Solaxx Saltron Retro - Salt Chlorine Generator for Above Ground Pools - Up to 20,000 Gallons Max - Self Cleaning, Built in Timer - CLG10A Salt Water Chlorinator System

Ok I first converted my pool over to salt in the first half of May 2014. It wasn't a new pool set up. I wouldn't have had as hard of a time as I had if I taken a few extra preventative maintenance steps closing the pool the year before. Because of that the Solaxx took a while to get the adjustment right for my pool and here were my reasons so you don't make the same mistake I did.The biggest reason is I didn't clean my pool well enough before starting it. I had it winterized and put a cover on it at the end of last summer but that wasn't good enough. Before putting the cover on the pool it apparently had more late summer leaves fall in it than I had realized and they must have collected in the stairs. If you have stairs instead of a ladder make sure you remove ALL of the leaves from inside the stairs and the pool before starting this. I am now just going to take my stairs out at the end of this summer so I know I am starting clean next year. The pool would stay cloudy and the chlorine level seemed to struggle to increase. While dealing with that we also had a lot of rain in the late spring that I think also kept the chlorine level low. I know it couldn't have helped.So basically once we went through 4 bags of shock and a 5lb container of chlorinated granules I figured out that we needed to remove and clean the stairs and clean the pool again. Then I put the Solaxx setting on 24 hrs. a day for a week. After that I was able lower the setting and it has been effortless ever since.I have a 24' x 4' round above ground pool. I had to add 14ea. 40lb. bags of Morton salt to get the salt level to the proper operating range. I mounted the Solaxx generator on the pool(super easy set up) and as I said before I ran it at 24hrs a day until the chlorine came up. Once it leveled out at the correct chlorine level I ran it about @10 hours a day. At times I'll adjust it from 8hrs. up to 12hrs. depending on rain or the heat from the sun but mostly at 10hrs. Where I live in N.E. Oklahoma it may be a different set up than yours but I would imagine it would be close. You'll have to just set it to the instructions they send in the box and adjust from there. There are only two buttons to adjust. Hours Up and Hours Down. Simple!I'm on week 8'ish now and I haven't had to clean the electrode yet. I checked it last week and it still looks clean so I'm guessing it'll need to be cleaned once a year. I don't know for sure. Maybe it depends on the usage.Overall it took @3wks. to get mine adjusted in but next year will be quicker now that I know what I'm doing. Since that first 3 wks. I haven't added any salt, chlorine or shock at all. I keep one 3" chlorine tab in the floater just in case but I think I'm not going to need it either for the rest of the summer.On the salt I read that once you add salt you don't have to add any more because it doesn't evaporate like water. You should only have to add salt season to season or possibly within the season only if you have to add a lot water due to evaporation.Some more potentially helpful information. My pool has a metal outer wall and frame. I was told by the pool supply store that they didn't recommend switching to salt water because it will eat the metal within the year. They are the experts and I know what salt does to steel but I have not seen any evidence of that "yet". It is still early though. Had our pool been newer we may not have tried using this because of that reason. Our pool has been in place for many years. We are on our 4th liner. If it will make it 2 more years we have plans on installing an in ground pool instead.I read somewhere that the salt content in a pool is only @10% of what the ocean salt content is. You can taste it in the water but it doesn't burn you eyes, it does seem to be better for our skin and you don't smell any chemicals which is awesome.I definitely recommend this product. It is expensive up front but it should pay for itself fairly quickly.I know my set up may be different than yours but I hope the details of my experience in this review will help you avoid any set up pit falls that I dealt with.

The media could not be loaded. This works and easy set up, no need to hire anyone !!!!I paid for this from Amazon. Solaxx CLG10A Saltron Retro Self Cleaning Salt Chlorine Generator with Built In Timer for Inground and Aboveground Pools Up To 20,000 Gallons.See pictures and video, I dripped some chlorine tester drop directly in the pool where the Solaxx was running. You can clearly see it generates good Chlorine levels from this thing. Also, a picture of the chlorine level kit. That shows it has a good amount of chlorine, and no other added chemicals, but acid.My expensive Hayward AQR15 Aqua Rite In-Ground Chlorine Generator got burned up, the mother board. It would cost about $300-1500 to fix, and I even changed one part. But the mother board gets to hot so it frys things up in there, I am sure something else would have broken on it. Usually when one part starts to fail, others might soon.I only have a 15,000 gal in-ground pool. So I took a chance on this Solaxx. It has been about 6 months now, Texas Summer, hitting 90-100 degrees hot days.It took about 2 full days to get the chlorine level good. Once there, I didn't need to add any chlorine tablets to keep the level good. For a Salt pool, your PH will always be high, so add a lot of acid.Other than that, nothing much, but normal cleaning out leaves, etc.To set this up, no need to hire anyone...You just plug in. I put mine along the fence. The cord was long enough to reach my outlet.To set up with a timer. I used an outdoor timer with a cord. I set the timer to turn for about 6 hours, off for 1 hour, and on for 6 more hours, etc. So when I put the Solaxx to my timer, the Solaxx will be on for 6 hours at a time, and rest for 1 hour.I figure, if this breaks in a year, that cost is still only running me $250 per year. The other expense crap will also break down, but cost you 10 times more. Plus, this is an easy set up, I don't need to pay and electrician or pool guy $$$$This just tells you, Hayward, and all the others are BIG Moneymaker schemes...when this Solaxx can do almost the same thing with less parts and cost are more real to what the parts may only cost.Very happy with this product.Update April 9, 2017. Getting my pool ready for spring. I put my Solaxx retro away for the winter in my garage and made sure I cleaned the cell with acid until all the crud is off the platinum plates. During the winter I just used normal chlorine tablet, but with colder water, didn't use too much.And like all starting the pool season, you clean, clean, shock it and clean my DE filters. Next, I put 9 40lb bags of pool salt and brought it up about 4000 salt ppm. Before using the Solaxx, my chlorine level was below .6 and I plugged it in, the power box turned on, set for 21 hours, it shows a normal level of salt on its indicator and started running about 11 am. The next morning the chlorine level is not over 5.0............and checked at the far end too, also over 5.0 chlorine level.So, my hopes as of now, came true, it is my start of a second season, and see if this will last for the summer. Also, I learned how to maintain the cell with acid, and used a timer to allow to only turn on about every 6 hours, and rest an hour before turning on again.