Too much chlorine?

ecelis · Oct 4, 2012

I recently installed a new cell (RC35/22) in an Autopilot system and the chlorine levels have been high for approx. 3 weeks.
I have been gradually reducing the purifier power and for a week its been running at 30% but chlorine levels show at 5 ppm (total) and 4.5 ppm (free). Diagnostics state:

Level 2
salt = 3500
20V, 6.5 A

I am afraid that the cell is working to hard and that it will burn out soon... How can I reduce the chlorine output?

jblizzle · Oct 4, 2012

What is your CYA level? That FC really does not sound too high at all to me.

ecelis · Oct 5, 2012

My ware testing kit says I have 45 ppm

ping · Oct 5, 2012

Normally we suggest the CYA to be between 70-80 while using a SWG and to target your chlorine levels around 5ppm and not let it fall below 4ppm. With your CYA at 45, you could lower the FC to 2.5ppm. To lower your levels you will need to lower the output some or reduce the pump run time. Some people will shut down their SWG for the winter and use liquid as the pool doesn't use that much chlorine during the winter.

Depending upon where you live, the weather is changing in most parts of the US right now and everybody will need to be adjusting the SWG to compensate for the change. I've changed my output from 80% to 60% in the last few weeks and I expect that I will need to keep lowering it every couple of weeks until December.

RobbieH · Oct 5, 2012

I just run my pump less over the winter, which in turn means the SWG doesn't run as much.

4knights · Oct 6, 2012

Not to highjacking this tread but I just check my chlorine and PH using the Taylor kit that comes with the TF100. And the PH was 7.8 and the chlorine was off the scale it was bright Orange. I shut off the SCG Any ideas?

ping · Oct 6, 2012

Turning off the SWG was a good idea. Measure the FC with the FAS-DPD to get an exact amount of FC. Your pH will measure high and is not reliable with FC>10ppm. The weather is cooling off and the sun angle is lowering which will require the SWG to need some adjustments from here on.

lkae4 · Oct 6, 2012

Same thing happened to me. We turned off the heat pump so the water cooled off and the sun didn't come out for a few days. The chlorine level got really high. I shut the swg off and topped of the pool with fresh water to try to dilute it. We are in Jersey and yesterday was probably the last day we were going to be able to use the pool. The level was still too high but we all went in. My grandtwins have blonde hair and we were joking that they would be blonder before the day was done. They sure are. But, no one noticed anything like burning or skin irritation. It didn't smell like chlorine but it was probably still at least 15 when we went in. I will probably have it closed this week. Very sad.