Generic salt cell replacement.

[sdtreg]

I have an Aquarite and TC 15 cell installed about 5 years ago. Lately salt reading has been low and check cell and low salt lights are flashing. Bought the cell to pool store for testing and it failed even though it was bubbling when plugged in at the store.

Anyway, I can get a Hayward TC 15 replacement for $459. Is the new generation of the TC 15 comparable with my 5 year old controller?

Second question is can I buy some generic replacement cell such as the one from pool guy supply DOT com for $100 less?

Thanks

[waterbear]

T15 cells are compatible wit the older controllers, T9 and T3 are not. Be aware that Hayward sells the cells (toungetwiswter!) with ethter a 1 year or a 3 year warranty and the price reflects this. From what I have seen the 3 year warranty cells are made with a bit tighter quality control but I do not have any actual information to confirm this.

IF you buy a generic replacement cell check the warranty closely. The warranty on your control unit is probably past so you do not have any concerns about voiding it by using a non Hayward replacement cell. I have no information on the generic cells or on "pool guy supply dot com"so I can't help you out on that.

[PoolDoc]

Second question is can I buy some generic replacement cell such as the one from pool guy supply DOT com for $100 less?

In today's market, 'generic replacement cell' almost certainly means 'Chinese replacement cell'. Now, the way things are going, it's entirely possible that Hayward is having their cell made in China in the first place. But, if so, Hayward is ALSO monitoring the quality of the product supply.

In fact, the "generic replacement cell" may be made by the SAME factory that's making the original cell . . . but you can be SURE that Hayward is not monitoring the quality of the generic cell. And my experience with Chinese manufacturing is that they cut every corner they can, and still sell the product. It's unfortunately true that American pride in manufacturing quality is disappearing except in family owned companies, but there are still some remnants of it. Again, as far as I can tell, there was never any such thing in Chinese manufacturing for export: it has always been only about the $$'s.

A friend of mine who works in purchasing for a large company that -- in the past -- made lots of replacement auto parts. They have closed all their factories, and now buy all those parts from China. They write the specs and the Chinese companies supply the products as written. My friend tells me the Chinese guys are constantly trying to cut corners: You said to 0.0001 inch?? We thought you said 0.0002 inch". He tells me if they don't specify EVERY thing in WRITING, and get signatures tying the product to the contract and payment . . . they will get substandard output. His job has become working 40 hours per week to make sure that they deliver what they agreed to deliver, and to close any loop holes in the contract agreements.

So, if your pool supply guy is buying Chinese, and isn't doing that, you can bet that your generic replacement cell is not much like the OEM cell, except in overall appearance.

Small things can make large differences.

In the past year, my father has spent over $400 due to two water leaks in a new pressure reducing valve installation I did for him. The first leak was in a Lowes labeled, Chinese made, brass ball valve I installed on the water line. Over the years, I've installed hundreds of brass ball valves (I'm a plumber, and before pools, I did commercial plumbing repair). I have had many leaks, but never had a lead in the BODY of a brass valve. But, the Lowes / Chinese ball valve leaked, due to poor blending and molding of the brass body. That was leak #1.

But lightning struck twice! 6 months later, leak #2 was in a Watts brand brass 3/4" nipple installed at the same time as the PRV. It ALSO leaked in the body (unthreaded part) of the nipple. Not only have I never seen a leak like that, neither had a friend of mine who has been working as a plumber continuously for 20 years. But, Watts is an American company, or so I thought. Well, they were. But on close examination of other brass Watts nipples sold at Lowes, I found the fine print, "Made in China".

So, I'd be careful.

Chinese manufacturing, unrestrained by US specs and contracts, is persistently low quality. It's not intrinsic: IntexCorp works pretty hard to build their brand, by maintaining product quality. And Intex pools are one of the best values in the pool industry. But, "generic" is not a brand. A Chinese manufacturer who can dump 1,000 units of 'generic' Asian Flower brand products for 6 months, can turn around and dump 1,000 units of Saffron Odor brand products next month, and experience no pain when all the Asian Flower units fail.

So, suit yourself, but personally I wouldn't buy 'generic' salt cells from 2 year old import company.

[Poolsean]

Ben, the generic cells are sold by Compupool. Since they are an Australian company, I'm fairly certain the are using Australian made electrodes. We've experienced several reports of those generic cells burning out at the cell cord to cell connection, or simply not working, straight out of the box.

[PoolDoc]

Thanks, Sean.

[sdtreg]

thanks for all the useful advise. Will get the replacement T15 cell.

[JimK]

Interesting thread. I was just wondering about OEM vs. generic. Looks like OEM is the way to go.

My original T15 Cell that came with my Aquarite SWG was installed in April 2004 and had to be replaced in June 2008. Based on this, I'm expecting to have to replace the cell again this year or next year, although perhaps I might get more life out of this cell since I stopped using the "superchlorinate" feature when I had to replace the cell last time (I manually shock instead of using the SWG to shock thinking this might reduce wear on the cell).