Part 1: Sunplay.com - lowest price, free shipping, showed up 2 days earlier than expected 100% satisfied with the service. Will shop with you again.
Part 2: Product: This is hands down the most poorly designed product from any category that I have had the misfortune of coming in contact with. Either the manufacturer is ignorant of basic basic engineering fundamentals or they are designed to fail to increase sales. Here are a few of the highlights: 1) The changed the size of the coupling nuts. So instead of just attaching this new unit in the old ones place I had to choose between either replacing a $250 backwash valve that worked and replumbing half of the pool or hand scraping the glued PVC pipe out of the valve fitting so I could install the new coupling nut.2) They designed a pressure vessel that is rated for at least 50 PSI that is constantly full of saltwater and abrasive material, that sits in the sun 365... out of injection molded plastic. I cannot wait to get my first plastic air compressor soon. 3) The designed a clamp out of cast aluminum with a hinge that used a fully threaded stainless steel screw. So now the hinge is corroded and the aluminum screw hole has been enlarged about 40% by the much harder stainless screw that acts just like a file. How did they not see that one coming?
I could keep typing this stuff the next few hours but unfortunately I still have not been able to get the new lower to mate correctly after 3 hours of trying with the top I bought 4 months ago so my new filter system is still nonfunctional and I need to go back and see if I can get to seal to somehow.
If you have any possible alternative to a Jandy pool system, then stay away.
The only criteria that I can give a high rating on this product would be if I was rating the manufacturer for their potential profit margin on this product. Nearly $1500 for a filter assembly. Note that for around $500 less I purchased a similarly shaped item, a new shop air compressor with a welded, steel, pressure certified 100 gallon tank rated for 300 PSI (not 50) and it came with a 5hp motor and a pump and all of the electrical switches and pressure switches and that company still made a hefty profit. Compare that to a plastic injected egg with an o-ring and an aluminum clamp that has likely been designed to fail in a few years for only $500 more... you would think that they could at least have sprung for another 50 cents and put some bushings into the aluminum clamp to prevent its inevitable self destruction. I mean that clamp is a safety device after all. I've certainly learned my lesson.
Now I just read that I don't have a warranty on this system because the manufacturer does not offer warranties for items purchased on the internet. To get a warranty I would have had to buy it from the same company that tried to trick me into paying them to replace my perfectly good pump/motor when what I needed was a $7 start capacitor and then hire them to install it for me.
I've been looking for a new business to get into. Looks like pool equipment manufacturer is going to be any easy market to compete in.
