Sharper Edge 

Fluidra’s AquaLink EDGE is more than a new automation panel. The company says it’s the foundation for a broader next-generation pool technology platform built around connected equipment, predictive service and a more modern pool ownership experience.

Fluidra has spent years rethinking how homeowners and pool professionals interact with pools, automation, connected equipment and each other.

“Rather than just patching onto what we have now, [we] built a platform from the ground up,” says Jon Viner, president of Fluidra North America.

The shift comes as homeowners expect smart controls and connectivity while builders and service companies face growing pressure to operate more efficiently with fewer experienced technicians, the company says.

“Fluidra has always pioneered,” says Orlando Gadea, vice president of global digital experience. “The automation system that we have today [AquaLink RS] was made before smartphones. Our expectations have evolved so much.”

A simpler pool experience

To meet those new expectations, the development focused on user experience and interface design.

“The pool automation industry has been very technical,” says Chuck Murphy, Fluidra’s global user experience director. “And even inside of that, it hasn’t been intuitive and easy to use those different interfaces, whether it’s a mobile app or the [interface] on the pool pad.”

Murphy says simplifying the experience for both homeowners and service professionals while reducing the intimidation factor often associated with automation systems was a requirement. 

“Anytime you learn a new technology, there’s a little bit of that, ‘Oh, I’m used to it being a certain way before, and now I have to change,’ ” Murphy says. “But we can overcome that quickly by making it intuitive.”

Fluidra separates the homeowner and pool pro experiences into dedicated apps rather than forcing both users into the same interface.

“Now we can better gear the messaging and the functionality for each of those different users,” Murphy says.

The homeowner-facing experience focuses on simplicity and convenience, making sure the pool is ready when they want it. For instance, users can schedule an upcoming pool party in the app, which could signal extra chemical dosing to prepare for a higher bather load. And instead of walking outside to continually check if the spa is hot, the app tells you when it’s reached the desired temperature.

Jeremy Young, director of product marketing, says the broader goal is to make pools easier and more enjoyable to own. “The pool is ready for you,” Young says. “You’re ready to swim.”

Building the next-generation platform

AquaLink EDGE and Fluidra’s new connected products signal a broader change inside the company, as it positions software and connected services alongside traditional equipment manufacturing.

“We’re evolving from a hardware team and a hardware company into a software company,” says Keith McQueen, Fluidra’s chief product officer. McQueen adds that the software team currently outnumbers the engineering team.

“We want to accelerate our equipment sales by having software,” McQueen says. “We want to sell more hardware by being the most efficient. The ecosystem is so easy to use. You can get your entire business at your fingertips.”

Viner says AquaLink EDGE is designed less as a stand-alone automation system and more as a long-term digital platform connecting hardware, software and service tools across the entire pool experience. That road map includes connected lighting, digital flow control, next-generation sensing technology and expanded diagnostics capabilities. 

“This is not just an automation; this is a digital ecosystem that is linked with our hardware,” Viner says. “It’s about delivering experiences to help [pros] be more efficient. It’s going to be adaptive and evolve over time and will transform pool ownership and the way that pools are serviced.”

Jared Leander, Fluidra’s electromechanical engineering lead for the project, says the company designed the system to support expansion.

“One of our goals was to take the idea of the integrated salt on our current products and take it further,” Leander says. “What else can we integrate without having to keep slapping stuff on the wall?”

The platform was also constructed with future AI and machine learning applications in mind. “It’s built on technology that we can keep upgrading,” says Matt Gagliano, senior product manager. “At the initial launch of this product, there’s no generative AI. But the processor on it is made to run machine learning models and AI models.”

Fluidra says the long-term opportunity lies in using connected equipment and shared data to make pools more proactive, predictive and easier to maintain.

“We can start to build models,” Gagliano says. “For instance, not only models for how long it takes to heat but incorporating environmental conditions and people’s usage patterns into that.”

Supporting pool pros

The strategy extends beyond the homeowner experience and heavily targets operational challenges facing builders and service companies. Fluidra says this won’t replace service professionals, but give them better information, improved communication tools and more control over increasingly complex pools.

Fluidra points to labor shortages, equipment complexity and the need to help companies operate more efficiently.

“By providing more insights and powerful diagnostics, you can take a technician who’s maybe not as knowledgeable and do more with them,” Young says. “With smarter equipment that’s digital, a lot of that diagnosis can be served up to you. We can tell you input voltage, output voltage, voltage at the device, low gas pressure. … You could get in and out quickly.”

AquaLink EDGE integrates with tracker iO, a pool business management software. 

“In my route, there are 400 pools,” Gadea says. “Three hundred and ninety-five are perfect, three are yellow and there’s two reds.”

At a glance, that’s great to know, but Young says tracker iO takes it a step further. “So you got this information,” Young says. “What do you do with it now? How do you drop it into your schedule? How do I make sure that a pump gets resolved, the pool doesn’t go green, but that’s not at the expense of five other customers? Tracker iO can see all of that information and make sure that you put it in the right place at the right time to minimize the impact on the rest of the business.”

Fluidra says the value isn’t just in identifying problems faster, but in helping service companies prioritize labor, communicate proactively with homeowners and avoid service failures before they escalate.

“We want to be an asset to those service companies,” Young says. “This technology has no ambition to try to get around them. It’s trying to empower them with more information so that they can focus on what they do really well — which is taking care of pools.”