Introducing the new Water Witch Smart Sense

There’s a simple, unassuming product nestled in the equipment area of more than 20,000 Australian and international pools. Its responsibility is to maintain the pool water level, but for many pool owners, they don’t even realise it’s there. What is it? It’s the Water Witch electronic water leveller- a product with a reputation for being Australia’s most reliable and dependable leveller, since being introduced to the market more than 27 years ago.

The Water Witch is a descendant of the Neptune’s Mate. Both levellers were developed by Cliff Cooke, the founder and Managing Director of both Cookes Pools & Spas and Cooke Industries. Both businesses have flourished since Cooke built his first concrete pool in Mildura during the early 1980s.

Mildura is an extreme climate for swimming pools, with overnight lows plunging to -2° in winter whilst maximum daytime temperatures through summer are consistently more than 40°. A product designed and developed for this climate was always going to be suitable for the full range of Australia’s demanding environs.

"Our customers were losing a lot of water from their pools through evaporation and were needing to fill them with a hose at least twice a week,” Cooke Said. “We started looking for an auto leveller to improve the pool ownership experience and found there was nothing suitable on the market.” That’s when Cooke and his team decided to develop something themselves.

Cooke explains that developing an auto leveller in-house was a logical decision. “Pools were a lot of work for their owners back in the early 1980s and all the pool equipment relied on there being a minimum water level in the pool. We were looking to automate pool ownership and remove the work required by pool owners,” he said.

Through careful consideration of the problem and many long nights tinkering Full Electrical Certification away in his garden shed, Cooke developed Inside & Outside use the Neptune’s Mate automatic leveller. (ESV160204) “Neptune’s Mate was the most advanced C-Tick Approval leveller at the time and it was a world beater N11116 in terms of technology. It was far more advanced than anything else being offered at the time,” Cooke said.

The team at Cookes Pools and Spas began installing the Neptune’s Mate on their new pools and interest from industry friends created the prospect of it being sold to a wider audience.

The Water Witch has gained a strong reputation within the swimming pool industry and during the last decade, that reputation has transcended into other fields. Several units have been used in agricultural and mining projects to both maintain minimum and maximum water levels in tanks, dams and other water holdings.

“We were using the Neptune’s Mate as a tool to sell more pools, because an easy pool to own is going to be a more enjoyable experience for the owner, and that’s going to help build business through referrals.” Cooke said. “We soon discovered many within our industry held similar thoughts.”

Interest from the trade increased and orders started coming in from distributors such as Lincoln Pool Equipment in Melbourne and Chadson Engineering in Perth, two businesses that have maintained a close distributor relationship with Cooke Industries for three decades.

Early 1980’s pool

Original Neptune’s Mate Sensor

2nd Generation Naptune’s Mate

“Selling the Neptune’s Mate opened our eyes to the importance of product development and understanding your marker,” Cooke Said. “The first model was a great product, but it wasn’t suited to our market because the builder was required to join and solder wires and apply heat shrink to waterproof the join.”

Recognising the limitation of this process, Cooke set about developing an improved model that was easier to install and delivered great reliability.

There are still many Neptune’s Mate auto levellers installed Across Australia and it is common for Cooke Industries to receive a call from pool owners enquiring about parts for their Neptune’s Mate. The emphasis on quality and reliability that were built into the Neptune’s Mate laid the foundations for the Water Witch that our industry has now become so familiar with.

The first Water Witch was launched in 1993 and despite some cosmetic changes, the same model has existed for 27 years. The Water Witch is a great solution for maintaining the water level in pools, but it comes into its own for projects such as infinity edge troughs, balance tanks, pool and spa combinations and other unique projects.

These projects require unique functionality from an operational perspective. Troughs and balance tanks have water levels that fluctuate more wildly than what you’d see in a standard pool, so the Water Witch is the perfect option for these projects.

The Water Witch has gained a strong reputation within the swimming pool industry and during the last decade, that reputation has transcended into other fields. Several units have been used in agricultural and mining projects to both maintain minimum and maximum water levels in tanks, dams and other water holdings.

Customer expectations continue to evolve and Cooke Industries realised it was time to improve on the Water Witch. The Water Witch Smart Sense is being launched in January 2021 and will offer a host of exciting new features, whilst the new model will also be easier to install, commission and operate.

“We’re privileged to have had extensive feedback over many years about the different applications our customers use the Water Witch for and what they wish it could do,” Cooke said. “We’ve been able to incorporate enormous flexibility into this new model as it includes settings for commercial and domestic pools, spas, balance tanks, other water bodies and a new feature to pump water out of troughs and balance tanks when the water level is too high. The new technology makes it perfect for every project.”

“We did consider options such as an app, but they offered very little benefit to the home owner,” Cooke said. “It was technology for the sake of technology and all that does is add to our production costs. It was important to us that we keep production costs as low as possible because we’re proud to be a small Australian manufacturer and it’s pleasing that we can launch a new model with improved features, yet maintain existing pricing.”

The Water Witch has gained a loyal following with customers as far away as Europe and North America. This is despite the current model not being directly compatible with the electrical plugs in those continents.

Early Neptune’s Mate Production

The Smart Sense can easily be installed in any country across the world, as the internal transformer hard-wired to an Australian power plug has been replaced with an external power pack.

“We’re excited about the opportunities this new model will bring and we hope to expand the Water Witch name across the world,” Cooke Said.

Will the next model be sold for 27 years? “I’d think not,” said Cooke. “Our world and technology are changing more rapidly than ever. We’re excited about the Water Witch Smart Sense and what it will do for pool owners, but we’re already well down the path of planning our next model and considering available and emerging technologies to further enhance the system.”

The Water Witch Smart Sense will be launched Australia-wide on 27 January 2021 and Cooke said they are looking forward to celebrating the launch with a promotion that will appeal to local customers