aquarite dead? generic cells for hayward aquarite?

[bonanz]

Just inherited a hayward aqua rite pool I'm trying to get going. I'm suspicious the cell is dead. I'm gonna take it to leslies this week to get them to test it to try to confirm.

t keeps shwoing a low salinity reading (despite independently verifying the salt level is where it should be). it keeps coming up with salt low and check cell. I tried recalibrating to the propert current reading, but a lot of times during the calibration steps it doesn't go above 2000 before counting down to where' you supposed to catch the level. a couple of times I caut it around 3000 and it would say generating and LED's would look good. I'd leave it for a while and it stayed like tihs for a few hours, then at some point it would get the low salt and check cell light again. I'd recalibrate, rinse and repeat.

I'm highly supspicious of the cell. I popped the panel off and looked at the thermistor, it looks ok. I ordered one anyway and will swap it out when it comes, but i don't see anything alarming on the boards (I'm an EE by trade).

I'm assuming leslies will tell me the cell is dead...soooooo

what is the current state of affairs of a generic aquarite turbo cell? The one currently installed is a T-9 and the software version is 1.5x so I think i'm safe for interchanging T-3/9/15 etc.

I googled about various generic replacements and found some, but has there been a consensus here about experiences with any particular generic brand or store to purchase from and an details from people who have put some time on a generic cell and if it's had any issues or died early etc.

Any experiences or advice would be appreciated.

 

[Jaimslaw]

I think we are all awaiting feed back from these generic cells, which may require more time (up to perhaps a year or more) to gauge these cells longevity performance. Hopefully, feedback from those buying these cells will weigh in at some point in the future as to their life span.

 

[chiefwej]

The symptoms you describe do sound like a depleted cell. I personally, would buy nothing but a genuine Hayward T-15 cell. The first T-15 lasted well over 7 years for me. And part of that was before I found TFP, so my water chemistry wasn't kept up to par. Figure the replacement cost of $400 divided by the 7+ years of service I got out of it, makes my chlorine cost less tha $57 per year. That's in very sunny Tucson, and a 19k pool open year-round. How much cheaper can you get?

 

[Jaimslaw]

The symptoms you describe do sound like a depleted cell. I personally, would buy nothing but a genuine Hayward T-15 cell. The first T-15 lasted well over 7 years for me. And part of that was before I found TFP, so my water chemistry wasn't kept up to par. Figure the replacement cost of $400 divided by the 7+ years of service I got out of it, makes my chlorine cost less tha $57 per year. That's in very sunny Tucson, and a 19k pool open year-round. How much cheaper can you get?

Not to highjack this thread, but how hard is your water? I've been able to scratch out only about 4 years on my T-15 and always have it dialed back. Trying to see if I can get better mileage, or whether our San Diego's brick hard water will trump proper cleaning and water levels.

As to generic cells, am still hoping to hear from purchasers of those units about their experience. If they last for 3+ years, they will have my business.

 

[ping]

Here's a thread with some feedback, make sure you read all of it, need advice on replacement for SWG - Hayward T-CELL 15.

 

[bonanz]

I took it to both PAP and leslies and they both tested it and it came up as failed... womp womp.

I used to go to my local leslies exclusively when i needed something but recently i have had some really bad experiences there.

so my cell fails. I ask for their price on replacement. she says the standard t-15 is 580!!!!!! and the extended life one is 640!!!!!!!!! I was blown away cause I thought they were in the 300 range. She then goes on to tell me, its probably not the best idea to just change the cell because it could be the board (roll my eyes in my head) and then you'd have to replace the board which is 300 bucks (which again i'm like wow cause I've seen it mentioned and listed around like 180 or so) so thats a total of like 900 bucks to totally replace the heart and soul of the hayward and she then says, so at that point it's probably a better idea to just replace the whole system, and I'm like how much is that (thinking she's going to say like 8-900 since I paid like 720 or something for my ENTIRE autopilot nano I installed at my other house) and she says 1200!!!!!!!!

how in the world did any of her advice make any freaking sense...then she goes on to tell me about their financing through wells fargo. I'm like ok, just refill this 2.5 gallon jug for me and I'll be on my way.

then I go to PAP to get it tested. fails. their price was 380 and 420. literally 200+ cheaper than leslies was asking with a straight face.

