Generic Salt Water Generators CompuPool or others worth it?

[phillipjko]

Are Generic Salt Water Generators good? Generic t-Cell 40k. In poolsupply world there is a PSW Generic T-Cell 15 and a CompuPool T-Cell 15. Both are rated for up to 40k gallons. It seems CompuPool has a lot of negatives in their feedback. Anyone has experience in this or is it better to just go with the original.. which is like $70-80 more only.. at least peace of mind. Suggestions? Amazon has the originals as well...and generics too

http://www.poolsupplyworld.com/blog/hay ... salt-cell/

http://www.poolsupplyworld.com/blog/com ... urbo-cell/

[IPNA]

Hi

I am pool operator from more than 30 years of experience. I worked with all type of disinfection systems and there is one gold rule on any automatic equipment, you must know about pool chemistry. There is a lot of misleading information about salt chlorination. I will point out some of the generally used allegations of those chlorine advocates, and to answer your concern about the cell. First the cell depending on the brand could be better laminated than the generic. That does not mean it won't work, it might mean, less lasting life but also that is relative to the maintenance you perform on them. Some chlorinators are intended for residential, semi comercial or industrial type. And their life span goes from a year to four to five on the comercial ones. There is no miracle machine but my point here is salt chlorinators are cleaner, more cost efective by far from regular chlorine. Those who argue that salt is more corrosive than chlorine, I remember them Cl is the corrosive element in any compound. If you drop a hair pin o a regular swimming pool, it will oxide the same way. Another point that I can not trust is the cost effectiveness they said salt does not have, they put salt in hundreds of pound, ok, lets do the math. My pool needed 900 # of salt. Salt will not evaporate so it will be recycle, unless you drain the pool due waste or backwash. That means that salt will be present for long time. A 40 pounds bag, cost me $5 so that means I spent $150.00 y salt. 25 pounds of Cl cost you $80.00 and is only 68% of available CL, and in my case 35.5Kgallons swimming pool for classes that means at least 1-2 pounds daily. so it means I will be paying $320.00 monthly only on Cl, not saying stabilizer or Muriatic Acid ( petty cash). So probably my pool will be consuming near $4000.00 just in Cl. My chlorinator cost me $1500 first time and I made the cell last 2 years now working optimal. That means that I all ready recovered the investment. If I pay 450-800 for a new cell, still cost effective. And the Pool is Crystal Clear, year round. When I see professionals arguing negative about salt chlorinators I can only guess they belong to the same people that protect oil against renewable energy. They need to sell chemicals to live, but saying salt chlorinators are not cost effective is just an argument with no logic fundaments
Good luck with your equipment. If you care it will last

[Teapot]

I don't have an issue either way, Sometimes regulations mean we cannot use salt chlorination so we have to direct chlorine dosing. The transport of dangerous goods act (in Europe) means delivery costs may rise so making on-site chlorine could be more cost effective. The amount of chlorine manufactured is quite small and if the batherload was large, say in a rented holiday accommodation, then the salt chlorinator may not be able to keep up unless it was sized larger than the normal level of thinking.

My issue would be with your math, I use direct chlorine dosing and know what I am doing a 6 month season in Europe cost me about €5 in pH minus (muratic acid) and €28 in 10% sodium hypochlorite. There is of course fuel to go and pick up the chemicals depending on how far away you are from the store.

I may well change to a salt chlorinator very soon as I can then automate the process better via an internet link. When I am not there no one can go shopping for me. The issues with salt chlorination are the upward drift in pH caused by the off gassing of CO2 from the hydrogen and oxygen produced by the units. This may lead to adding more muratic acid to control the pH, therefore a bit more cost and the cost of a replacement cell.

I did a comparison years back and the difference in cost over 10 years was only a little and depended on how close you were to the store to buy chemicals and also some older pool owners do not like or cannot lift heavy containers. You have to consider the cost of electricity to run the chlorinator against the cost of going shopping and cost of chlorine.

[IPNA]

Hi Teapot

The issue about Ph raising due the alkalinity of salt and the use of muriatic acid is relative to the use and combination you can make with basic pool chemicals. Although, you make a good point in bather load. Of course if your equipment produce 1 pound of chlorine in 24hr It can not hold a large amount of bathers at a time. The smaller the pool , the higher disinfectant concentration needed. But, you can play with combinations of tablets and Cl generation. I do this instead of pouring Muriatic Acid often, and give the equipment periodical rests and prolong the life span of the cell. I do live in a tropical island where prices are high already and the weather is very unstable. Lot of sun, lot of rain. Dust, wind you name it. This is my technique. I do have a semi commercial chlorinating system, I keep my cl level 2ppm -3ppm due my swimming program. My Ph I keep it 7.4.7.8 no problem. I did change Muriatic acid to Stabilized Cl, (tablets or powder). It works this way. Since that type of cl y acidic it will lower my Ph , plus add Small amount of Stabilizer the same time preventing UV rays to deplete CL. They are slow release, so the results will take place gradually. What I do is, I turn off the salt, and wait until the Cl readings goes 1ppm-1.5 and put the tablets. They will keep disinfectant available at legal levels and the same time will lower my ph and alk. I can have a bucket of tablets now by more than six months, and the water is balanced. No complaints. Ive been doing this for almost more than 15 years now and it works for me. Of course there is some shock treatments that you need to use CL directly but is lot less. So depending on the needs of your pool, you should have a salt chlorinating system accordingly to them. I come from a generation that believe in the simplicity of the water balance. Less Chemicals much better. Hope this will help to add options on your costs