Help please! Salt cell issue

[scotttennant9876]

Hi everyone, I just bought a house a couple months ago with a pool that has a salt system. Everything has been working fine, had water tested on Saturday at pinch a penny and was told to add 1.6 lbs of stabilizer and 1.4 cups of acid. Added as recommended.
Noticed yesterday that the inspect cell and check salt lights were blinking on the control panel. This had never happened before. Did some reading and tried to reset it, and recalibrate the salt readings (it was showing 1200 when pinch a penny tested it at 3200- which is where it has been every time I've had it tested the last two months.
I cleaned the cell with yesterday, tried it again. It runs fine for a few minutes and then the lights start blinking again. I have a pool party for my son this weekend so need to get this resolved but I don't want to get ripped off by pinch a penny.
On another note, the previous owner had the circuit board replaced in August. I'm not sure why, just found a receipt.

I will post the readings from the display in. The next post

 

[scotttennant9876]

Not sure what these numbers mean, but these are what show up when I hit the diagnostics button.

5.89
100p
-1400
Al-1
R1.59
T-3
3500

 

[scotttennant9876]

So I just realized I have a t15 cell and it was set on t3. Could this have caused the problem? Just set it to t15 and waiting to see what happens.

 

[JamesW]

The wrong cell settings can throw off the salt readings. However, a t-15 cell and a box set to a t-3 would read high, not low.

What are the current readings?

How old is the cell?

 

[scotttennant9876]

I'll have to check again tomorrow morning. I think the cell is quite old. Don't know for sure. Plastic is very faded.

 

[Griswald]

100P means you have it set to 100% on time.

 

[JamesW]

Note that one of the diagnostic readings is missing.

The year of manufacture of the cell is in the first 4 of the serial number. For example a 5E07 would have been made in 2007. If the cell is over 5 to 7 years old, it's likely to have issues.

I'm wondering if the old owner set the box to a smaller cell size to trick the box into working with a failing cell?

 

[scotttennant9876]

Thank you for all of the help everyone. I know if I just went to pinch a penny I'd end up spending hundreds of dollars to figure out what was wrong.
It has been running for an hour this morning so far set at 75% with no apparent issues. Here are the numbers

5.84
79
26.0
75p
-2900
Al-1
R1.59
T-15
3200

The first four digits of SN are 3e11 so i guess the cell is a 2011.

- - - Updated - - -

As far as the t-3 vs t-15 setting, it is very possible I accidentally changed it when messing with the equipment on Sunday. Can't say for sure but it seems like it would be something I could have done by mistake.

 

[robdac]

Based on those numbers the cell appears to be happy now. Looks like it was just an incorrect cell size. Make sure you have little bubble coming out one of the pool jets near the pump and monitor FC for the next few days to verify it's working properly. The bubbles will only come out when the cell is producing chlorine which will not be all of the time at a setting less than 100% even if the system is on.

 

[scotttennant9876]

Thank you! That is funny- I saw some tiny bubbles coming out of one of the pop up jets in the deep end (closest to the filter) and got worried thinking there was a leak or something. So those are supposed to be there and indicate that the cell is producing chlorine?

 

[JamesW]

The tiny bubbles are hydrogen. They are produced as a byproduct of the cell's operation.

All looks well. Keep an eye on the readings and settings. If the settings continue to go off, then the display board might need to be removed and reinstalled.