So I'm in the market for a cell now, and would probably want to try a generic, but just curious if anyone has any suggestions rather than just taking a random stab at one.

I've seen some threads from 2-3 years ago discussing the generics, but I haven't really been able to find any follow up despite the initial reports from generic buyers being largely positive. I'm in the same line of thinking as jaimslaw, if you can get about 3 years out of them, then it probably makes it worth it.

 

[bonanz]

thanks for that link ping. must have linked it while I was typing. seems like a couple of people had failers after 2 years.


pfft. I just checked out that titanium cells sight and their price is 360... the price at PAP for the legit 3yr warrantied cell was 380 something so for that price i'd just get the regular.

searching around though I saw some prices that were right around 200 for the same looking generic cell.

still on the hunt.

anyone else chime in if you happen to have had one installed for any amount of time.

 

[bonanz]

ah I just realized.

My current cell is a T-9. the leslies lady showed me a t-15 replacement for 580. pinch a penny showed me the t-9 for 380.

should I swap to a t-15? its a 10k pool. would that get me more chlorine, less strain on cell, longer life of a t-15 cause they are tougher anyways in addition to less run-time etc

 

[Jaimslaw]

The Hayward brand T-15 sells for about $444 (free shipping). It has a 3 year warranty.

All the "generics" are about $300 (free shipping). Those brands that I have found are

1. CompuPool - 3 year warranty
2. Generic sold by PoolSupplyWorld - 2 year warranty
3. Optimum Pool Technologies - 6 month warranty (LOL)
4. Ti3Titanium - 3 year warranty - BUT NOW $360

There may be other generics besides these, though they are not as high profiled when doing a Google search.

BTW, I have read ppl having warranty problems with the CompuCell - too bad given their higher warranty period. FWIW, here is an excerpt from PoolSupplyWorlds website:

As of recently (9/2015), due to poor customer reviews, Pool Supply World stopped carrying CompuPool related products. In the past, CompuPool has been a cheap alternative for replacing name-brand salt cells and salt chlorination systems, including the popular Hayward T-Cell 15 Salt Cell. Issues related to the replacement cells and our drive to offer good, reliable products have resulted in Pool Supply World choosing to no longer retail Compupool products.

Another thing you want to be aware of is that the Ti3 Tianium cell is made/distributed by ComPuPool - some are suggesting Compupool is not being upfront about this being their product - I wouldn't blame Compupool given that they are getting some really bad press of late.I've come to conclude that there will never be enough data as to the number of buyers purchasing these generic products - not like we have with the Hayward brand name cell for example (600+ posted reviews on Amazon - nothing even near that # for the generics); consequently, seeing X number of positive or negative reviews on this forum or on Amazon as to these generic salt cells is useless anecdotal data (don't get me started on statistical significance and P value formulations and the like - besides it might get me into an unrelated discussion about some rather flawed conclusions drawn about pool stores and I don't want to ruffle any feathers).

I decided I'll stick with the name brand cell for now - but on a positive note about the generic salt cell market, I am cautiously optimistic that competition from these generic manufacturers will keep the brand name manufacturers' feet to the fire - price and warranty wise.

 

[geepmaley]

The symptoms you describe do sound like a depleted cell. I personally, would buy nothing but a genuine Hayward T-15 cell. The first T-15 lasted well over 7 years for me. And part of that was before I found TFP, so my water chemistry wasn't kept up to par. Figure the replacement cost of $400 divided by the 7+ years of service I got out of it, makes my chlorine cost less tha $57 per year. That's in very sunny Tucson, and a 19k pool open year-round. How much cheaper can you get?

