Replacing Hayward T-Cell-15 Turbo Cell

[joelq]

Hi all -

It's about time to get pools in shape here in the North Texas area! Over the last couple years, my Hayward Turbo Cell has been slowly degrading, reading less and less salt in the water - compared to readings from a Taylor Saltwater Test Kit (2200 via the cell and 3000 via the Taylor kit) - so I'm shopping for a replacement cell.

My pool is right around 10,000 gallons and I just realized the cell the builder put in is good for a 40,000 gallon pool! My question - is there any benefit to oversizing the cell for my pool? Or should I just replace it with a more properly sized cell? I saw there is a T-Cell-3 which is rated for a 15,000 gallon pool (and is also around $200 cheaper).

Thanks!

 

[Divin Dave]

There is a benefit to a larger cell. The benefits are
- less time needed by the cell to make x amt of chlorine
- less pump run time needed to make x amt of chlorine

both of these result in longer cell cell life.

We generally recommned a cell rated for 2x the capacity of the pool.

For your 10K gallons, you could certainly downsize some, but I wouldnt go as low as a T3. A T-9 for 25K gallons would be a better choice.

 

[joelq]

There is a benefit to a larger cell. The benefits are
- less time needed by the cell to make x amt of chlorine
- less pump run time needed to make x amt of chlorine

both of these result in longer cell cell life.

We generally recommned a cell rated for 2x the capacity of the pool.

For your 10K gallons, you could certainly downsize some, but I wouldnt go as low as a T3. A T-9 for 25K gallons would be a better choice.

Thanks, Dave! Makes complete sense.

 

[jblizzle]

Just a heads up. My Taylor salt test has always read 600-800 ppm higher than my SWG (which I think is actually closer to reality).

Now if you Taylor and SWG used to match more and now are drifting apart, I agree that points to the SWG degrading. I assume you have pulled the cell and inspected it for scaling and cleaned as required ... as that could lead to low reading also.

I do agree with Dave on the size recommendations though.

 

[JayBauman]

There is a benefit to a larger cell. The benefits are
- less time needed by the cell to make x amt of chlorine
- less pump run time needed to make x amt of chlorine

both of these result in longer cell cell life.

In a discussion with the Hayward rep who sometimes appears on this site, I learned that the T-15 has thicker protective coating on the metal plates, which also helps increase cell lifetime. You can add this one to your "benefits" list as well.

 

[JamesW]

I think that the cell that you're talking about is the T-Cell-15LL (Long Life) cell. It has the thicker coating of ruthenium oxide and is rated to last 20% longer than the regular T-Cell-15.

https://www.hayward-pool.com/pdf/literature/LITAQRBR13.pdf

 

[joelq]

Thanks, everyone. It appears my situation may not be as simple as I originally thought. I ran the diags again and this time got drastically different results. I then realized that the results are quite a bit different (though consistent) depending on the polarity. Below are the readings I got before and after turning off power to the cell, which reverses the polarity:

-25.64v, -4.80A, 2900 PPM

+27.07v, +2.83A, 1300 PPM

Taylor kit reads 3400 PPM (I added more salt since my original post hence the higher reading with the Taylor since my OP)

Either way, it sounds like my cell is going bad in one direction, but does it make sense that it is significantly worse under one polarity than the other? Cycling the power shows that the polarity is reversing as it should, so it would seem both "sides" would degrade at the same rate. Any thoughts?

Thanks!

 

[JasonLion]

That happens now and then. This happens because the special coating on the cell plates was a little thicker on one side than the other. The thin side will wear out a little before the thicker side. Usually the direction that works for the moment will fail quite soon, as the coating thickness is rarely different by very much.

 

[joelq]

Gotcha. Thanks, Jason!

 

[joelq]

So I've been researching replacement cells and I've decided to go with the original size cell, a T-CELL-15, especially having read about the firmware incompatibilities my Aqualogic might have with the smaller cells.

I found the below listed as a "Generic T-CELL-15 Replacement" from poolsupplyworld.com. It's not the Compupool generic cell, at least they look different from each other.

http://www.poolsupplyworld.com/Pool...t-Salt-Cell-with-15-Foot-Cable/GN-TCELL15.htm

The price is great and the reviews are all positive, but wanted to see if anyone here knows anything about them?

Thanks!

 

[jblizzle]

I have had good buying experiences with PSW, but do not know anything about those cells. Looks like a pretty good price with a 2 year warranty.