Hayward OmniLogic

Hayward sells four things called Omni, and the names do not tell you which one you need. That is the first problem to solve, and Hayward's own 2026 configuration guide solves it.

What actually separates the four

The guide's opening instruction is the useful part: start with the panel, because all of them control variable-speed pumps without additional relays — and then the numbers diverge sharply.

OmniLogic, HLBASE — the premium one:

• 4 relays, scalable to 20
• 4 valve controls, scalable to 16
• 16 variable-speed pumps
• Subpanel taking up to 12 breakers, 100 A
• Salt ready, cell sold separately

OmniPL — five variants, all sharing:

• 4 relays, scalable to 8
• 4 valve controls
• 8 variable-speed pumps
• Subpanel of up to 8 breakers, on the versions that have one

OmniHub, HLOMNIHUB — for adding control to a pool that has none:

• 1 relay, scalable to 3
• 2 valve controls
• 3 variable-speed pumps
• No subpanel

So the OmniLogic is not a slightly bigger OmniPL. It carries two and a half times the relays, four times the valves and twice the pumps, and it is the only one in the range with real headroom.

The letters in an OmniPL number mean something

Five OmniPL SKUs, and the differences are all in the suffix:

• HLPRO4W — subpanel, no sanitization
• HLPRO4SW — S for salt ready, cell still sold separately
• HLPLUS4W — PLUS means the cell is in the box, a TCELL340
• HLPRO4NW — N for no subpanel
• HLPRO4NSW — no subpanel, salt ready

Two of those distinctions cost real money later. N means there is nowhere to put breakers, so the system needs a separate panel fed to it, which is an electrician's line item rather than a checkbox. And S is readiness, not a cell — only the PLUS ships with one.

It will run Pentair pumps

The most surprising thing in Hayward's accessory list, and the reason to read this page even if you own another brand's equipment.

HLPMPCONV is a communication board with a cable and an enclosure. Hayward's own installation manual: it will allow full control of up to 3 Pentair variable speed pumps by Omni Control products. The Omni Control can turn the pump on and off as well as vary speeds based on schedules and speed settings.

That is not a relay switching power to a pump. It is speed control over a communication bus, on a competitor's hardware, sold by the manufacturer of the controller.

The practical consequence is worth spelling out. A pad with Pentair variable-speed pumps and a dead controller usually presents as a choice between replacing the controller with the same brand or replacing the pumps too. On the Hayward side that is not the choice — up to three of those pumps keep working, properly, under an Omni system.

The automation guide advises staying in one ecosystem, and that is still the right default: one app, clean integration, nobody guessing. This is the documented exception to it.

Four valve controls is four outputs

The specification counts what the board can drive, not what arrives in the box, and the footnote is easy to miss: valve control requires a GVA-24 valve actuator, sold separately.

So "4 included, scalable to 16" means sixteen valves the system can command and sixteen actuators you buy. On a backyard with a spa, a spillway, solar and a water feature, that adds up quickly and it belongs in the quote from the start. What an actuator does and how it fails is worth reading before deciding how many valves genuinely need automating.

Expansion, and where each piece goes

Three ways to grow an OmniLogic, and they are not interchangeable:

• HLIOEXPAND plugs directly onto the base unit and adds four valve outputs, four low-voltage relays and four temperature sensor inputs
• HLEXPAND adds a second subpanel with the same capabilities as the base
• HLRELAYBANK adds four relays, and can be fitted to the base and to an HLEXPAND

An OmniPL expands differently — two HLRELAY boards inside the base unit, or two HLH485RELAY modules, each in its own wall-mountable enclosure and talking over the RS-485 bus. That last one is the answer when the enclosure is full but the wall is not.

Two generations, and Hayward dates the split

A small thing that reflects well on Hayward, and it is easier to appreciate having looked at the alternative.

Hayward publishes two complete sets of manuals for the OmniLogic: installation and operation for pre-2023 systems, and installation and operation for 2023 onward. Four documents, clearly labeled by date.

Set that against the EasyTouch, where roughly half the parts list forks on a "change date" that Pentair never states anywhere on the sheet. Both manufacturers changed their hardware mid-life. Only one of them tells you when.

If you are working on an OmniLogic, establish which side of 2023 it came from before you open the right manual — and the manuals are the place to check, because the differences are real enough to warrant two of them.

Three years, from the right dealer

Hayward advertises 3+ year parts and labor warranties on the Omni range, with an asterisk: when sold by a Totally Hayward Partner.

That is the same shape of channel condition Jandy and Pentair run, and it produces the same outcome — a cheaper price from the wrong source costs more the first time something fails. Parts and labor is the part worth noticing, because labor is most of the bill on a wall-mounted control system.

This is dealer-installed equipment regardless. Subpanel wiring, valve actuators and pump communication are licensed work, and the warranty condition mostly formalizes what the installation already required.

What carried over from the ProLogic

Two part numbers in the current accessory list give away the lineage.

The fuse is GLX-F4A-PAK10, and GLX is the prefix from the ProLogic and AquaLogic generation. The liquid chlorine feed system is AQL-CHEM4-CHLOR, and AQL is AquaLogic.

That is a small kindness to anyone maintaining both. The systems are otherwise unrelated — the ProLogic's remotes and relay are discontinued and its configuration lives on a board with no backup — but the consumable end of the parts list did not start over.