I would try one first, unless you really need to shorten your pump run time. My pool is just over 23k and I run mine 4-5 hours/day max. Keep a couple of cheap spares, and pray for the poorer souls who are paying $150 just for a replacement cable or flow switch for their much pricier ECGs!

Thats good to know, I though I was nuuty to use a kids pool "toy" from walmart on my custom IG pool at first but the quality and weight convinced me its a good product and at 1000 plus dollors for a CG from Leslie's even on sale their expensive. Then i find out the cells alone are 550-600 Yikes!

The guy at NPS pool and spa told me that even the Auqarite Goldline CG 40k model might have problems keeping up in the summer. It does get over 100deg. on a regular basis here in Las Vegas. I have no idea if this is true, so thats why i thought id follow the box specs, but if i can just use one that would be great! that way i don't have to find a second of the same model.

I'm wondering about using two Intex units, as I have an 18 x 34 x 4.5 pool, about 18,000 gallons. I hate to have my power bill rise dramatically. Can anyone tell me how I could hook up two units, first, and how much electricity they draw?

Thanks!

You can try one first...i'm thinking you can get by with that. I run mine for 3-4hrs on a 13,500 gal pool...I'm guessing you would need about 6hrs, which is a typical pump run time.

One would be nice, but I think they're only rated for 14,500 gal, and ours is around 18,000.

The numbers in the Intex user's guide assume no CYA. With a reasonable amount of CYA, the run time will generally be far less than what is shown in the manual. Also, it would be best to find a 2009 or earlier model. They can produce twice the chlorine as the 2010, but produce no copper (both or those are good things for followers of BBB).

How much chlorine does your pool require?
That is where you should start, then find a model that makes enough to keep it satisfied.
The Intex 8110 ("old" model) makes 24 grams/hour, but is limited to running a maximum of 12 hours per day.
The Intex CS8110 (new copper ionizer model) makes 12 grams per hour, and is also limited to 12 hours/day.
Both units use 250 watts.
You can look here to see how that compares to other makes/models -
http://www.discountsaltpool.com/Full_Market_Comparison.htm

Thanks for all the information!

New2me, I see you have way more gallons than our pool is and are using one Intex. I'm wondering what you're using the Hayward CL200 for, though. Do you still need to add chlorine to the pool with a SWG?

My AG pool is 18'x33'x52", I run around 4 hours a day and it keeps my test kit nice and yellow. I bought the older 2 button model a few weeks ago. I haven't added liquid chlorine for 3 weeks, gotta love it. My only issue is finding a good time to run it seeing the teens want to swim almost any time of day. I just bought more of the toggle things for my filter timer so I may start running it at night. It did take some time to get used to and for it to ramp up on the chlorine but it now maintains quite easily. The most annoying part is losing your settings when you shut it off but for this price who cares. You can actually see when it's running by the bubbles that come out of the return.

I have one of these and I believe that the manual says not to run in when anyones in the pool, but who takes all their floating clorine dispenser(s) out of the pool and turns off their inline/offline clorine feeders EVERY time they swim? I know I don't. I think having the SWG on would be OK while people are swimming based on that.

It is all electrical issues. The older model Intex is not UL listed, and thus presumed to not be safe to use while people are in the pool. Plus they are not normally bonded, which presents a whole other set of safety concerns. None of this is very likely to be an issue, but best to follow their recommendation and not have an Intex SWG on when you are in the pool.

Jason, good to know. I didn't know they lacked a UL rating in the past. I bought mine at season close last year. I'll look for the UL stamp on mine. I wish they hadn't gone to a lower output/copper generation this year as I would like to run a matched pair on my pool. When I ran mine on my spa (shut down for warm season) I made sure to have in plugged into a new GFCI I installed.

I'm on the third season with mine and I am out of love with it. The buttons for setting the timer are all messed up on mine. The right button in particular. The plastic over the button is all cracked and I guess water got in there at some point. We keep a bucket over it now, but it is very hard to set, and as much as we have power outages here, it is a frequent thing. I just came in from trying to set it and it took a half an hour to finally get it. Now I am drenched in sweat and the tips of my fingers are raw and bruised from trying to push that button.

So I was wondering if anyone thinks that would be fixable? I was going to look into a replacement or a different type of SWG. Any suggestions? I would not mind paying more for one that keeps its settings through a power outage. Is there a decent SWG for AG pools under $600?

MeSue, yah I hate the lack of a real clock and the no memory thing, also the 1 hr increment setting don't work with a Spa, too long.
You could try buying a cheap small UPS system from tiger direct. You can get them on sale at Microcenter and others for 25 bucks, for the button thing I have seen a ribbon cable in mine after modding it, you could solder in a couple of radio shack push buttons to replace the stock ones. Here is my SWG SPA mod :
I took mine apart (voided 90 day warranty thats long gone) and put a standard automotive SPDT bosch relay on the flow sensor. The relays coil is fed by a 9v power pack out side the generator plugged into a digital timer i set to run 8 mins each day INSIDE the SWG 1 hour window. So it comes on at 3pm runs a little, fails for low flow with a light, digital timer comes on, after a few seconds the SWG can now receive a signal and clears the Lo flow fault. 8 mins later the digital timer shuts off and I have all the clorine produced I need for 24 hrs. (Spa is always covered, set to 100 deg. runs circ pump 4 hrs daily starting at 3pm) Hope this helps someone

I do use the Hayward every now and then to feed pucks, but mainly it's there to plug up the holes in the piping. Yes, you still need another chlorine source with an Electronic Chlorine Generator, if you want to quickly raise your FC level. You can maintain a level with a generator, but you need to set it with bleach, or something else. If you need to shock, you will need, by definition, to quickly add chlorine - something a generator is incapable of( an exception would be a large unit with a very small pool (Intex?))

I started a thread over here: making-plumbing-adapters-for-intex-swg-for-inground-pool-t26906.html About the plumbing aspect of installing on an inground pool.