Where did you get a T-Cell-15 for $400? PM is fine

 

[chiefwej]

The $400 price was back in 2013, when I last replaced the cell.

 

[Saturn94]

I paid $398 for a Hayward T-15 cell from Amazon in May 2015. It looks like it's running about $50 higher on Amazon now.

 

[jblizzle]

To answer your question, the T-15 could be run on a lower output and should last longer than a T-9. But, I am not sure if the price difference is worth it for your pool size. the T-9 is already sized at 2.5 times the size of your pool which is around what we recommend.

 

[JoshU]

I would highly recommend doing research on any generic cell. They cut costs to lower their retail price. When these costs are cut the cells do not last as long. Also some manufacturers/distributors do offer very attractive warranties however they are typically pro-rated which makes the reality much less attractive. You'll notice that a certain big brand of generic cells is getting harder and harder to come across these days due to their reputation.

 

[chiefwej]

To answer your question, the T-15 could be run on a lower output and should last longer than a T-9. But, I am not sure if the price difference is worth it for your pool size. the T-9 is already sized at 2.5 times the size of your pool which is around what we recommend.

The larger cell is always the better value. It will put out much more chlorine over its lifespan and will more than offset the incremental difference in the price. You can always reduce the setting and/or run the system for less time to reduce output to match your pool's chlorine needs. That's particularly true with the Hayward where the adjustments are in one percent increments.

 

[jblizzle]

The larger cell is always the better value. It will put out much more chlorine over its lifespan and will more than offset the incremental difference in the price. You can always reduce the setting and/or run the system for less time to reduce output to match your pool's chlorine needs. That's particularly true with the Hayward where the adjustments are in one percent increments.

There was a very detailed post that discussed this ... I am not 100% this is true. I will have to try to dig it up.

 

[bonanz]

Yeah I'm not convinced that's gospel. I read through a bunch of threads where people were talking about how long their t15 lasted and a lot of those amount of times were for very small pools in their sigs (relative to the 40k recommendation of the t15) I didn't see any anecdotal evidence that the smaller pools got a lot more life out of the larger cells.

There may be small savings on electrity of run time, but I'm dubious on the "the larger the pool the cell is suited for, the longer the cell will last" despite how logical that line of thinking sounds. Maybe in a lab setting where all variables such as temp, water balance, pool usage (dirtiness) don't play into it.

 

[jblizzle]

Here is the thread I was thinking of: Economics of Saltwater Chlorine Generators

I think I was wrong and that the bigger the better is generally true. While the thread does not address being VERY oversized, the cost delta for the larger cell is small enough that I would think it would still work out in favor of the larger cell ... especially if it allows one to run the pump less time which can be significant electrical savings.

 

[pooldv]

The logic seems to work out with Pentair SWG. Each cell (20, 40, 60) is designed to last 10k hours and each cell outputs progressively more FC for a little more money. Over the life of the cell you get more FC per buck with bigger cells and you can run your pump less. Maybe, unless you have lots of trees and need to skim leaves and stuff. The math probably works with Hayward as well.

 

[bonanz]

I mean that would make sense if every cell gave up the ghost exactly when it hit the # gallons of FC it is designed to produce.

I don't think that table (as difficult as it is to read the formatting) applies to the life of a cell. It is only calculating the estimated cost of chlorine via different methods trying to account for a fixed pool size, a fixed cost of power, and under the assumption that you will get the estimated life that they advertise.

I think that is useful for determining if you're trying to determine if it's "worth it" to install a SWG in terms of absolute cost, but we're talking about running a bigger cell at a reduced load lasting a longer amount of time than a smaller cell run more.

there's assumptions being made that running it under powered for shorter durations will cause the time between cell failure to be longer. I don't think that has been proven anywhere, anecdotally or with science/math, despite seeming to be logical. Cheaper to run during that time? I think it's safe to say its been proven. lasts longer? not so sure.