Question About Warranties

[Seadweller]

Doing some further reading this morning, I see that the Hayward AquaRite series of products has a 3 year warranty, and it seems to be a fairly robust system from a reliability perspective. Most of the other systems are prorated, with the Pentair being the worst for a DIY installation. I had dismissed the AQR15 due to its lower daily chlorine output, and the likely need to run it longer with the associated reduction in cell life, but the warranty has me intrigued.

Reading Haywards warranty, they say it's void if the system is installed on a larger pool than the equipment is designed for. In my case, the AQR15 is rated up to 40K gallons, which is a substantial bump over my 25K gallon pool. Correct me if I'm wrong, but even if I had to run the system at 100% for 24 hours a day, I'd still essentially be guaranteed 3 years out of the cell. This might be the case during summer months, but certainly not during winter months.

Even if I had to buy a cell every year, it would be substantially below my current annual bleach expenses, which are around $1K. In the case of the Hayward, you have warranty coverage over an entire 3 year period, so it fails, you would receive a new one, yes? If that's the case, then you just budget for a cell every 3 years in a worst case scenario, which is a fraction of my annual bleach expense.

What am I missing here?

 

[BasicTek]

As a Hayward owner I bought the extreme from leslies and that cell has a longer life and comes with a 4 year warranty, my understanding is any failure before 4 years would get a replacement. Another interesting point is based on my FC demand it appears my cell is producing about double it's rated 1.45 lbs per day. I have 11K pool and run my SWG at 20% for 4 hours based on the calculator that's an FC demand of less than 1 in FL with southern exposure. When I turn the SWG off because it's constantly over producing I see an FC drop per day of 2 - 2.5 with currently 70 CYA.

so I can't see you needing more than 1 t15 every 3 years and hayward does give at least the 3 year warranty on all their cells.

 

[Meadow]

I think if you will maintain the water chemistry in balance, the likelihood of cell failing is next to none. I would also think that my T-15 is producing more chlorine that what it is rated for.

My observation - Our 20k gals pool is in direct sunlight all day and T-15 cell is running at 100% since installed almost 2.5 yrs ago. In order for me to maintain daily FC level of 6-7 ppm, I run the SWCG 8 hrs during summer, 4 hrs during Spring or Fall and OFF during winter. I manually add bleach when the water temp is below 63 deg F and/or use pucks to replenish whatever amount of CYA we lost overtime.
Hope you realized that SWCG's output are scaled by default and not able to generate chlorine at all when the water temp reached below the threshold. Still, I will never own a pool without SWCG

Output is scaled back to 20% of desired output setting at 60° F and output stops at 50° F.

180 minutes (100%) x 0.20 = 36 minutes.

 

[ping]

Yes, Hayward will replace a failed cell if it dies before three years. If it needs replacing they will replace it with one that has a one year warranty but you still have the full three year warranty. My first Hayward cell died after one year and was replaced with a one year cell that lasted 15 months. That cell was replaced with another one year cell and the guy said I would have another full year of warranty on that cell which gives me 3 years and 3 months of warranty time on the cell.

When you buy a Hayward cell make sure you buy one that has the three year warranty as some places sell the one year cells at the same price as the three years cells.

 

[Seadweller]

Thanks...Now, the big decision...Do I go with the Hayward AQR15, or the CircuPool Universal 40, which seems to be a pretty good knock-off that's $300 less.

Is the Hayward control box US made? I know for certain that the CircuPool control box is made in China.

 

[Chemnut]

Hayward, some members have had issues with circupool

 

[Seadweller]

Well, after a bit more research, it looks like both CircuPool and Hayward import from a company in China called Ningbo CF Electronics, a manufacturer of pool equipment, and more specifically, salt systems. While the layout of the panels is different, the controls and LED/LCD display information are identical. Interesting. If they both do indeed come from the same factory, it looks like Hayward charges a higher price while offering a stronger warranty than CircuPool. Hayward offering a full 3 year warranty, with CircuPool offering a 1 year full warranty, with years 2-4 prorated.

It's certainly possible that the higher price and stronger warranty of the Hayward might pay off in the long-term, particularly if you stick with their 3 year warranty replacement cells. I was concerned about the 1.4lbs/day of output on the Hayward, versus the 2lbs/day output from the CircuPool, but with folks reporting higher output than advertised from the Hayward, maybe they are indeed one in the same.