We just bought our house about a month ago and the current setup has a Resilience A5 salt cell. While messing with the control box I noticed the chlorine output percentage wouldn't go pass 10%. Called American SPS (makers of cell) and they instructed me to open it up and inspect the blades to see if any (most likely middle blade) were shorter or thinner than the others. So I pulled it off and sure enough, the middle blade and one of the outside blades were shorter than the other three and the middle blade had a lot of greenish/white buildup on it. Afterwards I went ahead and ordered a factory replacement exactly like the original one. When I got it in and opened it up, I noticed on the cell that it had an arrow with the words "flow direction" pointing AWAY from the large blue end. I had to go back and look several times to make sure I wasn't wrong, but the current setup appears to have the salt cell on BACKWARDS! The red arrow is the flow of my return water going through the cell and currently it's going TOWARDS the large blue end (opposite of what the "flow direction" indicates). Am I missing something here? First pic shows my salt cell in the current setup, second pic shows the new salt cell I ordered with the flow direction arrow.
Did the previous pool guy install the salt cell BACKWARDS (pic included)?!
- Thread starter CajunGuy
- Start date
On the inside, the large blue side has some platic on the sides of the blades where the water comes through....it looks like the plastic would be there to protect the blades. The other side doesn't have this, that's why I was thinking it should be installed the way the arrows are pointing.
As a general rule, if someone goes to the effort to put directional arrows on something, there's a reason. But being installed backwards wouldn't account for your low output. That's filtered water passing the blades, so there shouldn't be any debris striking the elements. Maybe some stray bits of sand after backwashing. I'd just install the new unit the right way and keep my fingers crossed that it starts working right.
This was what the blades looked like when I opened it up and inspected them. Now keep in mind this side is suppose to be the OUTGOING side (no plastic protecting the blades), but this was turned around and was the INCOMING side on my current setup.
Now this is the new one with the plastic piece I was talking about. This is suppose to be the INCOMING side. Seems to me like they put the plastic piece there to protect the sides of the blades where the turbulent water comes in at and hits them.
If the cell indicates a flow direction, then the cell should be installed accordingly. Did the old cell have a flow arrow?
Yes, I looked and it does. It's exactly like the new one, everything looks the same on it. I understand they can work either way, but like Richard said, if they went through the trouble of indicating a flow direction then to me it should be installed that way.