Ours wouldn't function on first power up today, I ran through troubleshooting with no results, so I was hoping I could find someone who's been there done that. Tried to search, but it's only bringing up every other Pool Pilot being use in an Above Ground pool. Could really use some help!
Does anyone out there have a Pool Pilot AG SWG?
- Thread starter minxcal
- Start date
I don't personally have one, but I have some experience with Pool Pilot SWGs. What exactly seems to be the problem? What is happening that you know its not working? Is there power to the unit? Does it turn on and does the display light up? Or is it more an issue of its been running for a while, and there is no chlorine in your pool yet? If you could elaborate on the situation, I'm sure we can figure this out.
Thank you! It's a new pool, just installed last week. Electric work was done on Friday, so we had the pump running with an extension cord up until then and everything was balanced. I posted this on my install post here yesterday, hopefully it has everything you'd need and I won't get in trouble for cross posting 
Electric was done yesterday, I added CYA and salt. Went to fire up the SWG today, and get error messages (P = 50, A= Lo, V = 36.) Attempted the troubleshooting steps in the manual - verifying everything is plugged in tightly, etc, no idea why it's not working. Only thing I'm not sure about is the amps - Max is 2, but readout said 02 - which I understand, according to the manual means 0.2, so it's not getting expected Amps, maybe? And of course it's Saturday and electrician and pool store are both closed. Unplugged the SWG and will just keep using bleach to maintain. Ugh. Nothing about this has been easy! *Edited to specify that I added granular 100% CYA that should bring me up to 70.**
Also - full test results as I know they're appreciated:
FC - 3.5
CC - 0
pH - between 7.5 - 7.8
CH - 340
TA - 220
Salt - 3770 (a little on the high side - but enough to be worried?)
Did CYA test for fun, and it did read 70! (now, should I be concerned since it should take a week?)
Electric was done yesterday, I added CYA and salt. Went to fire up the SWG today, and get error messages (P = 50, A= Lo, V = 36.) Attempted the troubleshooting steps in the manual - verifying everything is plugged in tightly, etc, no idea why it's not working. Only thing I'm not sure about is the amps - Max is 2, but readout said 02 - which I understand, according to the manual means 0.2, so it's not getting expected Amps, maybe? And of course it's Saturday and electrician and pool store are both closed. Unplugged the SWG and will just keep using bleach to maintain. Ugh. Nothing about this has been easy! *Edited to specify that I added granular 100% CYA that should bring me up to 70.**
Also - full test results as I know they're appreciated:
FC - 3.5
CC - 0
pH - between 7.5 - 7.8
CH - 340
TA - 220
Salt - 3770 (a little on the high side - but enough to be worried?)
Did CYA test for fun, and it did read 70! (now, should I be concerned since it should take a week?)
I would re-check all the wiring connections. Does your setup have the bypass loop at the cell? If so, check that the screen isn't clogged up in there, and that the bypass valve isn't stuck. These could cause flow issues.
The salt level is a bit high. I'm not sure how sensitive the Pool Pilots are to over salting, but that could be part of your problem.
CYA is a bit high too. It might be worth it to replace some of your water. That way you will bring down the salt and the CYA.
You could try running a garden hose into your skimmer, and see if it does anything. It would dilute the salt level down as it goes through the salt cell. If after a few minutes it starts to work right, you will know the high salt is your problem.
The pool pilots that I have worked with need to be calibrated to the salt level in your pool too. It wouldn't hurt to try that.
The salt level is a bit high. I'm not sure how sensitive the Pool Pilots are to over salting, but that could be part of your problem.
CYA is a bit high too. It might be worth it to replace some of your water. That way you will bring down the salt and the CYA.
You could try running a garden hose into your skimmer, and see if it does anything. It would dilute the salt level down as it goes through the salt cell. If after a few minutes it starts to work right, you will know the high salt is your problem.
The pool pilots that I have worked with need to be calibrated to the salt level in your pool too. It wouldn't hurt to try that.
I do appreciate your attention, but I followed the book and this sites instructions, which most agree. Both say CYA of 60 -80 (and 70 is smack in the middle) and the book says the unit will operate up to 35,000 ppm of salt, and this site suggests 200 - 400 above optimum level, so I think I'm good there. This is from AutoPilot's site:
4. What happens if I add too much salt?
Oversalting will not harm your Pool Pilot system, but will lead to salty tasting water. For some, this
is not undesirable as it will more closely match our bodies natural salinity level, making it more
comfortable to swim in. If it is too excessive (over 6,000 ppm), you can sustain corrosion damage
to metallic equipment such as stainless steel handrails, ladders and filters, light rings, or copper
heat exchangers. To reduce the salt level, dilution is the solution. Drain some water and refill with
fresh water.
