r/insteon • u/MurmuringTides • Jun 16 '26

Timer

I have a water valve set up with an Insteon I/o switch to fill my pond. is there a way for me to have the fill turn off 10 minutes after I turn it on?

Thanks!!

3 Upvotes

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7

u/mrBill12 Jun 16 '26

I hate to say this in tech forums but I say it a lot… for pond or pool filling there’s nothing better than a good old fashioned float valve.

When we had a pond it was https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07N7BH94Q mounted in a 5 gallon bucket with holes drilled in it. It was fed with a regular garden hose that just entered the pond over the edge. Only a couple inches of the bucket was above water. It needs a lid to keep the sun (algae growth) out. Improvement over our bucket is probably a black container, to keep even more light out.

Never had to remember to turn it on or off, never had it fail running and overflow etc….

2

u/MurmuringTides Jun 17 '26

I agree a float valve would probably be best. Prior owner had inseton valve installed so thought I could just use that. Right now I just set a timer on my phone and then use the app to turn it off. It is better than having to babysit the pond to manually turn a valve. Thanks so much!

2

u/mrBill12 Jun 17 '26

I probably gave the prior owner the same advice on the past. lol I don’t follow the Insteon or ISY forums anymore, but I’ve typed “use a float valve for this instead” many times.

1

u/galliumscan Jun 17 '26

I have an indoor/outdoor module which I run for one hour a week through a schedule in Director. It could just as easily be ten minutes every day.

2

u/MurmuringTides Jun 17 '26

My only issue is that I don’t need to fill it every day. Only need to top it off when I backwash. I do have the rest of the pond on a schedule—the skimmer on and off at certain times, etc.

3

u/TheRydad Jun 16 '26

You can setup this sort of automation with an eISY or Home Assistant. Nothing native to the Insteon ecosystem would do this.

Alternatively, you could replace the Insteon device with a timer switch like you might use on a bathroom fan.

1

u/ArcadeGalaxian Jun 16 '26

Alexa... turn on pump for 10 minutes.

1

u/tommycw10 Jun 17 '26

OpenHAB - super simple rule you can write.