I was wondering if anyone has removed the debris guard on their Intellichlor unit. I was thinking I might be able to lower my pump RPM a little if I did. I'm not sure how much it really does anyways. In my case, my filter would catch anything before it gets to the cell (especially anything large enough for the guard to stop). It is not worth it if it may cause problems, but just wanted to see what others have done.
Intellichlor Debris Guard
- Thread starter cdchris1
- Start date
- May 23, 2015
- 24,381
- Pool Size
- 16000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
I doubt the difference in head loss with or without the guard would even be noticeable. Also, the guard can protect against the flow switch magnet breaking off and jamming into the plates or a piece of plastic from a damaged bypass valve breaking loose from the heater (all of which have happened to people before).
Leave the screen in place. It is doing you no harm and is meant to protect the plates from something catastrophic hitting them.
Leave the screen in place. It is doing you no harm and is meant to protect the plates from something catastrophic hitting them.
as someone in the same situation, why not pull it off and see if you can lower the rpm? i'm not saying pull it off and leave it off, but its sure worth discovering if its causing turbulence making you run your pump on higher rpm. i too have the same question but i'm too lazy to test it.
I do not, nor have I ever, had mine in.
However, as others have stated, If your system is free flow, and has low RPM, you probably won't be able to detect it. If it is a high RPM [high back pressure] system, maybe it will matter.
However, as others have stated, If your system is free flow, and has low RPM, you probably won't be able to detect it. If it is a high RPM [high back pressure] system, maybe it will matter.
I agree with it probably not affecting the overall flow, but possibly causing some turbulence around the switch. This would have more to do with my particular set up though. As mentioned, I will give it a try see if it does do anything and then evaluate if it is worth it. I'll report back with my findings. Thanks.
I tried my cell without the guard in and was only able to gain 40-50 rpm or so. If that is all, I plan on just keeping it in.
The really strange thing is that if I rotate it differently, I can lose up to 100 rpm. I has to be some sort of turbulence specific to my set up though. It was a fun little experiment.
Thanks for the comments.
The really strange thing is that if I rotate it differently, I can lose up to 100 rpm. I has to be some sort of turbulence specific to my set up though. It was a fun little experiment.
Thanks for the comments.
You can persuade (ie: bend) the flapper in the cell to allow for lower flow rates. Some pools don't allow running much under 1800 rpm to trigger the switch so this fix would correct that issue. I can't imagine Pentair being thrilled with this so do it at your own risk.
The VS pumps quickly lose efficiency below 1000-1100 room so there is no reason to go lower than that.
The VS pumps quickly lose efficiency below 1000-1100 room so there is no reason to go lower than that.
More thoughtful information. I think I'm going to have to look at more of your posts!
I've been wanting to reliably get down to 1100. I can get down to that, but then the cell is intermittent, and in an unpredictable way. A very small tweak might just get me there. Runs all day fine, the next day, not so much.
I have to get my unit working first though!
There isn't a lot of watt difference between 1100 and 1200 or 1300. Check the watts used before you spend a lot of time on it. I think mine uses 150 watts at 1100 and 170 watts at 1200. Bumping to 1200 might eliminate the intermittent fault.
I don't think I've EVER had a bad post
I'm just really good at deception and coming across as knowledgeable
