Hi Jeremy,

Welcome to the forum!!

I can't fully answer your questions, but I can tell you what I know--and others will be along soon that can add additional information.

The SWCGs are expensive up front, and the cell that actually generates the chlorine has to be replaced when it goes bad--not sure how often, but general reading leads me to believe every 4-5 years is reasonable. On the positive side, the day-to-day maintenance of the pool is much easier, once you get the SWCG dialed in to the right run time. You have to add acid occasionally to keep the pH in check, but otherwise as long as you keep the right level of salt in the pool, it's as maintenance free as you get. Also, in a pool with full sun, the SWCG will do a better job of keeping your chlorine levels consistent throughout the day than you can do with manual dosing.

I know very little about the liquid chlorinators, except that you still have to lug the liquid chlorine to keep them filled up. If using a liquid chlorinator, then your other chem levels shouldn't be affected, it would just be a matter of regulating your LC flow rate so that you keep a consistent level of chlorine in the pool. As to how difficult or easy that is, I don't really know. I think there are a few other folks on the forum with some experience in this area, so hopefully they will be by shortly to help give you some info.

The auto chlorinators are not a bad thing, as long as you understand the effect it has on your water. The tabs tend to lower pH, which is fine if you have high pH fill water like I do, but otherwise you need to keep an eye on your pH and raise it with Borax when it gets below 7.0. The tabs also raise CYA. Some CYA is necessary in the pool to keep the sun from consuming all your chlorine, but as your CYA levels rise, so must your base line chlorine, which is where folks tend to get into trouble....if you turn the chlorinator up to raise the base chlorine, then you're also raising the CYA by that much too! This usually results in late-season algae blooms. So..chlorinators are great for vacations, or even the first part of the swim season, but as your CYA levels creep up, you'll find that you have to use a supplemental form of chlorine to keep the chlorine levels high enough to keep algae away. In my pool, I use a chlorinator set on the very lowest possible flow rate, and do my regular chlorination and shocking with bleach.

Different things work better for different people. I guess the bottom line is you have to decide what works best for you!