Help locating a replacement T15 cell still under warrantee.

[Nevets]

Anyone know where I can get a Aqua Rite replacement T15 cell for less than the $980 that my local pool store wants? According to Hayward tech people, I still have a 40% proration due and the pool store will lower the price to $540 after the proration but I feel that I am being taken to the cleaners so to speak... and most online stores that I have found will sell the replacement cell for under $500 without the 40% proration but I can not find an online store that will honor the 40% proration....:mad:

There is no doubt that the cell is bad. It was tested by an authorized Hayward testing center and they tested it twice.

I am in the Brandon FL area (Tampa) and need the heavy duty cell with the three year warrantee due to the extreme heat that I have to deal with in my pool water. The H2O temp gets to be above 90 degrees and stays there for 6 months or more.:eek:

Thanks

[kelemvor]

I don't know exactly where but I've been pricing cells as well. My local pool store only wants $500 for the T15, but I've found them online as low as $300. I was going to post asking about the site selling for 300 to see if it was legit but I think that sort of thing is against the TOC of poolforum.

[aylad]

I was going to post asking about the site selling for 300 to see if it was legit but I think that sort of thing is against the TOC of poolforum.

I don't see a problem with posting a question about the site to see if others have had experiences with them...the problem we have is with those who post links to their own site to entice people to shop from them, or with people asking for specific names of people to hire as contractors, etc. Basically, no selling here....but asking about an independent site to verify legitimacy would be okay.

Keep in mind that any links you post will delay your post being modded in until Ben looks at it, so you might want to just name the site without the link...

Janet

[waterbear]

Your pool store is ripping you off!
The retail price of a new cell with the 3 year warranty is not that high! Find a different store! For $980 you can but a complete Aquarite with T-15 cell and 3 year warranty!

[mas985]

Nearly every place on the web is selling them for less than $475.

Try This. (http://www.google.com/search?q=Goldline+T-CELL-15+cell&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7DKUS)

Forgot to mention the generics are now going for less than $400 with a 3-year warranty.

[waterbear]

I am in Florida also and keep my pool heated to 88 degrees and it's over that for several months a year. The pool is open year round. I have an aqualogic and my cell is still going strong so the heat is not the problem, water balance is.
A few tips to maximize cell life, keep your CYA at 80 (very important) an and your TA at 70 to minimize acid demand cause by outgassing of CO2.
Add borates to 50 ppm to reduce acid demand (because of the secondary boric acid/borate buffer system that works in conjunction with the bicarbonate buffer system we call TA to "lock" the pH around 7.7 -7.8 for an extended peroid of time) and very probably chlorine demand (because of the algaestatic properties of borates).
These tips will allow you to run at a lower output percentage and to minimize pH spikes, both of which translate into longer cell life.

[Nevets]

I am in Florida also and keep my pool heated to 88 degrees and it's over that for several months a year. The pool is open year round. I have an aqualogic and my cell is still going strong so the heat is not the problem, water balance is.
A few tips to maximize cell life, keep your CYA at 80 (very important) an and your TA at 70 to minimize acid demand cause by outgassing of CO2.
Add borates to 50 ppm to reduce acid demand (because of the secondary boric acid/borate buffer system that works in conjunction with the bicarbonate buffer system we call TA to "lock" the pH around 7.7 -7.8 for an extended peroid of time) and very probably chlorine demand (because of the algaestatic properties of borates).
These tips will allow you to run at a lower output percentage and to minimize pH spikes, both of which translate into longer cell life.

I was able to locate another dealer that offered me a better price (almost as good as online) but without the proration - you do what ya gotta do. I still had to pay the tax though.

However, it's obvious to me that I am going to have to rebalance my pool. My pool is an inground with a Premix Marbletite Marquis finish and comes in at about 11000 to 12000 gals is my buest guess but a calculator says around 15K gal. Its an odd shaped pool. It is uncaged, and gets sun from 8:00 am to 7:00 pm right now. My current pool stats according to the pool store:

Salt 4200
CYA 120
FC 1
pH 7.8
TA 105
Calcium Hardness 260
TDS 5001

The pool store recommended that I put in two cups of acid to bring down the pH and 1 gal of liquid chlorine to up the FC level.

My handy dandy PS234 #6477 test kit gives me the following readings:

FC 1.5
CC 0
OTO TC 2
OTO pH 7.5
Alk 80
Cal 300
Cya 70
Salt 3800 ~ 4000

Meanwhile, my new and improved (working) cell allows me to get the following readings from the Aqua Rite control box:

Salt 3200
Temp 92 deg
Volts 24.3
Amps 7.70
40% chlorine generation
~3800 (Instatenous salt test)
AL 0
r 1.40

What is the next recommended step to do. Should I drain and refill to lower the salt level or should I leave it as it is because within one week, the overflow from all the rain will do the job of lowering the salt level for me?

What is this borates thing? If you haven't guessed, I do not have much of a clue about this stuff....

Thanks for your help.

[aylad]

What is this borates thing? If you haven't guessed, I do not have much of a clue about this stuff....

Thanks for your help.


