Endless Pool Fastlane and SWG

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douglado

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May 10, 2011
3
I am about to start a new house and pool. The primary purpose of the pool will be exercise via the Fastlane.

My plan all along has been to have an SWG for the convenience. The Endless Pool website FAQ says that their machines are ok for salt water, as long as your balance is well maintained and the machines is properly bonded (a copper ground wire I assume? also a sacrificial zinc anode).

However, the sales rep recently told me that they now are really more concerned about corrosion leading to hydraulic leaks from the machine, and they are now recommending replacement of the hydraulic motor and in-water tubing (for a total of almost 900$!!!) EVERY TWO-THREE YEARS for salt water pools. This is obviously an absurd expense and inconvenience for a machine that cost 7K$ to begin with!!!

This machine is an absolute necessity for me, so I am now considering omitting the SWG.

My question - what is the real risk of corrosion in salt water pools and does anyone here have a fastlane? Is EP just being over-cautious with this crazy recommendation?
 
douglado,

Do you have an update on this? I am in the same situation and am about to sign off on a new pool build and would like more information. Did you ever purchase the Fastlane for your SWG pool?

I asked the Fastlane rep the same question and it sounds like they are sticking with the same response.
8/28/2013
The problem is that there is no observed consistency with our product in salt chlorinated pools as every pool is different and not everyone takes care of their pool exactly the same way. Those variables can end up causing catastrophic damage, sometime almost immediately after installation. It is very important that the unit be properly bonded, salt levels maintained and the sacrificial zinc anode be replaced regularly.

When using the Fastlane in a salt chlorinated pool, we do strongly recommend that you would change your motor and submersible hoses every two years. With that being said, it is possible that they may fail before that time. It is also possible that they could last for many years to come.

If you using standard chlorine for your pool you can easily expect to get 5 years out of it before you may need to change it. The underwater motor costs $525 and a new submersible hose kit (if necessary) is $350.

The swap out is not very difficult at all and will take 2-3 hours. It will require removing the Fastlane from the pool, disassembling the upper housing from the lower housing and removing the propellor motor mounts so that you can swap it out.

Conversely, when using any other type of chlorination for the pool, we do not recommend changing the underwater motor out for 5 years.

Please let me know if you have any other questions.
Click to expand...

Not exactly what you want to hear when you are about to spend $7K on a product.

I'm also concerned on how the fastlane will effect my electric bill.

Thanks,
 
Believe it or not, the project is still not finished. The construction of the new house has stretched out to almost two years. The pool will be plastered in the next couple of weeks I hope. The fastlane mounting brackets are installed, and the hoses are in place under the deck. The actual unit has not been shipped yet. We decided to go with standard chlorination with no SWG, on the advice of our pool contractor and based on the response from Endless Pools. So I guess I'll never know what would have happened.
 
Justin General - I'm currently being told something contrary by Endless Pools Customer Service, so beware!

I started to see a strange debris in my indoor Endless Pool about 6 months after installation. I use a standard chlorine system (i.e. small amount of Clorox bleach each day), and followed EP's instructions for water management.

Long story short, after little to no help from EP, I recently discovered that the source of this debris (that haunted me for an entire year!) was the 2 degrading submersible hoses inside the pool. When I rang EP Customer Service to share this discovery, they responded that this is "normal and to be expected" even after only 6 months of pool use. That's a far cry from the "easily expect to get 5 years out of it before you may need to change it" as told to you by your Fastlane rep.

My advice to you would be to examine these hoses every 6 months, or at least once a year to be safe. It's great that you have that quote from your rep so that if you need to take the issue to customer service later, they will hopefully handle the problem better with you than they did with me.

Also, just so you are aware, this debris looked very much like white shredded paper floating in the water which led me to believe it was white water mold. The black rubber coating around the submersible hoses would saturate and turn light grey. Then, little by little, bits of it would peel off the hoses, get sucked into the propellor and pushed out into the swim current. Needless to say, this was really gross to experience during a swim!

