Zcash Home Mining: Monitor ZEC Miners with HashWatcher

Published October 24, 2026 by the HashWatcher team

If you mine Zcash (ZEC) at home, HashWatcher is the app built to watch your Equihash miner for you. HashWatcher reads your Antminer Z series miner directly over your local network and shows its hashrate in KSol/s, chip and board temperatures, fan speeds, accepted and rejected shares, pool status and power on one screen. HashWatcher works on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Android, and HashWatcher can alert you and let you check in from anywhere without opening a single port on your router.

This guide covers what you need to mine Zcash at home, which Zcash miners work with HashWatcher, how to set up a ZEC pool, what to watch on a Zcash miner, and how HashWatcher keeps an eye on it while you are away. The photo below is a real screen from HashWatcher monitoring our own Antminer Z15j.

The short version

What you need to mine Zcash at home

Zcash uses the Equihash proof of work algorithm (parameters 200,9), not Bitcoin's SHA-256. That means a Bitaxe or a Bitcoin Antminer can't mine it. You need an Equihash ASIC, and today that mostly means a Bitmain Antminer Z15 series machine. Zcash targets a new block every 75 seconds, and the current block subsidy is 1.5625 ZEC, with 80% of it (1.25 ZEC) going to miners and the rest to Zcash development funding.

A home Zcash setup comes down to four things:

1. An Equihash miner, such as an Antminer Z15j or Z15 Pro. 2. Power and cooling that can handle it. Bitmain rates the Z15j at 1,510 W at the wall, and the Z15 Pro at 2,780 W on 200 to 240 V AC. 3. A Zcash mining pool and a ZEC wallet address for payouts. 4. A way to watch it, which is where HashWatcher comes in.

Which Zcash miners work with HashWatcher

HashWatcher monitors and controls stock Bitmain Antminer Z series Zcash miners and Zcash miners running LuxOS. On stock Bitmain firmware, that covers the Z series lineup, and the photo above is HashWatcher running on our own Z15j. On LuxOS, that includes the Antminer Z15 Pro, and HashWatcher reads the hash method LuxOS reports, so a LuxOS Zcash miner shows KSol/s instead of being mistaken for a SHA-256 machine. Either way, HashWatcher gives you the full Zcash dashboard plus controls from your phone.

For reference, here are Bitmain's published specs for the Z15 family. HashWatcher uses these typical values when it estimates power on stock firmware (more on that below).

Adding a Zcash miner to HashWatcher works like any other miner: let HashWatcher scan your network, or enter the miner's IP address. On a stock Bitmain Z series unit, HashWatcher uses the miner's web login (the same one you use in a browser) for things like pool edits, so keep that handy.

Setting up a Zcash pool, and checking it in HashWatcher

Most home ZEC miners point at a pool, which pays out small amounts often instead of waiting for a whole block. Pools that list ZEC include 2Miners, F2Pool, ViaBTC and Luxor, and their fees and payout methods differ (PPLNS, PPS+ and FPPS, for example), so check each pool's help page before you choose. As one example, 2Miners lists stratum+tcp://zec.2miners.com:1010 with your ZEC wallet address as the worker name and x as the password.

Antminer Z series miners have three pool slots, and HashWatcher can read and edit all three right from the app, so you can set a main pool and two backups without opening the miner's web page. HashWatcher shows which pool is actually doing the work, and if your miner switches from its main pool to a backup, HashWatcher tells you.

What to monitor on a Zcash miner with HashWatcher

Here is what HashWatcher shows on a Zcash miner, using the numbers from our own Z15j in the photo as a real example.

Hashrate in KSol/s

Equihash hashrate is measured in solutions per second (Sol/s), and an ASIC like the Z15j works in thousands of them, KSol/s. In the photo, HashWatcher shows 310.6 KSol/s live with a 320.1 KSol/s average, right in line with Bitmain's 320 KSol/s rating for the Z15j. HashWatcher never adds KSol/s to your SHA-256 TH/s totals. If you run both kinds of miners, the HashWatcher fleet total cycles between TH/s and KSol/s so each number stays meaningful. The real time chart below the tiles makes a dip easy to spot.

