Matt -- HB Cali
04-08-2014, 04:47 PM
Hello everyone, this is my first post here and I would like to get some advise.
My wife and I recently moved in to our first house which has a beautiful saltwater pool and jacuzzi (one of the main reasons we selected it). The previous owners told us that the pool guy stops by once a week or so for regular maintenance and checking etc, and the cost was about $70/month. When I finally met him he was polite and seemed honest and straight forward. A bit later he began to tell me that the pool light has water in it and to fix it would be about $400. He also mentioned that the salt levels were fluctuating a bit and he suspects the salt cell might need to be replaced soon as this one is about 4 or 5 years old. The price tag on that was $1000. These seemed a big high to me so of course I took to the internet to do some research. Turns out the salt cell (Hayward T-CELL-15) can be purchased for about $420 and is a snap to install. The light, however, might actually be $400 if he was planning on replacing the entire fixture. I did some tests and when I turn the light on, nothing happens. I made sure the breaker/GFCI was on when I did this and it remained on after I powered the light. I believe both the pool and jacuzzi light are wired and run together. At one point a few days ago I was able to get the jacuzzi light to power on, but was unable to light it again maybe an hour or so later. The breaker was still on, which is puzzling me as I would think the water would short the line and flip it, but it's not. Note that the water is about 35% high in the pool light. There is no water at all in the jacuzzi light.
Anyway, on to my questions. Regarding the salt cell, is it really as simple as it seems to replace it? If so, why would he charge me $1000? Is that a typical markup to have a professional install something this simple?
Secondly, regarding the light, since it obviously needs to be replaced, I would like to upgrade to a 3G J&J Electronics Color Splash LED Bulb. This would be perfect for our 14 year old daughters quinceanera coming up and neat to have for pool parties in general etc. This repair/upgrade seems relatively simple and not too expensive as well. Basically the cost of the bulb, and worst case scenario a new fixture as well. Assuming I would have wanted to simply replace the pool light bulb, does the original estimate of $400 seem unreasonable? I can understand paying a little extra for the labor, but neither one of these jobs seems like they should take over 30 mins to do.
Thanks!
My wife and I recently moved in to our first house which has a beautiful saltwater pool and jacuzzi (one of the main reasons we selected it). The previous owners told us that the pool guy stops by once a week or so for regular maintenance and checking etc, and the cost was about $70/month. When I finally met him he was polite and seemed honest and straight forward. A bit later he began to tell me that the pool light has water in it and to fix it would be about $400. He also mentioned that the salt levels were fluctuating a bit and he suspects the salt cell might need to be replaced soon as this one is about 4 or 5 years old. The price tag on that was $1000. These seemed a big high to me so of course I took to the internet to do some research. Turns out the salt cell (Hayward T-CELL-15) can be purchased for about $420 and is a snap to install. The light, however, might actually be $400 if he was planning on replacing the entire fixture. I did some tests and when I turn the light on, nothing happens. I made sure the breaker/GFCI was on when I did this and it remained on after I powered the light. I believe both the pool and jacuzzi light are wired and run together. At one point a few days ago I was able to get the jacuzzi light to power on, but was unable to light it again maybe an hour or so later. The breaker was still on, which is puzzling me as I would think the water would short the line and flip it, but it's not. Note that the water is about 35% high in the pool light. There is no water at all in the jacuzzi light.
Anyway, on to my questions. Regarding the salt cell, is it really as simple as it seems to replace it? If so, why would he charge me $1000? Is that a typical markup to have a professional install something this simple?
Secondly, regarding the light, since it obviously needs to be replaced, I would like to upgrade to a 3G J&J Electronics Color Splash LED Bulb. This would be perfect for our 14 year old daughters quinceanera coming up and neat to have for pool parties in general etc. This repair/upgrade seems relatively simple and not too expensive as well. Basically the cost of the bulb, and worst case scenario a new fixture as well. Assuming I would have wanted to simply replace the pool light bulb, does the original estimate of $400 seem unreasonable? I can understand paying a little extra for the labor, but neither one of these jobs seems like they should take over 30 mins to do.
Thanks!