Read Waterbear's post #2 in this thread....

http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=10305

Janet

[Nevets]

Read Waterbear's post #2 in this thread....

http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=10305

Janet

Got it. Just finished reading some of the thread posted at TFP. Looks like an avenue that I will want to go into. Just need to get the right calculations for my pool though. It is rectangular (kind of) and at the deep end it is 11 feet wide. At the shallow end it is 17 feet wide not counting the steps (three). The total length is 28 feet and at the shallow end, the depth is 3 feet and the deep end is 7 feet however the deep corners are very rounded. This is why it is so hard to calculate the total gallons for this pool. I am pretty sure though that when I had it re-finished I checked the water meter before and after I filled the pool and it came in at about 10,300 gal or there abouts. Wish I would have written it down now:(

Thanks for your help and the PM.

[waterbear]

I was able to locate another dealer that offered me a better price (almost as good as online) but without the proration - you do what ya gotta do. I still had to pay the tax though.

However, it's obvious to me that I am going to have to rebalance my pool. My pool is an inground with a Premix Marbletite Marquis finish and comes in at about 11000 to 12000 gals is my buest guess but a calculator says around 15K gal. Its an odd shaped pool. It is uncaged, and gets sun from 8:00 am to 7:00 pm right now. My current pool stats according to the pool store:

Salt 4200
CYA 120
FC 1
pH 7.8
TA 105
Calcium Hardness 260
TDS 5001
You need to subtract your salt reading of 4200 from this to get the remaining TDS, which is really not a very useful test. Your TDS is about 800 according to the store's tests, which I find suspect! TDS stands for Total Dissolved Solids which will be the salt, calcium, CYA, magnesium. potassium, bicarbonates, sulfates, etc that are in your water.

The pool store recommended that I put in two cups of acid to bring down the pH and 1 gal of liquid chlorine to up the FC level.
I would ignore the store's tests and recommendations! Trust your own testing, assuming your reagents are fresh. If not I would order new FAS titrant, possibly new DPD powder, possibly pH reagent (it does go bad!) and, if you want to test salt chemically a Taylor K-1766 from Taylor Technologies, it has fewer problems than the salt test included in the PS234 even though they are basically the same. The difference is the concentration of the titrant for chloride.The test is tricky at best and because of static and non uniform drop size because of some static issues in the PS234 droppers it can often give a reading that is a bit higher than it is. As an alternative AquaChek salt test strips are a useful tool as long as they are fresh and have not been exposed to humidity. With any chemical test for chloride ions, reagent or strip, the results will not be the same as the conductivity reading from the cell but if they are within about 800 ppm you are certainly in the ballpark.

My handy dandy PS234 #6477 test kit gives me the following readings:

FC 1.5
Too low, keept it around 4-5 ppm at all times

pH 7.5
Fine for now but you don't want it to go any higher than 7.8. When it does drop it to 7.5 and not lower because the lower you put the pH the faster it rises.

Alk 80
OK but would be better at 70 ppm.

Cal 300
Should be just a bit higher to keep the water balanced for your plaster finish. I would bump it up to around 350 to 400 ppm given a TA of 70-80 ppm.
Cya 70
OK for now but if it drops any lower bump it back up to 80 ppm.

Salt 3800 ~ 4000

Meanwhile, my new and improved (working) cell allows me to get the following readings from the Aqua Rite control box:

Salt 3200
You want to go by instantaneous salt and not average salt readings so ignore this.

Temp 92 deg
Volts 24.3
Amps 7.70
40% chlorine generation
~3800 (Instatenous salt test)
This is your salt reading, It is also in line with the titration test you did. It is a bit high but livable. As we are going into rainy season here in Florida I would not lose any sleep over it!:D

AL 0
r 1.40

What is the next recommended step to do. Should I drain and refill to lower the salt level or should I leave it as it is because within one week, the overflow from all the rain will do the job of lowering the salt level for me?

What is this borates thing? If you haven't guessed, I do not have much of a clue about this stuff....

Thanks for your help.
Hope this helps.

[waterbear]

Got it. Just finished reading some of the thread posted at TFP. Looks like an avenue that I will want to go into. Just need to get the right calculations for my pool though. It is rectangular (kind of) and at the deep end it is 11 feet wide. At the shallow end it is 17 feet wide not counting the steps (three). The total length is 28 feet and at the shallow end, the depth is 3 feet and the deep end is 7 feet however the deep corners are very rounded. This is why it is so hard to calculate the total gallons for this pool. I am pretty sure though that when I had it re-finished I checked the water meter before and after I filled the pool and it came in at about 10,300 gal or there abouts. Wish I would have written it down now:(

Thanks for your help and the PM.

You can often get a good 'guestimate' of your gallonage by seeing the results of adding a chemical. For example, lets assume your pool is 1100 gallons, then adding 6.75 lbs of calcium chloride dihydrate (flake calcium, not the pellets) should raise your CH by 50 ppm up to 350 ppm. This will give you a starting point to see if you are in the ballpark. It is does not go as high then your pool is bigger, if it goes higher your pool is smaller. Remember it's a pool and not rocket science so don't obsess over it once you get the ballpark figure.

If that does not give you enough precision I do have another method of determine the volume of a pool chemically but it is a bit more involved so try this first.