Question on Aqua Collection T-cell 15

[gg10]

Hello Everyone,

I became an owner of a pool recently (Nov 2012) and since then I have been learning about maintaining it thru this forum and talking to several people and also some self trial and error.
Here is my situation. When i got this pool, the reading on the control panel was 2300 ppm for salt. I took the water sample to Leslie and they found the salt reading to be 4400ppm. Also the cl was very low & all other chemical readings were out of wack.
I verified it myself by doing the test using the strips & all other stuff. I then cleaned up the cell by dipping it in muriatic acid solution. It did not helped much. I am not sure why since maybe I was doing it in winter (late nov, December when the temps were pretty low) and also I did not knew much about resetting the cell after cleaning.

Anyways I figured its winter and If I can manage the winter by adding chlorine directly and then will think about the cell again when temp come back up.
Since then as of now the current salt reading on the panel is 1400 ppm but the strip shows ~2400 ppm. I have been maintaining the cl & other chemicals throughout the winter.
Now my questions is what should I do now with the cell? I am not sure if it has gone bad or was it just the temp when it was not generating cl. Is there a test to check if the cell is good or bad?

What should I do next to recover from where the current salt reading is and get back to normal with the cell running normally? How would having maintaing cl separately affect coming back to using the SWG normally?

Note: I can say that the chemical reading are not perfect even now but I am working on them.

 

[mas985]

A failing cell tends to report lower salt levels than actual and many pool stores have a test setup which will tell you if the cell is good or not. Call around and see if you can find a place that will test the cell.

 

[chiefwej]

I have a pool with the same T-15 cell. As the old cell was dying it kept showing lower and lower salt readings. I had to continually add salt to fool he system into continuing to operate. Finally the chlorine output was low, requiring me to run at 100%, while the salt reading on the panel was half of what was really in he pool. So after six years of use, I gave up and bought a new cell.

Yours may be in the same condition, but if the water temp is cold it's hard to tell. The system shuts down below about 50 or so. I would wait until sping to decide if the cell needs to be replaced. I milked an extra year of use out of mine and at $500, glad I did.

PS When replacing cell, I would recomend that you stick to the original brand and spec.

 

[gg10]

@mas985 - I will check at Leslie if they do it. Its pretty close by. Thanks

@chiefwej - where did you buy the replacement from & how much for (amazon, local store etc)?

Couple of questions: Do you keep the cell connected in winter? I saw a Tourbo Cell Replacement Pipe Dummy which can be used in off-seasons. Is that something that will help the cell live longer?
What is the process of changing the T-Cell 15 & letting the system know that it should reading the correct ppm? (sorry if my questions sound dumb )

 

[mas985]

Do you keep the cell connected in winter? I saw a Turbo Cell Replacement Pipe Dummy which can be used in off-seasons. Is that something that will help the cell live longer?

Mine is going on 8 years now and I never remove it for the winter. Keep your chem levels correct and there shouldn't be a problem.

What is the process of changing the T-Cell 15 & letting the system know that it should reading the correct ppm? (sorry if my questions sound dumb )

Replacement is fairly easy. Remove the cell as if you are cleaning it and remove the cord from the controller. Reverse the procedure with the new cell. That's it. The new cell should read higher salt if the old cell was bad.

 

[gg10]

Thanks Mark.

 

[chiefwej]

When shopping online for a replacement cell be careful. There is a T-15 cell which comes with a three year warranty, and a T-15w which only has a one year warranty. The first costs a little bit more and last a lot longer. Just spent a bit of time on the Internet searching for the best price, but be sure it's the one with the three year warranty.

 

[gg10]

Thanks. I saw all those similar complaints and reviews where people were complaining about getting 15w when they ordered 15. I will be carefull.

 

[mas985]

When shopping online for a replacement cell be careful. There is a T-15 cell which comes with a three year warranty, and a T-15w which only has a one year warranty. The first costs a little bit more and last a lot longer. Just spent a bit of time on the Internet searching for the best price, but be sure it's the one with the three year warranty.

From what I understand, there is no design difference between the cells. The longer warranty costs more because you are simply paying for insurance much like an extended warranty. I would get the 1 year cell because extended warranties are generally not worth the extra cost. If the cell last 1 year, it will last 3 years assuming you keep the chems balanced.

 

[JasonLion]

Keep in mind that if the pool water is below 60 degrees, and especially if the water is below 50 degrees, this could all be caused by cold water, and might go away when the water warms up. The cell will tend to report incorrect salt levels and generally refuse to run when the water is below 50, and occasionally do the same when the water is in the 50s as well. If the water is warmer, then listen to everyone else

 

[chiefwej]

When shopping online for a replacement cell be careful. There is a T-15 cell which comes with a three year warranty, and a T-15w which only has a one year warranty. The first costs a little bit more and last a lot longer. Just spent a bit of time on the Internet searching for the best price, but be sure it's the one with the three year warranty.

From what I understand, there is no design difference between the cells. The longer warranty costs more because you are simply paying for insurance much like an extended warranty. I would get the 1 year cell because extended warranties are generally not worth the extra cost. If the cell last 1 year, it will last 3 years assuming you keep the chems balanced.

The cells are limited in how much chlorine they will produce over their lifespan. There is a very expensive coating on the plates in the cell, that when it is gone the cell fails. A more expensive, thicker coating results in a longer service life. My first cell lasted over six years. I have seen complaints that the T-15w barely makes it two years. Why would there even be two different cells, they could just offer the warranty extension for an additional fee.

 

[mas985]

This is what one of the Goldline techs told me but I also heard the same thing from multiple sources within the industry. The cell plates used in both versions are exactly the same. The life of a cell is mainly dependent on the run time as you point out but it is also dependent on the chemistry of the water and how well the cell is maintained.

I have one of the original T-15 cells that had only a 1 year warranty and it has lasted me over 7 years. They only started offering the 3 year warranties in last couple of years but the cell design has not changed. The extra cost is basically for an extended warranty and simply marketing. They are being somewhat deceptive in that they let the buyer assume the cell is better but you will notice there is no mention of the cell warranty on Hayward's site and they don't make the claim anywhere on the site that one of the cells lasts longer than the other and you they would if it did. They only list the two part#s in the manual.

 

[gg10]

Interesting comments here. I am going to wait out until the temp rises little bit and then I will take the cell for testing, clean it up and try to use it.
Thanks.