SWG recommendations

[jan verbeem]

So I have had a Zodiac Tri pH large for the past 6 years, and it looks as if I need a new cell, since I have some issues which I explained in another thread in this forum.

Actually I ordered a new cell ( generic) already and it seems to perform even worse, so either the new cell is of inferior quality, or there are other issues which i doubt as I borrowed a control unit from a friend with the exact same results. Anyway, Zodiac support is not responding, and I returned the cell to the seller already.

To be honest I have never been impressed by the Zodiac Tri and may instead of ordering a new original cell, throw in the towel and order a complete new SWG.

I would like to hear from you which brands are the most reliable, easiest to get parts in case of issues, and are price/quality to be recommended.

My pool is ~60.000 liters ( approx 15800 Gallon) and I'm located in a tropical Thailand, so recommendations for online sellers who ship overseas are also welcome.

 

[JVTrain]

Whatever you choose for a brand, make sure it is sized for twice your pool volume. Get one rated for 30,000 gallons or more.

Hayward and Pentair are likely your best options for being able to purchase and get parts or repair at a later date through online methods.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

See here for a full comparison of all the major SWG manufacturers - Full Market Comparison of Salt Water Chlorine Generators for Swimming Pools

Also, you want to ensure that your SWG is capable of keeping up with your pool volume FC needs. Assuming a worst-case scenario of having to generate and replace a 4ppm FC loss everyday, this chart shows you how long you have to run a pump to achieve that based on pool volume (in gallons) and chlorine gas output (lbs per 24 hours) for an SWG -



The transitions from GREEN to YELLOW to RED is just based on pump runtime. The BLACK regions simple mean that the SWG can not produce enough chlorine gas to meet a daily 4ppm FC demand. If you're running a pump more than 16 hours per day to generate chlorine, that's a bit excessive while less than 10 hours per day is probably ok. Where one prefers to put the color boundaries really depends on local electricity cost. If you live in a place with cheap energy or if you have solar PV and generate your own power, then running a pool pump 24 hrs/day is not a big deal. If you live in an area where electricity is expensive, then even running 8 hrs/day might be undesirable.

 

[jan verbeem]

See here for a full comparison of all the major SWG manufacturers - Full Market Comparison of Salt Water Chlorine Generators for Swimming Pools

Also, you want to ensure that your SWG is capable of keeping up with your pool volume FC needs. Assuming a worst-case scenario of having to generate and replace a 4ppm FC loss everyday, this chart shows you how long you have to run a pump to achieve that based on pool volume (in gallons) and chlorine gas output (lbs per 24 hours) for an SWG -

View attachment 49585

The transitions from GREEN to YELLOW to RED is just based on pump runtime. The BLACK regions simple mean that the SWG can not produce enough chlorine gas to meet a daily 4ppm FC demand. If you're running a pump more than 16 hours per day to generate chlorine, that's a bit excessive while less than 10 hours per day is probably ok. Where one prefers to put the color boundaries really depends on local electricity cost. If you live in a place with cheap energy or if you have solar PV and generate your own power, then running a pool pump 24 hrs/day is not a big deal. If you live in an area where electricity is expensive, then even running 8 hrs/day might be undesirable.

I don't really get my head around your chart, then again I'm probably not the sharpest knife in the kitchen drawer , but we use gram and liter here which make it only more confusing for me.

The first row is that lbs the chlorinator can produce in 12 hours or 24 hours?


I run my pumps for 5 hours a day as that turns around the volume approximate 3 times.

So my pool is 15000 Gallon. The Tri Large was supposed to generate 35 gr/hour. I think that is 0.92lbs in 24 hours.

Does that mean I need to run my chlorinator for 12 hours to generate 4ppm?

Sounds strange because my 5 hour run time, 2.5 hours after dark has set in and 2.5 hours early morning, with my worn cell at 100% show 3ppm free chlorine right after the morning session. Tested with Aquachek silver strips.

Probably I misunderstand something.

 

[jan verbeem]

I have to add to my previous post that my pool is not heavily used, which probably is the reason why I get away with only 5 hours pump run time a day, but in the 5 years that the pool is active I've never had any problems with algae or other water contamination.

