Circupool SI vs SI+ vs SJ

[Tiger275]

Well, I have been lurking for a while and finally feel a little smarter about my pool so I am ready to ask some questions.

We bought a house last year and the blue haven pool will need some significant repair/upgrade. One of the first items on my list will be a SWG system. While doing some research, I have stumbled on the CircuPool products.

I can not seem to find any clear explanation of the differences between the three series available. It seems that the SI series is a good value but many people report that the SI + has better software, vector jets and longer warranty. The next step up to the SJ is not as clear. It seems to be a rebranded SGS but what else is different.

Assuming the SI vs the SJ, is there a difference in how they work? Is one technique better?

I am willing to spend around 1000 for a 45k to 60k system so if you have an alternate recommendation, I would love to hear it.

Ed

 

[Propbndr]

The SI+ comes with an extended life 15,000 hour cell and a 7 year pro-rated warranty. The SI has a standard life cell and a 4 year pro-rated warranty. The cells for both are made in America. The SI+ panel is made in Australia. I'm not sure where the SI panel is made but, I think it is China. Both SI units have an off - on - auto slide switch, a panel display push button (micro switch type), and a output setting knob which allows for changes as small as 1%. The SJ is 100% made in America and a 7 year "limited warranty" (fancy language for pro-rated). It's panel is controlled by pancake push buttons. As I recall, the SI series has display information that is not available on the SJ series but, for the life of me I cannot remember what that information is. Their basic operation is the same except the SJ is more "high tech". The cleaning method is different for both SI series cells and SJ cells. The SI cells are soaked in a diluted muriatic acid solution, then rinsed. The SJ cells, which I believe are clear, must be disassembled and the cell plates are manually cleaned with a scraper that comes with the unit.

As far as the vector jet goes, there have been posts in the forums asking about it and the final answers were basically - why use it if you already have directional ball jets. I did try it and found it really messed the circulation in my pool to the point that floating debris would not go to one of the skimmers. It would get trapped in the opposite corner of the pool. I have to agree with previous forum comments on it, if your pool's circulation is good using the existing jets, don't use it.

I ultimately, installed an SI-30+ and am very happy with it.

 

[sarge244]

I have had a CircuPool generator for I guess 6 years now. My big complaint about them is just about every year, I have had to buy a new housing for the cell because it continues to crack and leak water. I believe it was within the last year or two, they said they redesigned it so that it wouldn't crack and leak. Guess what? The redesign cracked and leaks.

I'm looking for a different manufacturer for a new generator now.

 

[n240sxguy]

I have had a CircuPool generator for I guess 6 years now. My big complaint about them is just about every year, I have had to buy a new housing for the cell because it continues to crack and leak water. I believe it was within the last year or two, they said they redesigned it so that it wouldn't crack and leak. Guess what? The redesign cracked and leaks.

I'm looking for a different manufacturer for a new generator now.

This thread was finally giving me some clarity and making me lean more toward the circupool system, then your post smashed my dreams. What other brands are you looking at? I've narrowed it to the circupool and the Pentair. Looking at something in the 60k gallon range. I like the circupool price point and specs, and have been looking at the different models listed by the OP. The rocky history keeps scaring me.


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[JasonLion]

No brand is perfect. They all have problems of some kind or another. There have been a couple of reports of the case cracking, but it is far from common. Other brands have their own unique challenges. CompuPool and CircuPool remain the two clear leaders for price sensitive buyers.

 

[sarge244]

I really have only started to look at a new one. I did go on CircuPools website and seen that that there are now different models. I had an RJ model.

As far as the commonality of cases cracking, like I've stated above, I've replaced it just about every year since I bought it. I do see that with the SI and SI+ have a different cell housing than what the RJ (now appears to be SJ) had. I like the SI and SI+ cell design much better. Mostly because it doesn't have the huge plastic case.

 

[Propbndr]

+1 what JasonLion said. All products, that are mass produced, will have a few defective units. The goal of the manufacturer is to keep those defects to the absolute minimum.

