Jandy AquaLink RS

Jandy sells automation the way an electrician would specify it: choose a board, choose a power center, then choose the interfaces. Its own selection guide is literally a three-step process, and the result is the most configurable of the three big systems — and the easiest to order wrong.

Fourteen boards, in three families

The board is the decision everything else hangs off. There are fourteen.

Pool and spa combo — two bodies of water sharing one set of equipment:

• RS-PS4 — pump, heater and 3 auxiliaries
• RS-PS6 — 5 auxiliaries
• RS-PS8 — 7
• RS-PS12 — 11
• RS-PS16 — 15
• RS-PS24 — 23
• RS-PS32 — 31

Pool only or spa only — one body:

• RS-P4, RS-P6, RS-P8 and RS-P16, carrying 3, 5, 7 and 15 auxiliaries

Pool and spa dual equipment — two bodies, each with its own gear:

• RS2-6, RS2-10 and RS2-14 — two pumps, two heaters, and 6, 10 or 14 auxiliaries

Two gaps to notice. The single-body range skips twelve — there is no RS-P12, so a pool-only installation wanting eleven auxiliaries goes to the RS-P16 and pays for four it will not use. And the RS-PS range goes to 32, which is a long way past anything Pentair or Hayward offers on one board.

The number means two different things

This is the ordering trap, and it is entirely Jandy's doing.

On an RS-P or RS-PS board, the number is the pump circuit plus the auxiliaries. An RS-PS8 is one pump plus seven auxiliaries. The heater is not counted.

On an RS2 board, the number is the auxiliaries alone. An RS2-10 is two pumps, two heaters and ten auxiliaries — twelve pump-and-aux circuits by the first system's arithmetic.

So the two numbering schemes are one apart in opposite directions, on boards sold from the same page. Read the description rather than the number.

Six kits, and the part number is the specification

Jandy's answer to all of that is the All-in-One kits, and their part numbers decode cleanly once you know the pattern.

iQ9 [04 or 06] - [P or PS] [-PC] [-SWC]

• 04 or 06 — an RS4 or RS6 board
• P pool only, PS pool and spa
• -PC — the power center includes a sub-panel
• -SWC — a salt chlorinator comes with it

Which gives six:

• iQ904-P and iQ904-PS — RS4, four relays, 6612F power center, no sub-panel
• iQ906-P-PC and iQ906-PS-PC — RS6, six relays, 6614-LDG with sub-panel
• iQ906-P-PC-SWC and iQ906-PS-PC-SWC — RS6, 6614AP-LG PureLink power center with an APURE1400 chlorinator

Every kit includes the RS system board, sensors, relays and the iQ30-A web connect device — the box the iAquaLink app talks to. The pool and spa kits add two valve actuators; the pool-only kits ship none.

The kits stop at RS6. Anything larger is specified from components.

Salt changes the box, not just the accessory list

Worth knowing before you decide to add it later.

On the SWC kits the power center itself is different — a 6614AP-LG PureLink rather than a 6614-LDG. The chlorination hardware is in the enclosure, not bolted alongside it.

That is the opposite of how the EasyTouch handled the same question, where the salt transformer went into the standard load center and could in principle be added afterward. Here, retrofitting salt to an AquaLink RS that shipped without it means the chlorinator and the power center that carries it.

If salt is even a possibility, decide it at purchase.

Three AquaLink families, and one of them cannot do a spa

The selection guide opens with a choice most buyers do not know they are making:

• AquaLink RS — the full system, everything on this page
• AquaLink PDA — the handheld-led alternative
• AquaLink TCX — and the footnote that matters: TCX is for pool automation only, no spa

A TCX on a pool with a spa is not a limitation you work around later. It is the wrong system.

The power center decides the electrical work

Three power centers, and the difference is a breaker sub-panel:

• 6612F — no sub-panel, so a separate panel has to feed it
• 6614-LDG — sub-panel included
• 6614AP-LG — sub-panel plus PureLink chlorination

That is the same fork Hayward runs on the OmniPL, where an N in the part number means no sub-panel. On both systems it is the line item that moves a quote most, because it is the difference between mounting a box and adding a panel.

Some newer Jandy equipment depends on the board's revision, not just its size. The Infinite WaterColors lights need revision Y or later, and connect through their own controller on the RS-485 line, not an auxiliary relay. Check the revision before ordering them.

Everything is a separate line, including the warranty risk

Jandy's warranty gives three years to variable-speed pumps, three to nicheless lights and three to complete salt systems. Automation is not on that list, so an AquaLink RS carries the standard one year, and purchased replacement parts carry ninety days.

Then the rule that matters more on this system than on most: the Jandy limited warranty does not apply to products purchased through the Internet or any e-commerce platform. The Jandy brand page has the full policy.

On a system assembled from a board, a power center, a web connect device, actuators and interfaces — each a separate part number, easily sourced from separate places — that exclusion has more surfaces to catch on than it does on a pump. Check it against every line, not just the big one.