Zodiac Ei Xpert Review & Prices - Worth Buying Or Not?

Zodiac Ei Xpert Review

The Zodiac Ei Xpert range of chlorinators offer mid-priced solutions for your residential pool’s chlorinating needs.

Designed for saltwater pools specifically, this chlorinator offers industry standard features and boasts an easy installation. In spite of the price and advertised features of this machine, you may be wondering, is the Zodiac Ei Xpert worth buying or not?

In this Zodiac Ei Xpert review we will cover the pros and cons of this machine while reviewing its design, chlorination performance, build quality, warranty, and price in order to determine if this machine makes a good fit for you and your pool.

Pros & Cons

Design

The Zodiac Ei Xpert is composed of a streamlined, black control board and a transparent in-line salt cell. This unit is for salt water pools only, and is not compatible with mineral pools.

The Zodiac Ei Xpert is available in two sizes; the compact size is suitable for pools up to 40,000 litres, while the mid is compatible with pools up to 70,000 litres in volume.

This chlorinator has electrolysis plates with reverse polarity capabilities, making it capable of self-cleaning.

The Zodiac Ei Xpert also has two additional production modes aside from standard operation. These are boost mode, which is essentially a superchlorination setting, and low mode, which is great for use during the winter.

The device enters summer or winter power-saving modes automatically, but you can override these.

Chlorination Performance

The Zodiac Ei Xpert contains industry-standard features. As a more affordable model, this machine does not offer many high-tech capabilities, but it has all the settings you will need to chlorinate your pool properly.

There is not a wide range of sizes available for the Zodiac Ei Xpert, so if you have a pool larger than 70,000 litres in volume you will need to look into another chlorinator series.

This machine advertises ideal chlorine production rates with the mid size of the machine producing 25g/hr and the compact producing 15g/hr.

With an ideal pool salinity level ranging from 4,000-10,000 ppm, it is easy to ensure that you have enough salt in your pool for this chlorinator to operate effectively.

If your pool’s salt level drops below 3,000 ppm, the machine’s control board will show a ‘low salt’ indicator light. Chlorine production will come to a halt until adequate water salinity is reached.

Build Quality & Warranty

Zodiac Ei Xpert Problems

The biggest problem with the Zodiac Ei Xpert is that it has subpar chlorine production.

Many users of this machine note that even when using the chlorinator in a pool of adequate size and salinity, running the chlorinator at maximum capacity still only produces enough chlorine to keep their pool at the minimum recommended levels of free chlorine.

Some users also report issues with the timer settings. These reviews claim that the timer feature often resets itself, making it nearly impossible to get the machine set up on an adequate chlorine production schedule. Output faults are also fairly common.

This chlorinator was discontinued by the manufacturer, likely as a result of these issues.

Zodiac Ei Xpert Warranty

The Zodiac Ei Xpert chlorinator has a warranty period of three years. This is one year more than the industry standard warranty length, which tends to be about two years.

Unfortunately, Zodiac customer service does not have a consistent track record among consumers.

While some customers report receiving competent assistance from Zodiac representatives, more often than not, customers have to deal with communication issues such as slow replies and having their needs misunderstood or disregarded by service employees.

Zodiac Ei Xpert Price

The Zodiac Ei Xpert chlorinators make a fairly affordable option when compared to other chlorinators on the market today. That being said, they still cannot be considered cheap.

The compact size of the Zodiac Ei Xpert will cost you $1,200, while the mid size will run you about $1,300.

Zodiac Ei Xpert - FAQ

How Do I Know If My Zodiac Ei Xpert Is Working?

The Zodiac Ei Xpert has automated chlorination features, meaning that it may occasionally of its own accord which mode it should be operating in. The best way to check to see if your chlorinator is working properly is to test the levels of free chlorine in your pool.

This model of saltwater chlorinator tends to provide 1-2 ppm of free chlorine in pools that it is rated for. This free chlorine range is slightly lower than the commonly recommended range of 2-4 ppm.

How Do I Know If My Zodiac Ei Xpert Salt Cell Needs Replacing?

The salt cell of the Zodiac Ei Xpert offers transparent housing, making it easy to see if your salt cell needs to be cleaned. Although this chlorinator offers self-cleaning features, manual cleaning of your salt cell will still need to be performed on occasion to maintain the system.

If you cannot get your salt cell reasonably clean during maintenance, you will need to replace it.

Additionally, if you damage the salt cell during the cleaning process, it will need to be replaced. Indicator lights will be present on the control panel of your machine if your salt cell is experiencing issues.

Final Thoughts - Zodiac Ei Xpert Review

The Zodiac Ei Xpert chlorinators are mid-priced machines that were designed with ease of use in mind. Unfortunately, the manufacturing company has missed the mark.

With widely reported issues about failure to maintain adequate chlorine production, as well as unstable timer features that often reset themselves automatically, it's easy to see why this chlorinator was discontinued by the maker.

We do not recommend the Zodiac Ei Xpert chlorinator. Although there are some positive customer reviews of this machine, the problems it experiences tend to be widely reported, so we suggest that you save your time and money for a different model of chlorine generator.

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