ASIC and board temperatures

HashWatcher reads chip and board temperatures from the miner. Our Z15j shows a 69°C ASIC average and a 48°C board average. You can set a temperature alert threshold per miner in HashWatcher, so a Zcash miner in a garage or basement can have a different limit than a Bitaxe on your desk.

Fans

HashWatcher shows fan speed and whether the miner is on automatic or manual fan control. Our Z15j shows 89% with both fans on auto. On stock Bitmain Z series firmware, HashWatcher can also switch fan control between auto and manual and set a fan percentage.

Shares and rejected shares

Accepted and rejected shares tell you whether the miner's work is reaching the pool cleanly. Our Z15j shows 26,869 shares with 85 rejected, about 0.3%. A rejected count that climbs quickly is worth a look at your pool connection or network.

Power and efficiency

Power is where HashWatcher is upfront with you. Stock Bitmain Z series firmware doesn't report live wall power, so HashWatcher shows an estimate, clearly marked EST, based on Bitmain's typical draw for your model, scaled to your current hashrate versus the rated hashrate. That is why our Z15j shows 1.47 kW (from a 1,510 W typical rating) and an efficiency of 4.7 W/kSol. If you need exact numbers for your power bill, a plug in power meter at the wall is still the best source.

Uptime, pool status and the control board

HashWatcher also shows uptime, mining status and pool status, and on a stock Z series unit HashWatcher shows the miner's control board load and memory (the Host tile in the photo). When something looks off, you can reboot the miner from HashWatcher.

Check your Zcash miner away from home without port forwarding

HashWatcher is local first. HashWatcher reads miner data directly from your Zcash miner over your home network, and no third party cloud is required to see it. Optional cloud backed features are only used where needed, such as alerts and the community chat.

When you leave the house, HashWatcher gives you three ways to keep watching, all without port forwarding or dynamic DNS. The HashWatcher Hub is a small device that sits on your network next to your miners. The HashWatcher Desktop Gateway runs on a Mac or Windows computer that stays on. And the HashWatcher Gateway app turns an Umbrel home server into a private remote bridge. Under the hood, each one uses Tailscale to create an encrypted private connection between your phone and your home network, and HashWatcher walks you through the setup. You see the same Zcash dashboard on the road that you see on your couch. Learn more on our remote monitoring page.

HashWatcher alerts for Zcash miners

A Zcash miner runs hot and loud, and it often lives somewhere you don't walk past every day. HashWatcher watches it for you and can alert you when chip temperatures cross your threshold, when hashrate dips below the miner's normal baseline, when the miner switches from its main pool to a backup, and when a miner reports a block found. A nightly recap at a time you choose summarizes your fleet, Zcash miners included.

Solo mining Zcash with HashWatcher

If you would rather take a shot at a whole block, HashWatcher's solo odds view adds Zcash when you have a Zcash miner, so you can see your chances with your current KSol/s. An optional Zcash mempool tile in HashWatcher shows live blocks, the mempool and timing for the next block. Keep in mind that a single home Equihash miner is a tiny share of the Zcash network, so solo mining is a lottery ticket, not a steady income.

Why home Zcash miners choose HashWatcher

Most mining apps assume every miner is a Bitcoin miner. HashWatcher understands Equihash, shows Zcash hashrate in the right units, keeps it apart from your SHA-256 totals, and still puts your whole fleet on one screen, whether that is one Z15j or a Z15 Pro next to a row of Bitaxes. HashWatcher is rated 4.9 stars on the App Store and has more than 1,200 ratings across the App Store and Google Play. HashWatcher is free to download on iPhone and Android, with optional Premium extras. Features vary by platform and device, and HashWatcher shows what each miner supports.

Running Bitcoin miners too? Read our guide to the best app to monitor Bitcoin miners, or see how HashWatcher compares with other mining apps.

Free to download. No cloud required to monitor your miners.