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Stuck on 2200 Salinity

J
@Newdude and @ajw22
Thanks for your help! Turns out the clone T-15 cell fit and worked perfectly! So thank you
Weirdly when I got the new cell in - the salt reading was still 2500. I had another digital tester that was reading 3200 and 2 test kits read over 3000 on the salt content -- all 3 tests must have been WRONG because the minute I assumed the 2500 could be right and the minute I added salt the reading went up to 3400 (with 3 bags). So @Newdude you were apparently right. I wonder if the cell was really bad?

So assuming my digital salt meter is inaccurate - how is the best way to measure salinity acurately??
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Horse pool

ajw22
Arowdy1 said:
I'm ordering the 2 inch one . Glad I checked ! What kind of sand ?
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High-Rate Sand: No. 20 Silica Sand (0.45 mm–0.55 mm)

Sand Filter Use and Care - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com

Pentair uses US Silica Mystic White II sand for all of their testing. It may not be readily available at Ace/Home Depot though. In general, we recommend getting your pool sand from a pool supply store and not a hardware store as they are far more likely to stand behind what they sell than a big box store.

Be aware that members have had issues with Quiikrete Pool Sand. Members find that Quikrete Pool Sand is too fine and perceptibly heterogenous (i.e., not filtered to #20 specifically). It does not filter well and tends to blow back into the pool. A search in the Forum can provide more information about the issues.

Swimming Pool Sand filters generally use #20 silica sand which is approximately .40 to .55 mm.

If the slits in the laterals are a little bit large and the sand is a little bit small, then you can get some sand passing through the laterals.

MYSTIC WHITE II filter sand has three effective sizes, 0.49 mm, 0.65 mm or 0.80 mm.

MYSTIC WHITE® II 0.49

MYSTIC WHITE® II 0.65

MYSTIC WHITE® II 0.80

Arowdy1 said:
Also I'm noticing I have more jets from pump into pool that I do not see any water movement thru them. Please tell me that's not hard to fix . There are several that don't appear to work .
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Depends on the way your pool returns are piped.

First thing is to look into each jet and see if it is clogged.
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Florida Block-Pool Build

T
JamesR said:
I love watching your progress videos. Man are you tenacious! Do your neighbors think you’re insane? 😂
It’s way beyond a homeowner DIY project.
90% of my neighbors can’t even figure out how to put air in their car tires let alone build their own pool from scratch.
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Thanks! This type of feedback is so motivating and I really appreciate it!
I'm glad you like the videos, I'll keep doing the little updates with them.
kimkats said:
Well done!! BIG progress!!! Now do something for me! Go buy some rebar caps. Sure do NOT want you or anyone to fall on that rebar!
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Well, there's no rebar in it yet! But rest assured, I'll get the caps. Definitely not leaving something like that to chance.
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New EVO 614i Robot Pool Cleaner Review

C
I ordered mine today based on this thread! I went with the 614iq, I sometimes leave my pool unattended for a week at a time and I need to be able to program the robot to run every so often. I should have it next week, just in time to hopefully open my pool after the PB comes and fixes the leak around my light. Water level dropped over the winter to just below the top of the light. I knew I had a leak but could not find it, I think I have found it now! Hopefully my new liner is not full of wrinkles from the lower water level.
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Having to backwash hours after opening?

Vukota12
Hi. Opened today to some organic material that blew under cover over winter not too terrible and some cloudy water but not green. Filter cleaned DE added , chems added. Spill over spa flow was going strong for a few hours and then slowed like it does when it’s time backwash with the PSI on gauge up to 18 after staring at 12. Could I have to backwash this quickly?
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Circupool Core Control 55 Initial Thoughts

D
All hooked up. I had to rewire the old wiring, add a 20 AMP breaker along with a 110 outlet. Then I rerouted some plumbing to complete the job. 100% up and running once power was put to it. Just under 4 hours, which included tearing apart the cartridge filter, cleaning the 4 cartridges, and putting it back together. There were a lot of breaks and distractions as well. I can see how this can be hooked up in about an hour or so, if everything is already prepped and little modification is needed.
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Opening chem questions, specifically about white chalky stuff

setsailsoon
G,

Welcome to TFP! You've found the best place available for a pool owner in your situation. We don't sell anything and we have real experts and experienced enthusiasts here to help - all unpaid volunteers so our advice is never conflicted. Here's a little reading for you:

Pool Care Basics
PoolMath
I'd get familiar with Pool Math as it will help you figure out what is needed to balance your pool and importantly it calculates your CSI. A couple comments I have with your readings:

