SWG costs

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You piqued my curiosity.

Last spring, with chlorine near impossible to find, I was very grateful for my SWG. But the poor thing was 5 years old and decided to retire. My first Intex SWG was around $100, but I wanted to go a bit bigger. Actually, I wanted to go commercial grade (in advance of the proper pool we hope to install in 2022), but even then, prices and availability were impacted by Covid. I finally took a gamble on an "upgraded" (hah!) Intex for 15,000 gal. It got sketchy reviews, but $185 was the most reasonable price I found (W-mart).

Today, that same unit at W-mart is $840! For an Intex! When we bought our current setup, we got pool liner, supports, pump, and filter for $800.

It's not a good SWG - puts out about half the chlorine of my old one, and I have to run my pump a lot more. It has some weird and frustrating power management issues. I'm just praying it still works this summer. At $840, no way I would replace in kind - I'd be scouring eBay or Craigslist for a gently used 1- or 2-year-old commercial model, or bite the bullet and drive 45 minutes to the larger city near us for LC every few weeks. Or just not open the pool at all. I really feel for folks who have to replace worn-out/damaged SWGs this year.
 
CeltiaK said:
You piqued my curiosity.

Last spring, with chlorine near impossible to find, I was very grateful for my SWG. But the poor thing was 5 years old and decided to retire. My first Intex SWG was around $100, but I wanted to go a bit bigger. Actually, I wanted to go commercial grade (in advance of the proper pool we hope to install in 2022), but even then, prices and availability were impacted by Covid. I finally took a gamble on an "upgraded" (hah!) Intex for 15,000 gal. It got sketchy reviews, but $185 was the most reasonable price I found (W-mart).

Today, that same unit at W-mart is $840! For an Intex! When we bought our current setup, we got pool liner, supports, pump, and filter for $800.

It's not a good SWG - puts out about half the chlorine of my old one, and I have to run my pump a lot more. It has some weird and frustrating power management issues. I'm just praying it still works this summer. At $840, no way I would replace in kind - I'd be scouring eBay or Craigslist for a gently used 1- or 2-year-old commercial model, or bite the bullet and drive 45 minutes to the larger city near us for LC every few weeks. Or just not open the pool at all. I really feel for folks who have to replace worn-out/damaged SWGs this year.
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I got lucky and got my edge40 for $840 around 2/20 and a robot before I knew what Covad was. Glad I did but was nervous just spending $1500 and not sure if we would have a job but glad I did.
 
chlorinatorpro said:
Remember last year when I warned everyone that sticker shock was coming to the salt cell market? The main culprit has been the iridium and ruthenium minerals (coatings used on the plates) that are being mined in South Africa. The variant Covid strain that originated there shut down all these mines thereby choking off 80% of the world's supply. Couple that with the rise of these materials being used in new European hydrogen fuel cell manufacturing and there was also highly speculative demand that tried to the corner the market, especially for iridium. A 600% rise in these mineral costs can easily result in a 50% rise in salt cell costs although I'm sure the bigger players like Hayward and Pentair may have forward looking contracts that somewhat insulates them from that large of an increase (perhaps holding it down to a 25% increase).

Now for those manufacturers who haven't raised prices you should be asking yourself why. It's easy to go from 6000 hour plates to 3000 plates and keep the price the same because how would anybody know unless they test the plates on an expensive acoustic microscope. Or one can continue to buy CompuPool cells not knowing that you would have to call Australia for customer service.
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I certainly wish I'd seen your post last year :/
 
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CeltiaK said:
You piqued my curiosity.

Last spring, with chlorine near impossible to find, I was very grateful for my SWG. But the poor thing was 5 years old and decided to retire. My first Intex SWG was around $100, but I wanted to go a bit bigger. Actually, I wanted to go commercial grade (in advance of the proper pool we hope to install in 2022), but even then, prices and availability were impacted by Covid. I finally took a gamble on an "upgraded" (hah!) Intex for 15,000 gal. It got sketchy reviews, but $185 was the most reasonable price I found (W-mart).

Today, that same unit at W-mart is $840! For an Intex! When we bought our current setup, we got pool liner, supports, pump, and filter for $800.

