The Brand Story
Intermatic: From Streetcar Fare Registers to the Clock on Every Pool Pad
Walk behind an older pool almost anywhere in Florida and you will find it: a gray metal box bolted near the pump, a clock dial inside, and two small trippers marking when the water should run. Pool techs have been opening those boxes for generations. The company that makes many of them did not start in pools, or even in timers. It started in 1891 in Chicago, building machines that counted streetcar fares.
Chapter 1 · 1891
Counting fares in Chicago
Intermatic was founded in Chicago in 1891 to make portable fare registers for streetcars, the mechanical counters conductors used to track every nickel collected on a run. Early fare-register patents tied to the company carry the name of Arthur H. Woodward. It was precise, durable clockwork made for rough daily use, and that combination would turn out to be the company's real product for the next century.
Chapter 2 · 1930 to 1945
Coin meters, wartime and the first timer
As the streetcar era faded, the company followed its mechanisms elsewhere. In 1930 it shifted to coin meters. When the Second World War arrived it turned its factory over to munitions, like many American manufacturers of the period. Then, in 1945, it introduced its first lighting timer, a small device that switched a lamp on and off by the clock. That timer pointed the company toward everything it would become.
Chapter 3 · 1956 to 1958
The T101 and the move to the pool
In 1956 Intermatic introduced the T101 mechanical time switch, a milestone the company still points to as a turning point in its history. Two years later, in 1958, it added pool and spa controls. The timing was right. Backyard pools were spreading across postwar America, and every one of them needed a pump that ran on a schedule without someone flipping a switch by hand. A rugged mechanical time switch in a weatherproof box was exactly the right tool. Running the pump on a schedule kept water filtered and sanitized while sparing the owner the electricity of running it around the clock, a tradeoff that still drives how pool pumps are programmed today.
From there the pool line grew the way pool equipment pads grow: a timer, then a second circuit, then heater protection, freeze protection, air switches for spas and, eventually, full load centers that bring every circuit on the pad into one enclosure.
Chapter 4 · 1990 to 2016
A family business with a global reach
By 1990 Intermatic's sales reached about $100 million. In 2007 it acquired Grässlin Controls from General Electric, adding control technology for HVACR and equipment makers across Europe, the United Kingdom, Asia and the Middle East. In 2011 it introduced a line of energy-saving controls, and in 2016 it marked 125 years in business. Through all of it the company remained in the hands of the founding Kinney family, selling to residential, commercial, industrial, utility and equipment-maker customers in more than 35 countries.
Chapter 5 · 2025
New owners, the same clockwork
In April 2025 MPE Partners, a private equity firm that invests in established family-owned manufacturers, acquired Intermatic from the Kinney family. Rick Boutilier stayed on as president and chief executive. The company's plans center on digital, advanced and integrated controls, while its core line of time switches, surge protection devices and weatherproof covers continues for lighting, irrigation, water heating, HVACR and pool and spa work.
The Lineup
What Intermatic builds today
Intermatic makes timers and time switches, surge protective devices, hour meters, sensors, weatherproof covers, lighting controls and pool and spa controls. HVAC365 carries the pool and spa side of that catalog, along with the small parts that keep older installations running.
- Pool timers and time switches: the T100 series 24-hour mechanical time switch at 208 to 277 volts, a digital timer in an outdoor enclosure with pool heater protection, a freeze protection timer with thermostat, and spring-wound countdown timers for heaters, lights and blowers.
- Service parts: replacement timer motors, insulator covers for T100 series timers, and on and off trippers for P1000 and P1100 series timers, the parts that bring an existing box back to life.
- Load centers and power centers: enclosures that gather the pump, heater, lights and accessories on one panel, including a 24-hour three-circuit pool control with heater protection.
- Control panels and remotes and automation relays for adding circuits to an existing setup, plus panel-mount 24-hour timers for PF and RC series products.
- Salt systems: a chlorinator system for pools up to 25,000 gallons, paired with a power center.
- Spa equipment: pneumatic air buttons for gunite and fiberglass spas, which switch equipment with a puff of air so no electricity reaches the water's edge.
The browse path for the whole family starts at pool automation systems.
The Details That Matter
Heater protection and freeze protection
Two features show up again and again in Intermatic's pool timers, and both exist to protect expensive equipment. Heater protection, often called a fireman's switch, shuts the heater off shortly before the pump stops, so water keeps flowing across a hot heat exchanger while it cools down. Without it, a timer can kill the pump while the burner is still firing.
Freeze protection works the other way around. A temperature sensor turns the pump on when the air approaches freezing, so moving water protects pipes and equipment overnight. In South Florida that might happen a handful of nights a year, which is exactly when nobody is watching the pool.
At a Glance
Intermatic at a glance
- Founded
- 1891, Chicago, Illinois
- First product
- Streetcar fare registers
- First lighting timer
- 1945
- Landmark product
- T101 mechanical time switch, 1956
- Pool and spa controls since
- 1958
- Acquired
- Grässlin Controls, 2007
- Owner
- MPE Partners, since 2025
- Previous owner
- The founding Kinney family
- Customers in
- More than 35 countries
Questions
Frequently asked questions about Intermatic
Who owns Intermatic?
Intermatic was acquired by the private equity firm MPE Partners in April 2025 from the founding Kinney family. Rick Boutilier remained president and CEO.
When was Intermatic founded?
Intermatic was founded in Chicago in 1891, originally making portable fare registers for streetcars.
When did Intermatic start making pool controls?
Intermatic added pool and spa controls in 1958, two years after introducing its T101 mechanical time switch.
What does heater protection on an Intermatic pool timer do?
Heater protection, often called a fireman's switch, shuts off the pool heater shortly before the pump stops, so water keeps flowing over the hot heat exchanger while it cools.
What does an Intermatic freeze protection timer do?
It uses a temperature sensor to run the pool pump when the air nears freezing, so moving water protects pipes and equipment.