But, I'll give it a shot if that means I might not have to deal with the pool store idiots again.
How do I calibrate? I don't see anything about calibrating in the manual or on the AutoPilot site.
4. What happens if I add too much salt?
Oversalting will not harm your Pool Pilot system, but will lead to salty tasting water. For some, this
is not undesirable as it will more closely match our bodies natural salinity level, making it more
comfortable to swim in. If it is too excessive (over 6,000 ppm), you can sustain corrosion damage
to metallic equipment such as stainless steel handrails, ladders and filters, light rings, or copper
heat exchangers. To reduce the salt level, dilution is the solution. Drain some water and refill with
fresh water.
But, I'll give it a shot if that means I might not have to deal with the pool store idiots again.
How do I calibrate? I don't see anything about calibrating in the manual or on the AutoPilot site.
Salt is not an issue, salt problems would give a different error message.
I suspect calcium scaling on the cell plates. Your TA is quite a bit too high, which is going to encourage scaling. Temporarily remove the cell and inspect the cell plates for any white chalky deposits. If there are any, you will need to clean the cell (see the manual) and lower your TA level.
I suspect calcium scaling on the cell plates. Your TA is quite a bit too high, which is going to encourage scaling. Temporarily remove the cell and inspect the cell plates for any white chalky deposits. If there are any, you will need to clean the cell (see the manual) and lower your TA level.
Thanks, Jason - it could need that already? It's never even been powered up! I wanted to work the TA down, but the feedback I was getting was not to worry about it, from several sources. Should I do that first then attempt to take it apart and clean? I'll admit, taking it apart intimidates me a bit. I started to do that last night and my husband demanded that we go to the pool store and have them fix whatever is wrong since it's brand new. They open at 11 today, though I doubt there's a service crew around. Should I just go for it or have the service crew come out this week? Total pool newbie here.
What voltage do you have going to the AutoPilot? What does the voltage on the AG label call for?
Sean - according to a the info button on the unit, amps read 02, voltage was 36. Here's a photo of the sticker. It is the inline cell with twist lock plug, if that matters. It's worth noting that when I first turned it on, the light was green, and a few minutes later, flashing red with the errors (P = 50, A= Lo, V = 36.) Fuse, maybe?
I did call the pool co. service department today about this and the still missing top rail, but I'm not confident in them at all. I'll give them a shot, but then I'd really like to try to tackle this myself or if need be, the electricians. (with all of your help, of course!)
Still working to bring TA down as well....
I did call the pool co. service department today about this and the still missing top rail, but I'm not confident in them at all. I'll give them a shot, but then I'd really like to try to tackle this myself or if need be, the electricians. (with all of your help, of course!)
Still working to bring TA down as well....
Sounds almost like the SWG is DOA. I would let the pool company replace it since its less than a week old. If you do too much to it, they may want to say you killed it. Imaging to guess they have a parts changer method of repair and that is great for this issue at this time. If they are a dealer of this item, they will have extras.
I got a "survey" email from them and answered it honestly... was planning to call them today anyway, but at 10:00 got a call regarding my responses assuring me all issues would be remedied tomorrow. We'll see!
Interesting....it would be best to just let the service company address the issue and correct it. Sorry I wasn't able to help solve the problem.
It may not be related to what is going on with the SWG, but TA at 220 with a SWG is certainly going to cause problems. In an above ground pool without a SWG it isn't that big of a deal, but with a SWG things are different. You want to get the TA below 140 before turning on the SWG, and preferably lower.
Thanks, Jason. TA was actually 250 this morning (went UP?). The just fixed the SWG - flow switch was bent, so they replaced it and it's working. I got some aeration set up, so now I'm really ready to follow the "lowering TA" instructions, but I have a couple of questions. Up until now, I've just been adding small amounts of dry acid (1 - 2 cups) because I'm a newbie... I know the preferred here is MA, but I have super sensitive skin and a microscopic droplet would affect me, not that the dry acid is all that much better, but it is... the welts I get just from dumping the mixed solution into the pool go away in an hour or so...
So, the bottle says no more than 40 oz at once in a 10K gal pool. With my pool size, that would be no more than 30 - 32 oz, correct? Pool Calculator says w/ pH of 7.5, add 83 oz to go to 7, and with that much (though not adding at once, maybe split into 2 or 3 doses?), the TA would decrease by 28. To get to target of 80, I would need to do this at least 6 times if I were adding the full 83 oz at once. I realize this is going to take time, but does that sound about right - adding 24 oz (brings TA down 8.1) about 22 times will get me there (ish)? Are there limits to how much I can add in a day? I am off of work all week, so I've got till Monday that this can be a priority, then it's back to morning and evening only. Thank you all!
