The alphanumeric display on the Cubby Digital is really nice. It gives you error messages in english, instead of numeric codes, and can tell you things like exactly how much salt needs to be added. It is well worth a little extra money.
The Hayward units have their problems, but no more than other brands. However, I don't know about warranty support in Canada, which could be very different than here in the US. What tends to happen is that more Hayward units get sold than anything else, so people are more aware of the problems. The Hayward units do auto clean, so I'm not sure what that is about.