This is the anniversary of installing this and I wanted to write a review.
The first thing is I wish I'd done it sooner! Before, I spent plenty of time keeping the algae at bay. I never had a serious problem, but seemed to always be on the edge of one. I was using bleach mainly. supplemented with trichlor pucks when not at home. I never did the Borax treatment.
After the SWG install, it was totally different. I'd estimate an 80% reduction in labor, and very beautiful water. I was concerned about the water killing my landscaping, but that didn't happen. As far as the natural stone around the pool, the freezing weather is more of a threat.
This last month had the only problem, which was solved. Upon reinstall of the cell, I was getting low salt and low flow red lights. This was entirely bogus, but I went through the procedure requested by Tech Support and finally sent the cell back. No faults were discovered. So I sent the control unit back, and there were no problems!
Upon reinstall, I got the same faults at about five seconds after shutdown. The cell is horizontal and installed per the illustration in the installation instructions. I was advised to rotate the cell with the offset down. It turns out that despite being "off", the system has enough energy remaining that the small amount of drain, a little gurgle, that bared a bit of the generator, was the problem. I replaced my pump lid o-ring, and plan to install a check valve in the near future as well just to be sure. Then I had to leave the pool alone for three weeks, although a helpful neighbor kept watch on it. Upon return the flow light was blinking (!!!) and my friend said he'd added bleach to keep the FC up.
The reason for this blinking flow indicator was a power interruption. Turning the control unit off did not clear the fault. But switching the circuit breakers off did. I have always thought "off" meant off, but in this case, not!
The control unit doesn't clear faults by being switched off. I know this sounds screwy, but I have repeated this process several times while in the initial "low flow/salt" issue. So this is worth remembering. We have power interruptions almost every time it rains, and it may be that the unit is hypersensitive to the uneven power on resumption. I've always been aware of the possible issues and my "to do list" has a line for a whole-house surge protector.
I heartily recommend the CircuPool equipment. It has really transformed our pool experience. They also have good tech support and the office is staffed by cordial, friendly people.
And I'm going to do the Borate now.
The first thing is I wish I'd done it sooner! Before, I spent plenty of time keeping the algae at bay. I never had a serious problem, but seemed to always be on the edge of one. I was using bleach mainly. supplemented with trichlor pucks when not at home. I never did the Borax treatment.
After the SWG install, it was totally different. I'd estimate an 80% reduction in labor, and very beautiful water. I was concerned about the water killing my landscaping, but that didn't happen. As far as the natural stone around the pool, the freezing weather is more of a threat.
This last month had the only problem, which was solved. Upon reinstall of the cell, I was getting low salt and low flow red lights. This was entirely bogus, but I went through the procedure requested by Tech Support and finally sent the cell back. No faults were discovered. So I sent the control unit back, and there were no problems!
Upon reinstall, I got the same faults at about five seconds after shutdown. The cell is horizontal and installed per the illustration in the installation instructions. I was advised to rotate the cell with the offset down. It turns out that despite being "off", the system has enough energy remaining that the small amount of drain, a little gurgle, that bared a bit of the generator, was the problem. I replaced my pump lid o-ring, and plan to install a check valve in the near future as well just to be sure. Then I had to leave the pool alone for three weeks, although a helpful neighbor kept watch on it. Upon return the flow light was blinking (!!!) and my friend said he'd added bleach to keep the FC up.
The reason for this blinking flow indicator was a power interruption. Turning the control unit off did not clear the fault. But switching the circuit breakers off did. I have always thought "off" meant off, but in this case, not!
The control unit doesn't clear faults by being switched off. I know this sounds screwy, but I have repeated this process several times while in the initial "low flow/salt" issue. So this is worth remembering. We have power interruptions almost every time it rains, and it may be that the unit is hypersensitive to the uneven power on resumption. I've always been aware of the possible issues and my "to do list" has a line for a whole-house surge protector.
I heartily recommend the CircuPool equipment. It has really transformed our pool experience. They also have good tech support and the office is staffed by cordial, friendly people.
And I'm going to do the Borate now.
