You're asking the WRONG guy: my opinion on electronic pool controllers is that 90% of them should never be installed, since they have no genuinely useful function.

If you have a solar system or an automated pool/spa switch-over, or an intermittent infinity edge or fountain . . . maybe. But otherwise I tend to seem them as expensive gizmos that will break, interfere with the pool's operation, and be hard to repair.

That said, a lot of people like them AS LONG AS THEY WORK.

So . . . get the system that someone LOCAL and TRUSTWORTHY will repair. It's useless to get a super system that nobody near you can service. Also, put surge protection on the system! You're in S Calif, so it's not an issue like it is here in the the east. But even in Calif you get surges when transformers overheat and go BANG!

Put one of these pool-rated protectors on your controller, and another on any VS pump you get:
Intermatic PS3000 Pool and Spa Surge Protective Device
(. . . membership upgraded.)