You know it seems like a joke anymore with the big companies gobbling each other up. Look at Microsoft and Yahoo or Bear Sterns and who ever bought them, it is happening all over the place. If you have the money or good credit you can buy who ever at low rates. The pool industry is not isolated from this phenomenon, Pentair has been gobbling up companies for years and Hayward has joined the bandwagon with their recent purchases. One of the more recent buy outs that is really confusing, Zodiac Pool Care and Jandy Pool Products have merged. Who bought who is a question for the ages, if you ask someone who works for either company and they will tell you their company bought the other, so who knows. The up shot of all this is that before this big Zodiac/Jandy merger Jandy had purchased Clormatic. Clormatic was a manufacture of salt generators. These units make chlorine out of salt that you put into the swimming pool water eliminating the need to purchase chlorine tablets. Jandy was looking to broaden their offerings to keep up with Pentair and Hayward the two really big players in the swimming pool industry.

So then comes this deal with Zodiac Pool Care and all of a sudden the two companies are trying to find ways to merge and cut costs. The decision is then made to close the Clormatic operation in Florida and consolidate the company to the HQ in California. This, my dear readers is the beginning of the nightmare! Since October when this move took place we have been trying to understand what is going on with the Clormatic name, will it continue or will it go away and will the salt generators carry the name of Jandy units called Aqua Pure? What will happen depends on whom you talk to, some say Clormatic is going to disappear and some say Clormatic will continue but with some changes. I can honestly say I have no idea what is going to happen to the Clormatic name but I can say changes have already been happening. We got a Clormatic 601 complete unit in from Jandy the other day and we opened it up to revel a Frankenstein unit. The owner’s manual said Clormatic; the Cell said Clormatic and the control box said Aqua Pure. The rep tells me that they going to change to from Clormatic to Aqua Pure, but then I get a bulletin in the mail from Jandy. The bulletin tells me that things are changing and it shows me an old Clormatic unit then an arrow pointing at the new Clormatic unit, which appears to look like an Aqua Pure but the labels, all say Clormatic. WHAT?

So from all the information I have at my hand as I type this, this is what I think is going to happen. The Clormatic name will go on. Jandy will produce both the Clormatic and the Aqua Pure Salt Generators. Jandy will be changing the cell, so if you have a cell made prior to 2008 it will not retro fit where the old Clormatic cells fit. If you have to replace your cell you will have to cut and glue the new cell in place. The new cell will have an upgraded feature of a third port. This third port will allow you to make the cell make a 90-degree turn if you want and one of the ports will be used to connect the flow sensor so you don't have to have it on the pipe somewhere else. This reduces the length of space you need to install the unit. Great idea but it makes the change of the old cell more difficult. We still have some old style cells in stock, however when they are gone they will be no more and you will be forced to change the cell or they whole system.

So how does all this relate to April Fools? I am sorry to say that everything I have written is no joke, it just seems like a cruel joke.

Jim Garrison
The Guru of Pools at
Discount Pool Warehouse.com