Salt Generator + Automation?

I am considering adding an SWG. I have recently added a new pump (Pentair intelliflo VS-3050) and am also getting a new heater (Pentair/Sta-Rite Max-E-Therm).

My question boils down to, since I have a new Pentair pump and heater, should that drive my decision on which SWG I purchase.

I don't know anything about automation and don't have any sort of automation/control equipment. Should I be getting some sort of Pentair "Brain" to automate my system (along with a Pentair SWG)? Will other control systems run the Pentair equipment?

Looking at the VS-3050 manual, it says "can communicate with an EasyTouch, IntelliTouch or SunTouch control system or IntelliComm communication center via a two-wire RS-485 connection remote speed control." Is anyone familiar with those systems?

I worked quite a bit with automation in years past . . . and I'm not impressed. Most of the important things you need to check about your pool YOU have to check. It doesn't take long, but you can't automate it, this side of $20,000. There's hardly anything an automation system will do, remote switches and a brain can't do better.

To me, recent pool automation systems look like they are designed as surgical instruments for use in wallet-ectomies. I'd spend the money on an oversized DE filter, myself.

One the other hand, I have a full automation system on my pool/spa combo and I love it. I have a Goldline system that also has a swcg as part of the unit and it's been trouble free for the past 6 years except for one actuator that needed to be replace (but is was not new when I installed it, it was a "leftover"). My system controls my 2 speed pump, my water feature/cleaner pump, valves for cleaner, deck jets and waterfalls, valves for pool, spa, and spillover, heatpump (from a different manufacturer), air blower for spa, SWCG, color changing lights in pool and spa, and fiber optics lighting with colorwheel illuminator. My equipment is mostly Pentair except for the heat pump (Aquacal), blower (Polaris) and automation/SWCG (Goldline/Hayward). I like the fact that I can heat up the hot tub from inside the house on a chilly night and can turn the different water features and lighting effects on and off without having to go to the equipment pad to manually turn valves, which is located on the side of the house and outside of the screen room where the pool is located.

I do not have ORP controllers, peristaltic acid dosing pumps or CO2 injectors for pH control or other such nonsense since I do not think they are needed nor appropriate on a residential pool since they often create more work then they eliminate with the needed calibration and adjustments and for the substantial cost they add they really do not lessen the work of pool maintenance. You still have to test and balance the water.

It is easiest if everything is from the same manufacturer but most of the systems out today can control multispeed pumps and just about any heater and SWCG from what I have seen.

Fair enough.

My experience was heavy on the chemical side, which never worked as advertised. (It took me 10 years to design a bleach feed system that behaved predictably and was reliable with minimal maintenance. And there's still nothing like it on the market. Just saw a brand new feed system on a 140,000 gallon country club pool, and it was a MESS from the factory.)

My experiences with valve and light automation -- what Waterbear has -- was always in the "fix what someone else broke" category. I didn't do new construction, so I only saw these systems when they had failed. That certainly has colored my view.

But if the conveniences Waterbear describes are important to you, and you get good equipment installed by someone who knows what he's doing, then go for it!

Me? I don't even like spas, no matter what color the lights are!

I don't have a spa or lights or any valves that need to be controlled. I have been burned by technology and want to keep things simple. When I built my pool I installed an ozinator and an Ionizer. Both lasted about 2 seasons and then there was no support when they started having problems. Also, as I said in the beginning I am replacing my heater. The old heater's "mechanics" are fine, it is the circuit board that is flaking out. In that vain, should I even pass on the SWG. I'm worried it will work for about 2-seasons and then I will be stuck with some unknown computer chip problem.

By chance, are you in a rural area, or at the end of a power line -- and have problems with lightning and / or voltage spikes?

The electronically controlled heaters I've been around have been very reliable and trouble-free, compared to millivolt heaters. But 'dirty' power could really change that.

Ditto for today's SWCGs and automation systems.