I'm not sure that your desire to spend $800 or less is compatible with your desire to have a reliable fully functional long lasting salt water chlorine generator (SWCG).
The fact is, the way to get a SWCG that will last a long time is to buy the largest one available -- usually in the 2# chlorine per day category. As best I can tell, SWCG life is a function of 3 factors:
1. Operating hours. Large SWCG's are preferred because they don't have to run all the time.
2. Polarity reversal. Polarity switching removes scale, but shortens life. If you run a non-scaling pool, and get a SWCG that has adjustible polarity switching frequenting, lowering the frequency will extend life.
3. Water temperature. Operating in cool -- much less cold -- water shortens life.
Probably, the cheapest way to go, if your Jandy power supply still works, is to replace the Jandy cell with the largest Jandy cell compatible with that power supply.
Bookmarks