Saltmate RP Series Chlorinator

Saltmate RP 20 Deluxe Auto Clean Chlorinator – I have had my Saltmate Deluxe Auto Cleaning Tech RP20 Salt Water Chlorinator for my 50,000 litre swimming pool for over 10 years. I have only replaced the cell once in that time. I have had it serviced twice by Shawn & his team at Saltmate for minor light issues & the last service was free of charge. I would highly recommend this chlorinator & after sale service is excellent at Saltmate. Show details

Edit: I was wrong – My previous review was misinformed and I need to apologise to the manufacturer. My tenants and I had been following the advice of the pool shop who was maintaining the property. The chlorinator cell has a higher operating range for salt levels (above 4000 but around 5000ppm is preferred). The calcium levels were also not being checked or managed,… Read more

leading to cell degredation due to higher than recommended hardness.

So, now that I've taken over management of the pool, this chlorinator is running flawlessly. The lesson for me here is don't take the pool maintenance person's word for it, and be assertive when the pool shop tester says salt levels are too high.

4 stars because it did start rusting out after about 18 months, otherwise this is a great device and was actually great value. Once again I feel the need to apologise to Saltmate for not investigating this first myself (also, no, they didn't ask me to change my review - I'm doing this after realising my mistake).

$1200 and in less than 3 Years it had to be replaced!! DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT – Purchased a BRAND NEW Chlorinator about 3 yrs ago with a 2 yr Warranty.. within 6 months, the timer was not working so they sent a new one for us to install as we are in Brisbane and they are in Sydney. Here we are at the 3 year mark and the Circuit Breaker is tripping AND THE CLOCK IS BROKEN AGAIN! so contacted Saltmate directly - can't help… Read more

you because it's out of warranty, you can ship it to us in Sydney or try getting it repaired by a pool shop, basically you're on your own...

They do not have any recommended repairers!!

Eventually after a few hours, I got in touch with AquaMech Services in Dutton Park in Brisbane and took it in there only to be told it's not even worth fixing as they are cheap and unreliable. Terrific. AquaMech technician advised a Reconditioned Waterco Chlorinator would be much better and much more reliable, so for $550, I purchased one from them. On the floor at AquaMech was a heap of Saltmate Chlorinators!! It was like a dump yard for Saltmate. Buy Australian? I thought I was purchasing a quality Aussie Made Product and clearly it is not. Don't waste your money on this cheap and nasty product.

On that note, I highly recommend AquaMech Services at 15 Pound St Dutton Park if you need assistance with a quality Chlorinator or servicing.

Hope this helps others and thanks for reading.

So disappointing...Buy Australian Yeah, nah! – RP30 #1: starts chlorinating, goes into cleaning mode and does not come out so stops chlorinating. New unit almost the same cost as the repair so purchased number two; just unlucky right? RP30 #2.0: timer inaccurate and then stops working. New timer fitted at a cost of over $200 from memory. RP30 #2.1: same issue as #1 above, put the cell in pool… Read more

water and chlorine bubbles away so I BELIEVE it is the same as issue #1. RP30 #3: not going to happen! Two RP30s and one repair in less than ten years (expluding the replacement cells) is not good enough for me.

Piece of crap – Bought RP20 saltmate chlorinator in Jan 2020 . For some time now the timer has been very inaccurate, thought it was me , no it was the product !!! Got around that by using another timer . Then the led lights on the display stopped working but still generated chlorine, and now lights and chlorine do not work . Wow what a piece of rubbish—- buy at your peril Show details

Don't believe the 5 year warranty – My electrolytic cell failed after 3 years. I was told after 2 years it's up to you to return and prove it wasn't your fault for the failure. I only ever cleaned as per Saltmates guidance. Don't buy thinking 'it must be great if it's got 5year warranty ' because it's not accurate Show details

Definitely not the best available so don't waste your money – Bought January 2019 and worked for 2 years by then the cabinet was rusting badly. Saltmate replaced the cabinet under warranty even though it was just past the 2 years warranty. The Graslin timer then malfunctioned and I replaced it with a non Saltmate digital timer for half the price their agent was asking and the PCB started to break down… Read more

delivering chlorine intermittently ( replace $240 plus $120 intstall would not just supply circuit board) as cell was liable to need replacement before long I decided to shop elsewhere and not throw good money at bad. Not a bad unit when working but unfortunately is not reliable for my purpose.

