AquaTrol for in-ground pool: why not?

[PointeTaken]

As is the case for many people here, we inherited our 12K gal. in-ground pool and everything that goes with it when we bought our house a couple of years ago. Over those two years, I've successfully eliminated the effects of most of the bad practices (floc, copper algaecide, sequestrant, etc.) and replaced the poorly maintained/mismatched equipment that came as part of the deal. One legacy remains: the AquaTrol unit. Time and again, people on this forum have asked me what the heck I'm doing with an AquaTrol on an in-ground pool. Hayward explicitly says, "AquaTrol units are not rated or recommended for in-ground pools." And so I say, why? I've never received a good explanation for it. Is it such a poor match that I should replace it with a properly-rated unit as soon as it is practical? Or should I just let it live out its days and then upgrade when it reaches the end of its life? It has performed well so far; with a T-CELL-5 attached, I only need to run it at around 15% with my VS pump running 24/7. My only gripe is that it consistently reads salt about 400 ppm lower than the true level, even with a new cell, but it sounds like that can be expected of most units.

 

[mknauss]

If it works, no issue. Just be sure you run the pump 24/7. I do not believe those units have flow switches.

 

[PointeTaken]

If it works, no issue. Just be sure you run the pump 24/7. I do not believe those units have flow switches.

It does have a flow switch; in fact, I have to run my pump faster than I'd prefer because it will trip a no-flow under about 1200 rpm. The other issue I have is that sometimes even 1200 rpm is too slow for the salinity reading and I'll get a check salt light. Then I have to do a recalibration. What I found out (straight from the Hayward directions) when I replaced the cell earlier this month is that you can actually mount the horizontal cell upside down to prevent that. I didn't have enough clearance to do that, so I think I'm actually going to replumb it to be vertical, which also is supposed to remedy the check salt problem.

 

[ajw22]

. I do not believe those units have flow switches.

The Aquatrol -RJ version does not have a flow switch. It is mounted directly to the pool return jet.

The -HP or -TL versions have flow switches.