But I still don't understand the graph. I used the pool calculator and set to 15000 gallon pool, 0 ppm FC and 4ppm FC goal generated by chlorine gas, and it tells me 8.0 Oz is required

This would mean that a SWG that generates 0.92 LBS ( 420 gram) per 24 hour, would need only 6.74 hour to generate 8.0 Oz.

So clearly there is something I don't understand about the graph, but the Oz and Lbs are really confusing for me.

Are there any online sellers with "economic" prices that you can recommend?

 

[ping]

The first row in white is how many pounds of chlorine gas a SWG can produce in 24 hours. Those amounts are listed because they match a lot of the different brands of SWG's production amounts.

The chart is based off of 4ppm of FC generation to cover most pool's peak demand. Not all pools require 4ppm but it is a fairly safe number to cover most pools.

If you look at the 15,000 gallon column then you will notice that all SWG's that produce at least .6lbs of gas will provide 4ppm of FC in a day, but you would have to run the pool for at least 20 hours each day. With the largest SWG you would only have to run the pump 3.9 hours to produce 4ppm of FC.

The different colors are representing our guidelines as to which size of SWG you should get. The green sections represent a properly sized cell for your pool that is rated at 1.25lbs or more of chlorine in a day.

Your math is wrong for a .92lbs system. It would take 13 hours at 100% to make 8oz of chlorine gas.

 

[needsajet]

I have a Zodiac Tri as well. The tri-large is rated at 36 grams per hour, which equates to (36*24/454) 1.9 lbs per day.

To provide 4 PPM FC per day in 60,000 litres (16,000 gallons), it would need to run for 6.7 hours per day at 100%. To cover average demand of 2.5 PPM per day, 4.2 hours at 100% would do it.

Is the pool open all year?

 

[jan verbeem]

Thanks I start to understand the conversion of grams to LBS - pounds - Oz etc now. Please don't mention stones next

My pool is open all year as I live in Tropical Thailand, but as I said it has only limited use, and which is mostly during the weekends only.

I received a good offer for a Davey Chloromatic. Are they any good?

- - - Updated - - -

The first row in white is how many pounds of chlorine gas a SWG can produce in 24 hours. Those amounts are listed because they match a lot of the different brands of SWG's production amounts.

The chart is based off of 4ppm of FC generation to cover most pool's peak demand. Not all pools require 4ppm but it is a fairly safe number to cover most pools.

If you look at the 15,000 gallon column then you will notice that all SWG's that produce at least .6lbs of gas will provide 4ppm of FC in a day, but you would have to run the pool for at least 20 hours each day. With the largest SWG you would only have to run the pump 3.9 hours to produce 4ppm of FC.

The different colors are representing our guidelines as to which size of SWG you should get. The green sections represent a properly sized cell for your pool that is rated at 1.25lbs or more of chlorine in a day.

Your math is wrong for a .92lbs system. It would take 13 hours at 100% to make 8oz of chlorine gas.

Thanks for pointing out my error. I made the mistake of multiplying the grams by 12 instead of 24.

 

[Pchase]

Wow. Thanks for the chart and list.

So with a 45,000 gallon pool with extremely heavy sunlight, I don't have a lot of options. Maybe, a minimum of 2.0 lbs/day. There ere are only a handful on the list that size, but is that still too small. Should I be looking more at the CircuPool RJ-60 at 3.10 lbs/day?

 

[JVTrain]

Wow. Thanks for the chart and list.

So with a 45,000 gallon pool with extremely heavy sunlight, I don't have a lot of options. Maybe, a minimum of 2.0 lbs/day. There ere are only a handful on the list that size, but is that still too small. Should I be looking more at the CircuPool RJ-60 at 3.10 lbs/day?

I would look at that one for sure with that size pool. There are also some commercial options through Pentair that essentially link 2 or more cells in series/parallel to the same controller. You'd likely have to work through a contractor on those.

 

[needsajet]

It sounds like you got around 9,000 hours out of your original Zodiac cell, which is a very good lifespan. If it were me, I'd buy the Zodiac replacement cell and save the bother of switching to a different model. A lot of people like the Hayward Puresilk. I haven't heard positives about Davey in the last few recent years, but that doesn't mean much.