Good when it works – Bought in April 2017, cell died in Sept. 2019 and got replaced under prorated warranty at a cost of $260. Forward to August 2021 and the cell suddenly starts going out, makes it just to 2 LEDs or none, being 30% approx. or no chlorine production. In late September it is dead. Show details

Works well but barely makes the warranty period – Worked well for 31/2 years and cell died, they give you pro-rata warranty on time left but on their full RRP price so the cell is apparently worth $570 minus the remaining warranty meant I had to pay $400 for replacement or $350 for aftermarket cell with only 2 years warranty on it. Now it’s 1 month shy of end of warranty and timer doesn’t move Show details

First the timer gone then the chlorinator – Purchased May 2018 and timer stopped working February 2019 now chlorinator stopped producing and despite water flowing it is not producing chlorine. Looks like this is common problem. Avoid and as always check reviews Show details

Saltmate RP20 Timer Faulty after 1 month use – I bought Saltmate RP20 in Oct 2020. One month after the installation it appears the timer plays up. The time does not move correctly and often stuck at certain point. Pool and Spa Warehouse, the place I bought Saltmate RP20 asked me to bring the machine back to them and pay them $70 to let Saltmate to check it. It is a joke that customer has to pay under Warranty claim for a nearly brand new product. Show details

Some problems but running ok – My Saltmate RP20 is around 2 1/2 years old. The unit is not undercover and the casing rusted badly after about 12 months. Saltmate sent me a new case which I installed. It is still in perfect condition after a further 18 months. Recently the chlorine lights stopped working but the unit was still chlorinating the water My local pool shop Kewba… Read more

Pools at Erina Heights replaced a circuit board ($217) and it is working fine now. I have been really happy with the self cleaning cell. It has required virtually no maintenance which is a real blessing compared to my old manually cleaned unit.

Poor service and product – We bought the deluxe saltmate 2 years ago and the cell stopped working 2 months before the warranty ends. It’s been more than 3 months and still have no answer or any calls from the supplier as to what is happening. The next step will follow up in a consumer legislative manner to resolve the issue. No happy.  Show details

Saltmate RP20 - a bad product – Bought Saltmate RP20 chlorinator in 2017, the unit failed 5 months after and after some exchanges, it was replaced by another unit. In mid-2020 (less than 3 years), the unit malfunctioned again and the repair cost $450 but the unit failed again after 3 months, it had to be returned for rectification. More money wasted buying chlorine! Australian… Read more

Made - the quality is sub par and reliability is very poor. Technical support is average but the workmanship is questionable.

Given my experience, I won't recommend Saltmate - pay a bit more for a better product.

Not satisfied with the quality – My RP20 went out of order only 18 months after I installed it. The chlorinator refused to start and could not generate chlorine. It is also a bit frustrating to get the service because it did take a few days to find the right person to help me with it. It is good to have the 5-year warranty but it is still quite painful when it is broken. Show details

Regrettable Purchase – Purchased 3 years ago, timer clock went down after 9 months and was replaced by pool shop at no charge. 14 months later the timer has gone again and will cost approximately $200 to replace with more than likely another below par timer. Surely not hard to get this right Saltmate ? Wanted Australian made and have been burnt... Show details

Not at all impressed, I wanted to buy Australian made – Chlorine output indicator and timer clock worked ok but after 12 months use, indicator not accurate, clock does not keep time. SMT150 is a basic model but should function better and longer without any issues, They are not cheap to buy.

Piece of SH!t – We bought the Saltmate Rp 20 , 3 years ago for $929 from direct pool supplies as recomended by the sales man i was going to buy the poolrite surechlore. after 2 years the cell gave out should last for 10000 hours they wouldnt replace it but proratered it cost me around $400 for a new cell. one year later the cell has gone again. I get my pool… Read more

water checked every month through summer the pump and cell run for 2x 4hr times morning and afternoon not good enough. Im going to try the poolrite surechlore as i should have done in the first place

Temperamental, but Solid and Reliable. When it works – After moving into a new house with a mid 90's Blue Haven Pool in Newcastle, and then finding a "gap" where the former chlorinator used to be; the local pool store recommended a few options, with the Saltmate RP30 being the "popular" model, for $1470 installed in 2015. The RP30 has lasted ~4 years solidly, but it has several weak points; When it… Read more

works, it looks ordinary and reliable. 90% to 100% of the time, it is set and forget. As it should be.

Pro/Cons. 1. It's Simple, yet Dumb. For a "non-trivial" purchase, you want something solid. This is solid. But it's also average. Painfully Average. It resembles ~$40 of parts in a giant, rusty white steel box. It probably should be in the $200 range if it weren't "Pool Equipment". sic.

