We've had an Aquarite SWCG for 4 years. It's been a roller coaster ride. Motherboard was replaced after a couple years (under warranty). It seemed OK for a few months but then started giving screwy readings on the salt level in spite of barely working well enough to keep the pool algae-free (most of the time). Then this spring, I had to become an electronic engineer and solder on a new thermistor onto the motherboard. Worked well for a couple months but now the cell is dead. I considered giving up on the SWCG and going back to manual chlorination, but after spending so much energy on fixing the controller, I'm going to give it another chance.

My take on the SWCG: it does make maintenance a breeze-- when it works. I feel like I need to spend 10-15 minutes every single day on checking chemistry AND whether or not the SWCG is actually working that day. We had a bad problem with pH rising the first 3 years, too. So, all in all... Not sure it's saved me much labor or money. I still have at least one algae bloom to fight each year. We don't use the pool that much so I don't pay as much attention as I should to all the details. I guess I had stars in my eyes thinking I could just check things once a week and the thing would keep plugging away . It doesn't help that our pool temperature is always >90 degrees and has sun blazing on it about 10 hours a day. Keeping it covered helps except that you can't see the water when it starts to turn green.

Thank goodness I learned how to deal with algae on this forum. At least I know what to do when it happens.

Bottom line for us: SWCG has been unpredictable and we would be smart to check chemistry and equipment on a daily basis or maybe even twice a day!