BLUE WORKSSalt Cell - up to 40,000 Gallons Pool, 4 Years Limited Warranty, Salt Cell Model BLT15H-GW

Salt cells are incredibly expensive for what seems like a consumable, throw-away part. Something the pool installer's salesman doesn't seem to mention when he is trying to sell you on a $90K or better pool and "the latest and best" expensive control system.My original Hayward T-Cell-15 salt cell only lasted 3 years before croaking. I did the recommended cleaning maintenance and kept salt concentrations within limits but one day it stopped reading salinity and the control system says "chlorinator off, low salt level". So took it to my local friendly Leslies, they acid cleaned it and tested it on their Hayward jig and told me it was good, but if I wanted they would be happy to order me a new one for about $800 (of course they would!). Thinking my 3-year-old cell was still good, and maybe it was all a quirk or a loose connection or being dirty, I put it back in.I turned the pump on and watched the diagnostic display. When the flowswitch closed, the chlorinator relay kicked on and it showed voltage/amps going to the cell and I though Great! But 15 seconds later the relay clicked open open and the same "low salt level" warning showing on the controller and no chlorination. Salt level just tested and was right at 3,100 so it wasn't the water. Now I'm thinking bad controller board (or both) and after looking at the fat cost of parts, even on Amazon and e-bay, the comparative thinness of my wallet, and it being late September at the time, I put off any further troubleshooting or repairs for the year.An aside, I would NEVER call the pool installer's technicians to come back out FOR ANYTHING. But that's a rather sordid tale all onto itself...So during the 2020 pandemic summer I just used the pool as a salty freshwater pool, adding liquid and solid chlorine in a not so scientific manner and it was OK. Well, no, I hated it but it worked. Complaints received from visitors of chlorine smell, their hair feeling slimy and their swimsuits getting bleached out. I told them not to use a suit then, but that didn't fly well. Maybe I was a little heavy-handed when I was manually chlorinating...So along comes summer of 2021 and my work travel increased dramatically. My neighbor has free use of the pool and when I am gone she will take care of my kitties, clean the skimmers and net out the floating leaves and dead worms, run the robot, and test and add chlorine, but she fell behind and I came home one day this summer to one heck of an algae bloom - solid milky-green. Shocked it with tons of liquid chlorine and the "yellow out" shock and got it smelling like a laundromat, but somewhat clear. Then decided I just needed to bite the bullet and with a little bit of trepidation, crossed fingers, a little salt over the left shoulder, a rub of the rabbit's foot, and the help of Mr. Visa, bought this Blue Works cell.SO NOW THE REVIEW: This cell dropped in place perfectly. I greased the O rings a bit with the overpriced Hayward brand greasy-goo and used the original union nuts which treaded on perfectly. I had the pool water tested at my local friendly Leslie's, found out I had enough salt, but of course needed about $200 worth of other chems to "correct problems" - you can't leave a pool supply store without spending about that much it seems. I came home, plugged the cell cord into the controller, turned the pump on and the system came to life. The chlorinator relay kicked on and stayed on, the diagnostics readout showed voltage to the cell and amperage, and I could see gas bubbles coming out of the plates into the water stream through the cell's clear housing. Nice! Now I know the $$ controller board must be good too.I just made sure the controller was set for a T-15 cell, put it at 55% duty cycle and then set the controller to super-chlorinate for 24 hours. Within two days the water was clean and clear again, and the filter showing high delta pressure from taking out the dead algae. Man, salt water pools and chlorine generators are nice when they are working properly! Water is staying clean and clear, and the water feels silky smooth once again.The only slight downside is the system shows salinity about 200 higher than it actually tests at. But that is a calculated value made by the controller of the current flowing between the plates at the applied voltage - in other words the conductivity of the water. Likely there was a similar error with the Hayward cell, I just never bothered to check.I don't yet know about the durability of the Blue Works cell. It's been working perfectly for a couple of months so far. I flushed some organic debris out of it once but haven't acid cleaned it yet because the cell's plates are staying clean. So far so good and I'm hoping for the best!So to wind up this longish tale, the Blue Works cell worked for me as a direct drop-in for the $Hayward T -15. I didn't have to make any adjustments, do any calibration (can't do on this particular controller anyway), or piping changes. It just worked.

After reviewing Blue Works contacted me and offered to send a refurbished unit (I'm guessing with no remaining warranty). It was received quickly and appears clean. After install it was functioning as expected and reading proper salt levels. The process was still frustrating and wished it was more transparent than having to write public reviews to get proper support.Original review: Died is almost exactly 2 years, complains of low salt when salt is confirmed to be fine.Won't honor warranty based on serial numberChinese support requires many hoops to jump throughOn to the next... its not like the name brands last any longer. I guess the price is still cheaper than dumping money into chlorine.

I had a professional originally install this product in January 2021 to replace an old, failed, Hayward unit. Now Hayward makes an outstanding product but they are...expensive...so I looked for a cost effective replacement. This unit appeared to be solid, on equal performance and with a two year warranty I was comfortable giving it a shot. Didnt hurt that my pool professional said it looked ok as well and so did the local pool shop I use. The unit ran flawlessly in the Florida heat for 23.5 months - that's two weeks short of the warranty expiration. Of course I thought...here we go, they are going to drag this out so I dont get my replacement but I registered the product online, I used their tech support which was fairly painless as tech support goes and they approved the replacement without any hassle. To say I was surprised would be an understatement. Companies today seem to do just about anything not to replace their product but they stood by the product and didnt make me jump through hoops to replace it. While it was in service I never had a single issue with it - no errors, no leaks, no chlorination issues - nothing. I also LOVED the clear cover because I could always tell that it was generating AND it was really nice to see when I had some air in the line because it was visible through the clear cover of the cell. I dont think anyone wants a product to fail but I think we've all had issues with "pandemic era product quality" so to have a company step up two weeks before the warranty expired without any issues or proration is just great. I will definitely be purchasing from them again.

just fine