2. The way you know it's working, is the column of 5 Blue LED lights that come on with the pool pump if you use the pump timer/relay. And, with sufficient chlorinator strength, strong bubbling/oxidization at the cell where it's forming chlorine, sic. Normally, each light comes on one at a time while the pump is priming, up to the dialled in amount, at roughly 20/40/60/80/100 increments, based on a rotary dial for chlorinator strength.

That dial, has no marks for where 20/40/60/80/100 is, so it's anybody's guess as to how strong the chlorinator needs to be.

It also has a 'cleaning' cycle where it turns the lights off and on, or alternates the cells to avoid plating/corrosion over time. The "manual" was a single A4 sheet folded in quarters, so I'm guessing on what it's doing by observation.

3. After some years of tinkering, the lights are deceptive. You can hear a click or see some lights being 'primed' during the startup, but there's no way to know if it's faulty.

Because Saltmate switches on the pump at the same time, you have to assume the chlorinator is coming on as well. That's not always true. The lack of feedback is frustrating when it overheats or has some kind of internal fault. It has a habit of pretending to Work, or returning to work with no intervention, it powers down and up, for hours, or minutes. It can still be drawing power to the pump, with no status/LED lights on, and the pool pump can be running with no lights on or warnings.

Even more baffling, when I first called a technician to fix this, they didn't find any problems, it had fixed itself.

The bane of this simple box, is that it isn't bad enough to warrant replacing, as it often fixes itself. But it does fail silently, and unless you're paying attention, it doesn't have any indication of not working.

4. The most inconvenient downside is that with Summer/Winter changes in temps and usage/chlorine levels, because it has no way to throttle other than the "5 lights" and a rotary dial that means very little unless you mark off on the box itself where the 20/40/60/80 percent is supposed to be... you will be testing the pool every week to see if "Summer" is dialed in for the heat, or if "Winter" is dialed in properly, as the 20/40/60/80/100 "lights" are not reliable.

In summer it either struggles or goes crazy, producing "public pool" levels of 10+ ppm free chlorine, or 0-2ppm, the machine can also go into meltdown and refuse to work, despite the pump working overtime.

5. When it overheats though, all the lights can drop out, while the pump is working. When it detects not enough salt, it can refuse to dial up past the 4th light (80%) or the 3rd light (60%). You can add 20kg of salt, and have ~6400ppm to ~7100ppm, it can still refuse to boost to 100%, 5 lights. or not come on at all if there's other conditions it hasn't detected during the power cycle.

Occasionally, frequent/quick resets/brownouts or loose cables, will also cause the RP30 to fail, which isn't something you want to do anyway.

Because there's no way to know if it's really working, it seems reliable until you check it. And for most people, they assume it's working because the pump is working. Not the Saltmate RP30 itself.

6. I've seen it repaired 4 times at 3 different stores, more than any other model.

7. The Timer is a joke, and fails to work or hold time, perhaps due to age/heat. Occasionally, if i'm home while it's about to switch on, i'll have to turn the dial a full 360', 24 hour revolution for it to 'click' on at the appropriate time.

8. They still sell this chlorinator, despite 5 other brands having gone out of business or swapping their entire look/style in the same time period.

Despite this, it is not a complete failure of a product, it has "episodes" or moments where it decides to work or go on strike, only for the pool technician to ask for a pool sample rather than send a technician ... and sadly, they're proven right.

The timer is also trash, which often stops rotating/ticking over, and you can come back to see it pegged at 4am. Ignoring the timer, you can just get a $20 wifi wall plug, and setting the time for the week/weekends and turning it on via your phone instead of crawling under the house to fix the timers in the dark, sic.

A wemo/tp-link/lenovo WiFi plug, makes this 'dumb' chlorinator, 'smart', but you still have to be cautious about the power consumption to know if it's actually working, or just pretending to.

Excellent product with excellent service cannot fault – This chlorinator handles our 10metre pool with 75kl water in tropical far North Qld with ease. Easy to set up and easy to use. You will not be disappointed with this purchase from Best Pool supplies online. We have purchased a number of items from them with exceptional service and prompt delivery.  Show details

Good but has a few issues! – I've owned every type of chlorinator known to mankind! From all the dreadful Zodiac brands to the wonderful 1980's Aquanaut! The Saltmate should be a great unit as it is an "honest" looking box with somewhat oversimplified controls but its unreliability with the clock timer is the biggest problem as it occasionally stops running altogether or… Read more

gets way ahead of itself!

The good news is that the manufacturers being Saltmate, are five stars when it comes to support and service. They know there is an issue with the clock and do their very best to have it corrected at the manufacturers' end but this still seems to be giving trouble!

When a company admits there is an ongoing issue and does everything to remedy you can't really object!

95% of the time it works perfectly and once the timer problem is remedied, it will be a great unit!