So, the bottle says no more than 40 oz at once in a 10K gal pool. With my pool size, that would be no more than 30 - 32 oz, correct? Pool Calculator says w/ pH of 7.5, add 83 oz to go to 7, and with that much (though not adding at once, maybe split into 2 or 3 doses?), the TA would decrease by 28. To get to target of 80, I would need to do this at least 6 times if I were adding the full 83 oz at once. I realize this is going to take time, but does that sound about right - adding 24 oz (brings TA down 8.1) about 22 times will get me there (ish)? Are there limits to how much I can add in a day? I am off of work all week, so I've got till Monday that this can be a priority, then it's back to morning and evening only. Thank you all!
The dosage restriction on the bottle is to protect people who have no idea what they are doing. If you are measuring your levels with a good test kit and rechecking the PH 30 to 60 minutes after lowering the PH to make sure you didn't make a mistake you can use much larger quantities.
The limit to how much you can add is making sure your don't lower the PH below 7.0. You basically go through a cycle of lowering the PH to 7.0 to 7.2, and then aerating to bring the PH back up so you can add more acid. Just at first you will be able to add quite a bit of acid before the PH gets down to 7.0, but as the procedure progresses you will be adding smaller amounts of acid and it will also take longer for the PH to come back up.
The limit to how much you can add is making sure your don't lower the PH below 7.0. You basically go through a cycle of lowering the PH to 7.0 to 7.2, and then aerating to bring the PH back up so you can add more acid. Just at first you will be able to add quite a bit of acid before the PH gets down to 7.0, but as the procedure progresses you will be adding smaller amounts of acid and it will also take longer for the PH to come back up.
Thanks! I did one round yesterday and added 24 oz. of dry acid to bring the pH down to 7.2. At those calculations, I was expecting this lowering TA to take quite some time, but this morning's results indicate it may not be as much as the calculator predicted and as I thought! (what else lowers TA naturally, cause I had a good drop with this AM's test!) As of this morning, pH is still only up to 7.5, so I'll try once more today after some more aerating. We've suddenly gotten October like weather here in PA, and they're calling for rain today, so that should help bring the pH back up a little faster, too, right?
The SWG is functioning, a little too well. After testing last night, I dropped the output from 50% to 30% because the FC had gotten up to 5.5. Was still 5.5 this morning (which is a good thing, I know, but I'd like to try to maintain 3-4) so I dropped down to 20% and will check again later. I considered shutting it down because there's no sun today, yet anyway, but I really want to dial it in properly (but can I do that with little sun and no one will be getting in that cold pool today - temp is down to 74) Yesterday, I just ran the pump for a solid 12 hours but can't wait to actually use the timer to do 8 hours split to twice a day.
This morning's results, for those that enjoy:
FC = 5.5
CC - 0
pH - 7.5
TA - 190 (!!! moving in the right direction, even if I don't understand how!)
This weather is discouraging, and I'm thinking that when I finally get this thing all balanced, it will be time to close for winter! Story of our lives though... bought a snow blower 2 years ago, and the most snow we've had at once since is 6". Same thing with a generator... we were losing power once a week (lots of trees around the power lines here), and since we've had it - we lost power long enough for it to kick on once for 2 hours.
The SWG is functioning, a little too well. After testing last night, I dropped the output from 50% to 30% because the FC had gotten up to 5.5. Was still 5.5 this morning (which is a good thing, I know, but I'd like to try to maintain 3-4) so I dropped down to 20% and will check again later. I considered shutting it down because there's no sun today, yet anyway, but I really want to dial it in properly (but can I do that with little sun and no one will be getting in that cold pool today - temp is down to 74) Yesterday, I just ran the pump for a solid 12 hours but can't wait to actually use the timer to do 8 hours split to twice a day.
This morning's results, for those that enjoy:
FC = 5.5
CC - 0
pH - 7.5
TA - 190 (!!! moving in the right direction, even if I don't understand how!)
This weather is discouraging, and I'm thinking that when I finally get this thing all balanced, it will be time to close for winter! Story of our lives though... bought a snow blower 2 years ago, and the most snow we've had at once since is 6". Same thing with a generator... we were losing power once a week (lots of trees around the power lines here), and since we've had it - we lost power long enough for it to kick on once for 2 hours.