New vs. Rebuild Cell

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sjsoldo

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Jul 17, 2009
105
My SWG uses a Hayward T-15. Best price for new one I can find online is $430 shipped.

Found a company that rebuilds cell called "Salt Solutions". Rebuild cell total is $295. They claim to use only parts made in the USA.

My system unfortunately has required a new cell every 3 years with pretty heavy use in the summer.

Does anyone have experience with this or similar vendors? What would you do? Difference is $135.
 
You might want to figure out why your cell is lasting only 3 years. I am on year 8 with mine and still going strong. A couple questions:

How big is your pool and what is your location? (please fill out your signature: pool-school/read_before_you_post)

What setting on the SWG do you typically use and how long do you run the pump?

Are you keeping the pool CSI slightly negative?

How often do you clean your cell?

Are you using acid to clean your cell each time?
 
35,000 gal pool in Southern California
Pump runs hours 8 per day
Pentair VF pump and DE filter
I clean the cell roughly quarterly with 4 parts water,1 part acid

Usually run it at 75% four months out of the year. This year ran at 100%, my own fault, too much CYA in the water, since corrected

I often turn the unit off in the winter and use bleach.

I didn't know "CSI" was something you had to pay attention to. (Thought it was a TV show). My CH has been high in the past.
 
I didn't know "CSI" was something you had to pay attention to.
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You don't as long as you keep your parameters within the suggested guidelines. If you,for example, let CH get too high, then your pool is out of balance and your CSI will not be at that ideal slightly negative range.
 
As Dave points, CSI is important for pools that have chronically high CH, like mine and yours and have SWGs and/or are plaster pools. One thing that seems to shorten the life of a SWG cell is too much acid cleaning. If you keep the CSI slightly negative, it can help keep calcium off the cell which in turn reduces the frequency of acid cleaning. I have very high CH in my pool and have to refill nearly every year to keep it below 800 ppm and I use acid maybe once a year at most. And if there is a slight buildup it is usually pretty easy to remove with a toothpick or wooden skewer. Just try to avoid using acid as much as possible.

Maintaining a CYA of near 80 ppm can also help because I have found that I can minimize the SWG % setting when my CYA is near that level. Too low and I have to set the % higher (SWG on time) even though FC target is lower. At least for me, there appears to be a non-linear effect.
 
I was also strongly considering the "rebuilt" SWG route but got very lucky over labor day and won a new Hayward T-15 with a $220 bid on ebay. When it came it was as advertised new in the unopened box. You might try the ebay route but usually they go pretty high too.
 
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