Find your model number
Your model number is printed on the cell itself, on the controller, or on the box it came in. It takes about a minute to find, and it is the one thing worth being certain about before spending anything.
Checked 63 manufacturer manuals on file Spot an error?
Buying the wrong cell is the most expensive mistake in this category, and the model number is the only thing that prevents it. Read it off the hardware rather than from a receipt or a memory of what was installed.
Where to look, in order
- The cell body. The cell is the clear or opaque housing plumbed into the return line, downstream of the filter and heater. The model number is printed on a label on the housing itself.
- The controller. The box on the wall carries its own model number, which is not the same as the cell's. Both matter: the controller determines which cells it can be configured for.
- The box or the old cell. If a previous cell was replaced, the packaging or the retired unit carries the number and is often easier to read than a sun-bleached label.
Where each maker prints the number
A diagram appears below only where that manufacturer's own document says where the number is. Two of these makers say. The others do not, and a confident arrow pointing at a guess would be worse than no arrow, because you would go and look there.
The IntelliChlor cell requires the IntelliChlor Power Center, sold separately. The model number is printed on the cell body.
The AquaRite 900 series covers the AQR940 and AQR925 controllers. The model number is printed on the controller enclosure, and it is what decides which cell setting and which cell part number apply.
The makers that do not say
For these, the archived documents establish which models each manual covers but never state where the number is physically printed. That is recorded rather than filled in.
- Hayward AquaRite S3
- The AquaRite S3 is the current generation. Its controller is labelled AQRS3, and it is the only Hayward salt system in this set that rejects a non-Hayward cell outright rather than only voiding coverage.
- Jandy TruClear
- TruClear is sold as a system: a Power Pack and an electrolytic cell. The replacement cell is R0693900; R0694000 is the housing without the cell.
- Hayward AquaRite
- Neither archived manual states where the model or serial number is printed on the unit, and that absence is recorded rather than filled. What the documents do establish is which models each manual governs: 092538 RevA covers AQR15, AQR9, AQR3, AQR15-120 and AQR15-LL, and 092623 RevD covers AQR940 and AQR925. A reader who can read their model number can tell which document applies. Where that number is physically printed is not stated in either manual, so this page does not point at a spot on the hardware for Hayward.
What people ask while standing at the pad
Identification only. What the number then buys you in coverage or in price is answered on the pages this links to.
Where is the model number on a Hayward salt cell?
On the cell body itself, on a moulded band rather than on a sticker that weather removes. The suffix is the part that matters, because on Hayward the prefix decides which line the part belongs to and therefore which warranty terms apply to it.
What size salt cell do I have?
The size is encoded in the model number rather than printed as a pool volume, which is why reading the number is the only reliable route. A cell rated for a larger pool will run on a smaller one, but the reverse leaves the system unable to keep up, and no listing will catch that for you.
Can I work it out from the controller display instead?
Partly. The controller tells you which system you own, which narrows the cell family, but not which cell is currently fitted. On a pad where a previous owner or a service company changed the cell, those two answers can disagree, and the number on the cell is the one that governs.
The label has worn off. What now?
Work from the controller model and the pool volume to narrow the family, then confirm against the physical connector before ordering. A diagram appears here for a brand only where that manufacturer's own document states where the number is printed, so a missing diagram means the document does not say, not that nobody looked.