Good luck with your Fastlane. I really have enjoyed using my EP during the very limited times within the past year and a half when I've been able to swim. Hopefully you won't experience the same problem with your hoses. However, if you do, I hope knowing what to be on the lookout for will help you save time and avoid the massive frustration that I experienced.

- Nancy
 
Thanks Nancy. I appreciate the info.

I have decided to have our pool builder take over all contact with Endless pools. They will purchase the Fastlane from Endless Pools and any warranty issues with installation or the Fastlane itself will now go through them.
This way I only have to deal with one company and really one person. I am sending my pool builder rep all information that I have found online and from this site. I will add this to the list.

I am expecting his final quote soon with the fastlane included.
 
douglado said:
I am about to start a new house and pool. The primary purpose of the pool will be exercise via the Fastlane.

My plan all along has been to have an SWG for the convenience. The Endless Pool website FAQ says that their machines are ok for salt water, as long as your balance is well maintained and the machines is properly bonded (a copper ground wire I assume? also a sacrificial zinc anode).

However, the sales rep recently told me that they now are really more concerned about corrosion leading to hydraulic leaks from the machine, and they are now recommending replacement of the hydraulic motor and in-water tubing (for a total of almost 900$!!!) EVERY TWO-THREE YEARS for salt water pools. This is obviously an absurd expense and inconvenience for a machine that cost 7K$ to begin with!!!

This machine is an absolute necessity for me, so I am now considering omitting the SWG.

My question - what is the real risk of corrosion in salt water pools and does anyone here have a fastlane? Is EP just being over-cautious with this crazy recommendation?
Click to expand...

I'm sure by now this is all water under the bridge (so to speak).... We had an in-ground concrete pool built in 2011 with the same purpose - to have the Fastlane installed (ports for hydraulics build thru the pool side, etc). And, it was a salt pool.

You put a grounded self-sacrificing anode on the handle of the swimmer, and it takes the corrosion instead of the unit itself. Similar to the same devices used on boats that are in salt water. That said - IF THE GROUNDING WIRE on the inside of the bolt is disconnected, say, because you tried changing the anode by trying to un-screw the bolt.... (instead of just changing the clip part) then, you can certainly rust out your swimmer motor. That happened to us - and we paid $800 for a new motor, and another couple of hundred to have someone come out and install it, refurbish the machine, etc. We were lucky none of the seals on the motor failed - as we didn't have hydraulic fluid leaking into the pool.

The couplings on the hydraulic lines (installed by the pool company) were brass, and also corroded - so the person who did the work on the machine upgraded those to stainless.

At the time we were having issues with our pool (long story - poor construction of the POOL, the concrete form had not set and we wound up with a crack/leak). We had drained the pool anyway, so decided to refill it and NOT use salt.

There were several reasons: One: the swimmer is just too expensive to risk that corrosion. TWO: the salt corroded most metal surfaces - discoloring even the pool light fixture with a black residue that came off on your hands when you touched it. THREE: The pool is still sanitized by Chlorine - it's just that the chlorine is created through a chemical reaction instead of just putting in chlorine - so, you're not really chlorine free.....

From what I understand, as long as the unit is properly grounded, and all of the other criteria for pool balance are met, then you should not have warranty issues with a salt pool. However, our problem was clearly our own fault, and so, we bit the bullet and paid for a new motor.

All of that said - I still love the Fastlane. I am not sure where you live, but in the Tampa Bay, FL area, I have found someone (the person who did the refurbish) who knows these machines thoroughly, and can maintain, repair, inspect, etc.... He is Chris Johnson with Aquatic Horizons. Anything with moving parts that lives in the water is going to have maintenance and corrosion issues....

I see you decided not to go with the swimmer. If you change your mind at some point, I believe it's possible to retrofit.

Amy
 
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