  • pH is low. It should always be between 7 and 8. You're close enough that is should increase to 7 soon because most pools have pH rise due to aeration. But use Pool Math to adjust pH in the future and always do the adjustment in multiple steps of .3 pH units at at time. This will help you to over shoot.
  • I'm guessing your TA may be low because you've added a lot of acid. Check to see your fill water TA. It's likely over 50 so it will rise over time.
  • For where we are in the season I like your plan on CYA. Just quit tablets and use only liquid chlorine. I'd save the tablets for when you're on vacation.
  • Your CSI is very low and will improve as you get your pH and TA in order. For example if you get your pH to 7.8 and TA up to 50 your csi will be -.31. CSI is a calculated number not a direct test and for non-salt pools we recommend a range of -.6 to +.6. If you stay within TFP ranges your CSI will stay in range

Get used to using pool math it's a great tool. There is a paid version I use that adds some feature like trending. The free version is a no-brainer. I don't have an answer about the chalky material but we have plenty of experts that will have some ideas for you I'm sure. One thing that will help you and us is for you to create a signature. This saves multiple iterations that delay getting answers to you and help our volunteers be efficient with their time. It's simple here's how.

Good luck with your pool and ask any additional questions you may have we have experts in everything pool.

Chris
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Pentair Indoor Control Panel stopped working

ajw22
Welcome to TFP.

kelspool said:
We tried to reset the breaker and it’s hardwired so no battery to replace.
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The indoor panel gets power from the four-wire cable that connects it to the outdoor panel.

If you have a multimeter you can test the voltage on the red and black wires, looking for around 14V DC.

If you have voltage at the panel and it is not lighting up then the storm may have blown it out.

There may be a problem with the cable to the outdoor panel. You can remove the indoor panel from the wall, take it to the outdoor panel, and connect it with a short four wire cable to see if it works.

kelspool said:
We even called our pool company tech out this morning and he said he wasn’t sure.
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Your pool company tech does not know much.

kelspool said:
We eventually are switching over to control by app - we moved in less than 2 months ago and moving depleted our budget so trying to get by with this for a while before we can replace the antenna with a WiFi compatable one. Pool guy told us it should be about $1200 to switch our current antenna out with a WiFi compatible one but wasn’t 100% sure. Does this sound about right or more or less?
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Show us pictures of the outdoor antenna you have now.

Pentair Automation Systems - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com
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How hard is it to change out this part?

Nikilyn
Jimrahbe said:
Niki,

Unplug the small red wire going to J9 and see if the breaker no longer pops..

If the breaker does not pop with J9 removed, then the surge card is bad..

With J9 disconnected, test between the two small red wires.. Between J8, that is soldered to the card, and the end of the wire that has been removed from J9.. With the breaker reset, you should get about 24 volts AC.. If you get zero, then the breaker may be bad, or you have no voltage going into the SWCG transformer.. Could also be a bad SWCG transformer, but doubtful.

Keep in mind that for the salt transformer to get any AC power at all, your system must be in Auto and the Pool or Spa mode... You cannot be in the service mode.

Another test you can do is to test the voltage going from the load side of the Pump/Filter relay to the Salt transformer.. If not sure, show me a pic of your wiring between the pump/filter relay and thee salt transformer..

Thanks,

Jim R
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Dirk said:
Some semi-related notes:

(1 )
For future reference, Pentair IntelliChlor SWGs have a built-in usage meter. It keeps track of the number of hours the cell has generated chlorine, which is supposed to be about 10,000 hours total. You can access the hours counter quite easily. It's a quick way to determine how close your cell is to end-of-life.

From the manual:


(2)
And to expound a bit on @Newdude's advice, the plates inside the cell are coated with some sort of rare-earth materials that do the magic (sorry, I forget the actual names of the materials). The materials are very expensive, and once they wear off, your cell is done. Anything you do to clean the plates can accelerate the wear, but nothing does so better than muriatic acid! So you clean the plates as little as possible, as gently as possible, and use as little acid as possible.

(3)
The better solution is to never have to clean them at all. I haven't cleaned mine for years. Keeping your water chemistry to TFP standards, and running your CSI a little negative, ensures the best environment for those plates. I run my CSI at about -0.3, and I never see any build up on my IntelliChlor's plates.

(4)
Once you determine for sure what the problem was, you'll probably find there is nothing wrong with your old SWG (🤞). But keep using the new one, to take full advantage of its warranty. Keep the old one as a spare. When the new one is close to end of life (determined by its usage meter), then swap it out with the old one, keeping the newer one as the backup spare. Use that old one up, then replace it with another new one. Did I lose ya? ;)

Repeat this MO and you'll always have a backup SWG. You never want to be without one, and if recent history tells us anything about supply chains, you can't always count on a replacement being readily available. If you always keep a "near-end-of-life" SWG "in stock," you'll probably never be without one.
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Does this say it still has 80% of its life? That seems strange after 4 years.
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Nikilyn
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Finished up the SLAM

ajw22
Pkern said:
Thank you for the help - my SLAM process cleaned up the water well.
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