Unfortunately, there are no true review sites for SWG's. All there is is the comparison chart found here: http://discountsaltpool.com/Salt-System-Comparison.php . Even if there was a customer review site available, I would take what is said with a grain of salt (no pun intended) because the I find the reviews either to be glowing or really bad. With many of the really bad reviews the poster laments on how bad the shipping was, that it was damaged during shipping or how bad the customer service was by the supplier. Comments like those have nothing to do with the product itself, which is what I really care about. Or only one person out of however many has serious issues with the product. That leaves us pool owners with forums like this one.

Sarge's comment is good info and should be taken seriously into consideration but, a question that I would raise is how is his cell installed and could that installation have anything to do with the cell cracking? I am not saying that there is no inherent engineering defect but, could the installation be putting additional stress on the housing causing the existing weak spot to crack. The reason I bring that up is I worked for 31 years in the nuclear power industry and know a little bit (tongue in cheek) about piping systems and their installation. There is a term called "Cold Spring" which is the misalignment of a pipe to another pipe or component due to improper installation or because the final installation is not properly supported. Cold spring requires the pipe to be forcefully "sprung" into place in order to make the connection. By "sprung" I mean pushed, pulled, or twisted into place to make the connection. This is not good because it places unnecessary stress on everything in the system. If stress is a contributing factor, something a simple as a pipe support or repositioning of a pipe could prevent cracks in the housing. I am not saying anything negative about Sarge's installation. Without seeing it, there is no way to tell if stress contributes to his issue.

Ok, I am off my soap box now.

 

[pooldv]

Good post nuclear scientist guy!

 

[sarge244]

My cell housing would continually crack where the cell went into the housing. So there is no pipe stress that I see could be happening on the area that is always cracking.

 

[laveenmoose]

i have a 3 year old RJ30, and had the cracking issue this time last year. I bought my system through Discount Salt Pools, and they replaced it free of charge (even though I have a pro-rated warranty), and said that the design was flawed and so it was redesigned and manufactured. Not had a problem with it since. One thing I do avoid is over-tightening the retaining ring.

As already mentioned, you will probably encounter an issue or two with any system. What I can say is that my RJ30 is far better than the original Zodiac system I had, in my opinion.

 

[sackmonkey]

In all the reading I did about Circupool, the cracking issues were always RJ models. I never found a single leaking thread for the SI or SI+.

Discount Pools sent me the Si30+ by mistake, then the correct SI60. From what I could tell, the SI and SI+ control boxes were identical. I think the only difference is software (you program it for which cell type you have).

 

[buzzard302]

Although I can not help you with product comparison, I can say that I have been using a Si30+ for a year now without any issues. It installed well and works well. Based on my limited experience, I would recommend the Si+ series.

 

[cowboycasey]

I cant add to the operation yet as I have not installed it or used it.... I can say it is a substantial unit, I bought the RJ45,, The controller is heavy duty (and heavy) the wire used is impressive and the connectors are nice and heavy gage... From looking at it, the quallity looks and feels like its there... I love that its clear PVC, so you can see if it is genarating and doing its job, it connects directly to 2 inch pipe, The titanium blades look to be about 12 gage (not exactly sure).... it changes polarity every 6 hours of use, in the manual it says:
"To clean the Cell of mineral buildup:
1) Slide the cleaning stick between titanium plates and connection brackets to loosen and dislodge any mineral buildup or scale."

So I guess you dont use acid to clean this one????

With all of this said, I went with the SJ because of price, the upgrade to next level for free, less expensive to replace the cell and I didn't have to have another controller to fine tune it...

Someone would have to buy 2 differant types of SWG's to compare and I dont think you will find many people who have done that unless the first 1 broke, then they would steer you away from the 1 that broke...

Hope that helps...

