Garet Jax said:
1) Having gone through it, would you do everything the same if you were to do it again - if not what pieces would you add or remove and what else would you change?
2) I am having trouble understanding the difference between IntelliChem and IntelliPh. Do you have both or just one? Does the IntelliChem provide a superset of the IntelliPh's functionality?
3) You said that the reason to get IntelliChem is not for the ORP - doesn't that suggest getting only IntelliPh?
I haven't worked with the intelliph, but my understanding is that the intellichem and intelliph were products that were released at the same time, seem to share some parts, and the intellichem seems to add significantly more intelligence, dosing options, and the ORP probe. If I was doing things over again, I'd still get the intellichem - it works fine enough if you have realistic expectations for it and if you live in a climate where you can get by with less CYA.
I'm in SoCal, and if I didn't have the intellichem, I'd bump up CYA to 60-70 - but I'm doing fine enough with a CYA of 45-55 (50 target). My normal FC range is 7-10 which is slightly high on the cya/fc chart, but within reason given that I get significant spikes in usage of the pool (I plan for 3-5 kids swimming, and find out that my wife has invited more of the kids friends over and suddenly we have 12 kids in the pool with many in the 6-10 age range). I also hate having to shock and I find that keeping slightly higher FC helps greatly with that. The automatic pool cover also reduces FC loss substantially so the SWG is not working overtime.
The intellichem is more than worth it when paired with the screenlogic and intellitouch, and given that I'm doing all the maintenance for a less than 1yr old pool myself means that I like as much automated as possible. The system automatically adjusts the amount of acid dispensed to maintain my targeted ph range and it keeps the FC from getting too high. Plus, there is at least a 30 day record of all the times that either the SWG was running or acid was released so if the pool is having issues, I can look through the recent past and see if something wasn't doing what it should. I can also set the SWG for a higher rate and have the intellichem shut down the SWG if FC gets too high rather than constantly moving SWG run levels up/down.
What I'm not getting that many other users might expect is fine grained control of FC...I'm not setting a target of FC 7 for instance and having the SWG run up/down as needed.....instead, it's more that if FC goes much over 10 the unit shuts off and based on my own daily FC testing, FC is usually modestly less and the intellichem turns on the SWG in the morning when the pump starts, reaches its desired level and stops, and then around noon as UV kills off FC and as swimmers enter the pool throughout the afternoon turns back on the SWG and keeps it running until at least early evening when FC levels recover or the pump shuts off.
The only real downsides to the intellichem are that it has an acid canister and you probably will need to replace the acid pump and tubing every 1-2 years. I've also put in a runoff tray to control where acid might end up if the pump ever leaks...this I think should have come with the unit - the pump will fail eventually or the tubing might have a problem and without a runoff you might have acid dropping down into your main equipment area and hopefully not the main pool pump. I have a clear area near the acid canister that the runoff goes to and only needed to use it once but I was glad that it was there then. Putting new acid in the canister is also an annoying chore to do every 6 weeks or so but I think goes hand in hand with owning a pool.
Without the intellichem, I wouldn't know about sudden ph changes and it would be harder to estimate how much acid is needed to counteract other chem changes. The intellichem has excellent ph accuracy (I've compared it with several other ph measurement sources and I've come to believe it much more than anything else). If something changes in the pool, the intellichem lets me know about 10-15 minutes later - either by displaying a significant drop in the ORP level or a major deviation in ph to 2 digits. The local water here has high CH, and with the pebble surface in my pool, I do get concerns about scaling down the road -- but I am much more comfortable knowing that ph/csi is being tracked by the intellichem and that if I set a ph target of 7.2, than pool p/h will stay between 7.18 and 7.26 throughout the entire day.
So, whether the intellichem makes sense to others I think would come down to:
a) whether they are also getting the intellitouch and screenlogic which make it much more useful
b) intellichem is an investment that makes more sense the longer you plan to own the pool and if you have a new pool with increased p/h variability
c) if you have a wide enough equipment area that you can set aside a dedicated space for the acid canister and keep the canister away from other equipment given acid fumes. A runoff for the intellichem should also end here.
d) intellichem works better with an oversized SWG and in climates where the SWG will not require more than 50 CYA. I'm pushing it by using it in San Diego, but my auto cover makes that possible. I'm not sure if I'd recommend it in Texas or anywhere else where people have to use pool water coolers.