It's not a good SWG - puts out about half the chlorine of my old one, and I have to run my pump a lot more. It has some weird and frustrating power management issues. I'm just praying it still works this summer. At $840, no way I would replace in kind - I'd be scouring eBay or Craigslist for a gently used 1- or 2-year-old commercial model, or bite the bullet and drive 45 minutes to the larger city near us for LC every few weeks. Or just not open the pool at all. I really feel for folks who have to replace worn-out/damaged SWGs this year.
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I knew my Intex (15,000) swg was most likely **** up last year but didn't want to spend the $ before I had to 🥴 I've had 3 of them ...they average a life of 2 years but at $150 it was well worth it. The lowest I've seen them this year was probably $700. I don't know if I'll even get my pool swimmable this season
I'm in GA and we need a pool. I'm so mad at myself
 
Anybody bringing in product from China is dealing with tariffs as well. So as prices increase due to global shortages, tariff revenues increase to help fund our government which also means higher prices to the end user. Couple this with a logistics nightmare because shipping containers are in such short supply in China the cost of ocean shipping has increased tremendously. My friend's company has seen 40' container transportation fee from China go from $2,000 six months ago to $7,000 in April to $14,000 today.

Frickin crazy.
 

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Spot prices for iridium and ruthenium, the two catalysts that are on the plates inside a salt cell have gone down by 15% since the beginning of June. Whether that translates to lower prices for retailers definitely remains to be seen but in the short term (thru next Jan) I would say the retail price will stay very much elevated. Because they can and do have many buyers at these prices.
 
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Mdragger88 said:
I just did a little figuring & even at today’s prices a swg comes out on top over the long term (for me at least). Still hopeful prices will fall a little by the time I can purchase next year.
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Nice! Everyone should do that calc and figure out what the effective chlorine usage for their pool on a yearly basis. I find it a useful number to keep in my back pocket when I am cost comparing replacement cells for my SWG... I'm in year 7 of my current cell, and if I get the same usage out of it as I did on the first one, I have a season and half left on this one.
 
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I had done some maths back when and the break even gallonage was between 12k and 15k. The climates didn’t matter because the demand was the same for both the SWG and liquid. They would use a bunch more/less of both respectively in either climate.

Your 26K gallons appears to hold true to that as In you are getting a much quicker ROI with a break even point around 2.5 years with several years producing free chlorine. Whether it lasts 5 or 7 years you are all gravy.
 
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The other thing to consider in your calculation is the value of your time. I used LC for years. Pool was great, but it was a royal pain in the Rear constantly having to buy jugs of bleach. Then add in the fact that you run into shortages, or the only bleach available is old. Those prices are rising as well.

I went to SWG and it was the best decision i ever made. The amount of time it has saved is huge. For me, if the actual dollars for SWG were several hundred more per year than LC, I'd still go SWG.

Just my two cents...
 
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It is just a crude estimate done by a girl on her patio w/out figuring in tax, gas to go buy bleach, time costs, electricity for the swg etc.
But since the last cost evaluation i’ve seen posted here the swg prices have really climbed so I thought I’d share it for anyone on the fence so they would have some updated costs to compare.
 
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I know everything went up in price this year, but if you don't mind buying generic (or compatible) products, they are still very affordable, and certainly cheaper than buying chlorine, not counting the convenience you get with a SWG. We have converted nearly 100% of the customer from OEM to generic, I would say 99% are happy, and 1% complain it does not last as long. But we are talking about less than 1/2 of the OEM price, even you have buy 2, you still come out ahead. Just my 2 cents.
 
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RJ-45 said:
I know everything went up in price this year, but if you don't mind buying generic (or compatible) products, they are still very affordable, and certainly cheaper than buying chlorine, not counting the convenience you get with a SWG. We have converted nearly 100% of the customer from OEM to generic, I would say 99% are happy, and 1% complain it does not last as long. But we are talking about less than 1/2 of the OEM price, even you have buy 2, you still come out ahead. Just my 2 cents.
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Since i have u on the horn ….
Are the circupool universal replacement cells interchangeable between the units?
Say I started w/ a universal 40 but wanted to replace w/ a universal 55? I know some brands/models are capable of this.
 

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