Did Hayward change the warranty for it's salt cells?

[chlorinatorpro]

According to Hayward's own website, the warranty for the T-15 and T-9 cells changed to 1 year (used to be 3 years), T-3 changed to 2 years (used to be 3 years), and extended use cells TCELL940 and TCELL925 changed to 3 years (used to be 4 years).

TurboCells | Sanitizers | In Ground Pool Sanitizers - Hayward Pool Products

TurboCell® Salt Chlorination Cells automatically convert pool salt into chlorine while providing in-ground pools with consistent sanitization. Experience the silky soft water that won't irritate eyes, dry out skin or cause fabrics to fade.

www.hayward-pool.com

If this is true it's a seismic shift in their warranty and brings into question the "planned obsolescence" theory that a buyer has no way of knowing how thick the coating of the plates are with precious minerals (ruthenium) and it's buyer beware when it comes to the plate hours .

If this in NOT true then Hayward are idiots for publishing this information on their own website. It should be noted that they are using W3T-CELL-15 as the product number now instead of T-CELL-15.

Am I wrong here?

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Pentair cells are only 1-yr unless you bundle it with other equipment then you get 3 years. Not sure about Jandy cells. They’re likely just following the rest of the industry. A properly cared for cell with correctly maintained water balance can last as much as 10 years. Most people, and pool service personnel, don’t maintain proper water chemistry and wear their cells out with excessive acid cleaning. This reduces their usable life by years. I’m sure Hayward got tired of replacing abused cells. Ruthenium is an expensive metal not because of its rarity (it’s not that rare) but because of its scarcity - most rare earths and transition metals come from China and Central Asia. Limited supply makes them very expensive and I’m sure costs will only keep going up for users of these materials.

 

[chlorinatorpro]

As I have mentioned before, the price of Ruthenium increased by 400% from mid-2017 to mid 2018 . Salt cell pricing only started going up in early 2019. There are only a couple of plate manufacturers in the world. None that I know of offers a warranty to the cell manufacturers. Ruthenium is mainly used in capacitors and to a lesser extent, hard drives and salt cells. The spike in the Ruthenium price was supposedly due to China trying to corner the market in order to satisfy their customer's demands.

Assuming that there hasn't been any reduction in the thickness of the plate coating in rare instances will you find cells lasting 10 years. However, in my experience it's usually on pools with short swimming seasons where the owner removes the cell after Labor Day and re-installs the cell just before Memorial Day and uses a bypass pipe the rest of the time OR the owner turns down the duty cycle to 10-20% during the late fall/winter/early spring months. Of course there are exceptions to this.

And yes I agree that most people, and pool service personnel, don’t maintain proper water chemistry and wear their cells out with excessive acid cleaning or they run the pump too long at a 90-100% duty cycle.

 

[mpk1970]

This was part of the reason I decided to go with a CircuPool Edge Series 40 SWG

 

[ping]

I've never had a cell last 3 years, Jandy or Hayward, and I've kept my pool water balanced and only cleaned the cells with acid when they needed to be spotless to pass the warranty test. It is obvious to me that the cells can't handle a pool for 3 years that stays open year round so the manufacturers are adjusting the warranties. Too many claims and they know their products are not designed to last three years. I know I will not spend $500 bucks on a cell that has a one year warranty, but I have a couple more years left on my current cell warranty and I'm sure the market will have switched again in that time frame.

It is interesting that the linked page says the extended life cells have a 4 year warranty when you expand for more reading, but when you click on an extended life cell it has a 3 year warranty listed. It seems I've always found mistakes on Hayward's website about warranty terms, they usually have multiple pages with different terms. The warranty still states a 3 year full warranty for a new complete AquaRite system.

 

[dschlic1]

My first T-15 cell lasted about 6 to 7 years. On my second and the pool is 12 years old.

 

[ping]

My first T-15 cell lasted about 6 to 7 years. On my second and the pool is 12 years old.

Your pool is only 7500 gallons, the T-15 cell is rated for a 40,000 gallon pool. If you throw that cell on a 15,000 gallon pool then that would make it last right around the 3 year range. Now if you actually had a 40,000 gallon pool then it would last about a year. I keep telling myself the numbers these manufacturers put out regarding rated pool size and expected life spans are grabbed out of thin air and now they have to adjust all of their warranties to cover their … .

Some pools eat up chlorine at a faster rate than others, mine consumes more than normal due to everyday use, full sun, and solar panels which keeps the water warmer than most.

 

[markayash]

This was part of the reason I decided to go with a CircuPool Edge Series 40 SWG

How do you like the Circupool Edge series 40, thats the one I think I am going to get..I have a 20K pool and run the pump on low speed 24x7 8 months a year

 

[bmoreswim]

Some changes made by companies are not related to the product at all. This is my opinion, but could certainly be true in this case...

Late in 2017 it was announced that Hayward Industries was purchased by a private equity firm. When this happens, PE's often work on cutting costs more aggressively than was being done when the company was not under PE ownership. Shortening warranty periods allows a company to accrue a smaller amount of warranty expense each year, because the expected liability/payout in the future is less. So there could be an accounting aspect to the decreased warranty period as well. It happens.