John and Janet, thank you. Good first-hand knowledge, too, Janet!

I'm not at all surprised. This woman stopped using hundreds of dollars worth of chemicals every month and her water sparkled, and she simply attributed it to the ionizer. It's just one of those misattributed cause & effect things. When her CYA eventually builds up and her pool goes cloudy or she gets algae, she'll probably think the ionizer broke down.

While I probably won't point this out to the neighbor unless he brings it up again, the next time he tells me how all pools do is suck you dry, I'll ask him if the same concept applies to the hundreds of dollars he spends every month on cigarettes and beer. Maybe then the point will finally get across.