I have an autopilot plus that I actually ordered from JoshU.
I installed it about a year ago and it was a breeze. Also Josh was very helpful and super responsive to pics and email questions before and during the install...really I just wanted a second set of eyes to sanity check because it was very easy.
Been running strong for a year now perfectly. I think it's a great unit. I just bought another property that has a pool that I'm revamping and it has a hayward aquarite that I'm in the middle of seeing if it works and I thin between the two I prefer the nano+ to my taste.
I've been closely monitoring and investigating repair and cell replacment costs in the past few days as I try to get the hayward generating chlorine (right now it's not) and if I keep having problems or the price of parts creep up, I might just call Josh up and get another nano plus and swap it out.
At your budget numbers there is just under the nano prices and it's easy. it's funny cause I searched about the nano the other day in here because I hadn't even thought much about it since i installed it and now am trying to fix up the hayward I inherited and I noticed the same thing about hte autopilot not seeming to be talked about or recommended much recently.
well, I'll give it a thumbs up for sure and JoshU is the guy to call especially if you plan on self installing.
I have a brother in law that's thinking about finally making the switch to swg and I told him what are you waiting for its so much cheaper than you think and told him what I paid Josh and he was shocked...
not affiliated with autopilot or Josh, just a happy customer of both
