Just finished my fourth summer with my pool. It was setup with the IC-40 SWCG run by an Easytouch 8 control panel. A few weeks ago, despite the generator indicating it was running normally, my chlorine level started dropping. A few days later, no lights on at the SWCG and the status on the control panel showed an error.
There was no indication of a break trip, and I did have a issue last year where the unit seemed to become frozen and I had to disconnect and reconnect the SWCG to "reboot" it. I tried that again. Initially, the lights came on and it appeared that it was back to normal. Yet, after a few minutes, all lights out again.
One more try at resetting and, when I powered the panel back up, smoke came billowing out of the SWCG and a bad burnt electric smell was obvious. It's pretty clear at this point that the unit is dead. I'm going to just run with pucks through the fall/winter/spring since my usage of the pool is going to decline.
What I'm trying to figure out is what happened? I've read a number of threads and saw the video about replacing the fuse (though, my Easytouch panel doens't have a fuse spot, it has a breaker for the intellichor on the upper front of the panel. The breaker doesn't appear to have ever tripped). So, I'm at a bit of a loss. I'll probably put in a replacement next summer, but I want to make sure there isn't something else going on before I risk another $600 putting in a new unit.
I opened up the SWCG for the first time in a couple of years to inpsect it. After being pretty diligent about acid washing the first year, I found there was essentially no scale building inside. In a discussion thread here from back then, I took it that, as long as I'm keeping my PH in range, I shouldn't have to worry about buildup in the unit or have to worry about cleaning. When I opened it up this time, I did find some scale had built up between the outermost plates, but it still didn't look like what I've seen in videos of heavy scaling.
Thoughts?
There was no indication of a break trip, and I did have a issue last year where the unit seemed to become frozen and I had to disconnect and reconnect the SWCG to "reboot" it. I tried that again. Initially, the lights came on and it appeared that it was back to normal. Yet, after a few minutes, all lights out again.
One more try at resetting and, when I powered the panel back up, smoke came billowing out of the SWCG and a bad burnt electric smell was obvious. It's pretty clear at this point that the unit is dead. I'm going to just run with pucks through the fall/winter/spring since my usage of the pool is going to decline.
What I'm trying to figure out is what happened? I've read a number of threads and saw the video about replacing the fuse (though, my Easytouch panel doens't have a fuse spot, it has a breaker for the intellichor on the upper front of the panel. The breaker doesn't appear to have ever tripped). So, I'm at a bit of a loss. I'll probably put in a replacement next summer, but I want to make sure there isn't something else going on before I risk another $600 putting in a new unit.
I opened up the SWCG for the first time in a couple of years to inpsect it. After being pretty diligent about acid washing the first year, I found there was essentially no scale building inside. In a discussion thread here from back then, I took it that, as long as I'm keeping my PH in range, I shouldn't have to worry about buildup in the unit or have to worry about cleaning. When I opened it up this time, I did find some scale had built up between the outermost plates, but it still didn't look like what I've seen in videos of heavy scaling.
Thoughts?