, I highly recommend the Sutro Smart Pool Monitor. It's a great product that I'm sure you'll be happy with.