Autopilot questions

[les_garten]

Hello,
My first post here! Great Site!

For the autopilot, do you need to run another electrical circuit? Or can you puggyback off an existing circuit? Does it take 110 or 220v?

Do any of the SWG's have cell reliability issues? Are there any SWG's that have super reliable long life cells? For the cost of the cells, that seems to be how one would shop for these.

How much does salt cost compared to Chlorine on an ongoing basis? It seems the cell cost has to be amortized over it's Lifetime and balanced against then cost of chlorine.

One more question, why did you get a 40K Gal SWG for a 16,000 Gal pool?

 

[JasonLion]

Welcome to TFP!

I almost all cases the AutoPilot unit can be wired to the same circuit as the pump. They can be configured to work with either 110 or 220.

There hasn't been any consistent history of one brands cells lasting longer than another. Cell life in measured in hours turned on, which varies so much from real time (because they are only on part of the time) that it is difficult to gather statistics.

Salt systems and manually adding chlorine can each be inexpensive or expensive, depending on how carefully you shop and how price sensitive you are. AutoPilot is one of the most expensive brands. They have some very nice extra features that make them worth the extra money for some people.

I like to get a cell that is between 2 and 3 times as large as it really needs to be. A 40K cell will work well with a 16k pool.

 

[les_garten]

Thanx for the quick reply!

 

[les_garten]

Do you need a salt test kit with this setup? Is the salt cell readout enough?

 

[Bama Rambler]

You can rely on the swcg most of the time but once in a while you need a test to confirm what the swcg is telling you.

I have a salt test kit and don't have a swcg but that's just me.

It's more important to have a good general test kit than a specific salt test. If you can afford both, that's great, but you can always run a sample to the Pool Store to have the salt tested when you need it, but you need to do your own chem testing.

 

[les_garten]

You can rely on the swcg most of the time but once in a while you need a test to confirm what the swcg is telling you.

I have a salt test kit and don't have a swcg but that's just me.

It's more important to have a good general test kit than a specific salt test. If you can afford both, that's great, but you can always run a sample to the Pool Store to have the salt tested when you need it, but you need to do your own chem testing.

Ohhh, I've got test kits!

Like 3 of them.