Pool Pilot Digital not producing Chlorine

[gwar9999]

I have a Pool Pilot Digital (SC-36 cell) that no longer appears to be producing chlorine. I've had my water tested several times and the chlorine is at or near 0 even a few days after shocking the pool. CYA is 60, pH is 6.7, salt 3000. Other chemicals were all withing normal ranges (similar to a few months ago when the Pool Pilot was producing chlorine). I've increased the cell power from 2 to 3 and it made no difference. A few years ago I replaced the cell because the digital display said it was needed. However, this time, while I think the cell might need to be replaced there is no such message on the display. So before spending the money on a new cell I want to make sure it's the cell that is bad.

The local pool store offers a cell test but not sure if that is worthwhile. Does anybody have experience with one of those? Also, I read in another thread that on cell power 2 there should be 6.5 Amps and 17-21 Volts however when I ran the self-test it said 6.5 Amps and 2 Volts.

Thanks for any info.

 

[JasonLion]

There are a number of possibilities for what might be happening. Reading an FC level of zero in the pool doesn't really tell you if the SWG is working or not. The SWG might be broken, but it might also be working perfectly and there is simply something in the pool that is consuming all of that chlorine as quickly as it is being produced. You should raise the FC level to shock level by adding chlorine manual, and maintain it there until an overnight FC loss test shows that you lose 1.0 or less FC overnight. That process will insure that you no longer have anything consuming unreasonably large amounts of chlorine in the water. After you do that, you will have a much simpler time figuring out if the SWG is working or not.

For the Test Pool Pilot reading: you need to do the test while the cell is turned on and has been on for at least a minute or two, otherwise the results are not reliable. The best way to do this is to set the cell to boost, wait a couple of minutes, and then do a test pool pilot.