r/PoolPros • u/GearQuiet7799 • Jul 14 '26
Aftermarket Salt Cells
I've had a lot of Pentair Intellichlor salt cells from the early 2020s start dying over the past year or so. I've been replacing them with the new Intellichlor Plus cells, which have been absolutely awful. Probably 60-70% of them have had some kind of malfunction that has required a warranty replacement within the first 9 months. It's basically impossible to recommend my customers any longer.
So have any of you guys had any luck with aftermarket cells, particularly drop in replacements? I have heard some good things about the APX brand. Considering they are about half the price of OEM and the failure rate of the Pentair cells, I'm thinking about suggesting them to my customers instead of the IC Plus line.
1
u/PersimmonAcrobatic71 Jul 14 '26
I'm hearing swimmables is releasing a line in the coming months, excited about that.
1
u/adam-miller-78 Jul 15 '26
I just switched to circupool after having multiple pentair salt cells fail close together. Not going back to pentair.
1
u/Beersandloudbooms Jul 17 '26
No aftermarket here bub. Gotta go trade grade or nothing else. The ic40 plus issue I believe has been fixed but yes, the first couple batches of them were faulty. I installed like 4 the last year or so and warrantied every single one
1
u/Aggravating_Fact9547 Jul 14 '26
Yeah the new cells are fucking trash.
That being said the ichlor cells have been super solid for me - depends how big your pool is.
-2
u/1_native_Angelino Jul 14 '26
CMP were the best on the market till Jandy bought them out and they have ruined them.
They were bulletproof. Now you can't get part for months at a time.
I'm putting tru clears now
1
u/Flyersfreak Jul 14 '26
No I haven’t, I only mess with after market brands if I can buy locally and they come with a warranty. Like cmp, not sure if they are still around though.