 

[mdwallace]

I purchased a CircuPool Si+45 last year. 1st year, everything was perfect. Didn't even have to add any chemicals and balance was great. Now this year, opened the pool in mid June and things were going well until late June when I kept having low chlorine levels. I kept adding shock and adjusted the dial for more chlorine production. The controller is the heavy white box with a middle LCD display.

Just last Sunday 7/12/2015, the controller quit working (no display) and found it had blown a fuse. I put the spare fuse in, turned on power and it also popped. What I found was there are two metal brackets that hold the bottom of the PCB and every time you remove and install the connector for the salt cell (which I do when I remove the cell for the winter), it causes rubbing on the PCB on the bottom right bracket. This bracket is right over one of the traces to the connector for the salt cell. This ate through the PCB solder mask and shorted one of the traces directly to ground on the controller housing. I thought, ahh, there's my issue. Checked to make sure the trace wasn't blown, got a new fuse insulated and separated the PCB from the metal bracket and still popped the fuse. There must be some additional damage within the controller.

Called CircuPool and I had to ship my controller back for repair ($52). They wouldn't send me a new one in advance which stinks. This is a poor design of the controller to have this after one season (4 months of use).

When the system worked, it worked well. I just hope that the poor chlorine production was caused by the controller issue going bad and finally failing.

 

[sackmonkey]

I'm about 3 months into my unit (si60), and its blown 2 fuses. Very frustrating! I was about to call and complain, but this fuse has been working fine for a month or so, so I'm waiting for it to fail first. The fuses that blow show signs of the plastic melting slowly.. Not a fast blow condition. I have mine set at around 20% and it provides plenty of chlorine for my pool. I'm in Michigan, so ambient temperature isn't especially high.

 

[sackmonkey]

I'm about 3 months into my unit (si60), and its blown 2 fuses. Very frustrating! I was about to call and complain, but this fuse has been working fine for a month or so, so I'm waiting for it to fail first. The fuses that blow show signs of the plastic melting slowly.. Not a fast blow condition. I have mine set at around 20% and it provides plenty of chlorine for my pool. I'm in Michigan, so ambient temperature isn't especially high.

Fast forward one month and my third fuse has blown! I've been traveling for work most of the past two weeks and according to my wife, I now have a green pool back home thanks to my unreliable Circupool Si60. I'll have to call discountpool to sort it out. Not happy...

 

[n240sxguy]

Fast forward one month and my third fuse has blown! I've been traveling for work most of the past two weeks and according to my wife, I now have a green pool back home thanks to my unreliable Circupool Si60. I'll have to call discountpool to sort it out. Not happy...

Sorry about your luck. I'm watching this thread hoping all is taken care of as I suspect it will be. I have a SI60+ that's been working flawlessly for almost three months now, and I hope it continues to do so.


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[gilbee]

Only problem I've had has been a leak in the flow sensor, but I think I got that resolved today...I will be keeping an eye on that connector though, I'm sure it's the same build as the SI45+ that I have...

 

[n240sxguy]

Only problem I've had has been a leak in the flow sensor, but I think I got that resolved today...I will be keeping an eye on that connector though, I'm sure it's the same build as the SI45+ that I have...

I noticed a couple days ago that my sensor has a tiny leak. Nothing a little Teflon tape won't fix I hope.


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[TrickyRick]

Fast forward one month and my third fuse has blown! I've been traveling for work most of the past two weeks and according to my wife, I now have a green pool back home thanks to my unreliable Circupool Si60. I'll have to call discountpool to sort it out. Not happy...

I have had the fuses blowing issue myself. It started about a month ago and noticed the pool was getting algae buildup. Checked salt control and no power. Replaced the fuse and it blew spectacularly. Called Circupool and they gave me a Return number. Shipped it back and two weeks later got my original controller back. Set it up and a couple of days later same thing happened except this time the fuse is blowing slowly not immediately like before. Now just trying to figure out how much time till it blows again and I need to send it back again. BTW Si 60 bought in March of this year. When it works it is awesome but this is getting aggravating!