How can you tell how much chlorine is being generated?

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poolnoobgrandma

poolnoobgrandma

Gold Supporter
Sep 15, 2018
938
Seminole, FL
Pool Size
17000
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
SWG Type
Hayward Aqua Rite Pro (T-15)
Our Aquarite doesn't seem to be generating as much chlorine as it had been. Diagnostic menu reads
+24.82V +6.21 A
85F 2800 PPM

We just cleaned it on Saturday for the first time, per the "every three months" instructions. Is is possible we created a "bad wire" situation? I've been running it a LOT at 90% (overnight and most of the day today) and it's only up to 2.5ppm FC (.2CC). I tested it yesterday after a bunch of folks in the pool on Sunday, and it was 1 ppm. Since everything looks ok, I haven't added any liquid chlorine yet - the FC is slowly rising, and I'd like to figure out how much I really have to run it and at what percentage.
This is way less than BEFORE I added CYA a few weeks ago.

Any suggestions welcome.
 
What is your CYA at? SWG are not intended to raise your FC level, they are intended to maintain your FC level. The chlorine it makes is being consumed almost as fast as it can make it. My advise would be to raise your FC to target range for your CYA using bleach and then work on adjusting your output to maintain it.
 
You need to test your actual salt level preferable with the K-1766 Taylor Salt Test or salt test strips. You are at the low end of acceptable salt range and peak cell performance is from salt around 3200-3600 ppm. You should not add salt based on the cell salinity as if the cell is failing it can be in error.

You should only clean the cell when you see visible scale ont he plates, every 3 months. Every acid cleaning reduces the coating on the plates and the cell life.

What is your pump runtime and cell %? If it is raising the FC then the cell is giving you more then your dialy FC needs. Raise the FC using LC and then the cell should hold it there.
 
Thanks - I'll put in some LC and see if the SWG can keep up then. I'll retest my CYA again, too. Pool math results are on my profile.
...Added a gallon. I think that when I added the CYA, I overestimated how much that would "save" on SWG usage, and I turned the percentages down too low. Poor thing was never able to catch back up.
 
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You need to run the full water test so we can see all your numbers. According to the display it is working but as thetekgeek said it will not bring the pool up. Get it where it needs to be with liquid chlorine and maintain it from there with the SWCG.
 
Just looked at your pool math. You were mostly CSI in the negative territory which is good. Not sure why it had to be cleaned yet. I do see too often your FC being too low. Your either not running your pump long enough and or not dialing in the percentage. Also make sure your control knows you have a T-15 cell.
 
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wireform said:
You need to run the full water test so we can see all your numbers. According to the display it is working but as thetekgeek said it will not bring the pool up. Get it where it needs to be with liquid chlorine and maintain it from there with the SWCG.
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I just added the chlorine, and some muriatic acid a little while before that. I'll let everything get mixed up for a while, then do a full test.
 
wireform said:
Just looked at your pool math. You were mostly CSI in the negative territory which is good. Not sure why it had to be cleaned yet. I do see too often your FC being too low. Your either not running your pump long enough and or not dialing in the percentage. Also make sure your control knows you have a T-15 cell.
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FC was fine until I added CYA and turned down the SWG percentages... I didn't realize that if FC gets low you have to boost with LC. Just did that. I'll run a full set of tests and see how things are looking...
 
wireform said:
Additional CYA has nothing to do with turning down the SWCG. Once you find the sweet spot set it and forget it. Check it every few days and it should be OK. Better to have more FC then fall short.
Click to expand...
I get that now... but all my reading had made it seem like hitting the right level of CYA would lead to the SWCG needing to run less, thus extending the life of the cell. I guess that impact was more subtle than I had hoped.
 

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You would only know that after a few days with sun and the new CYA to see how much the FC stays high due to the sun not burning it off. Only then if it's actually very high do you dial it down in stages.
 
All new tests. If I can believe my eyes, CYA is a little lower than I thought. I may add some more tomorrow. For now I'm going to go floating in my safely chlorinated, balanced pool. ? We'll see how the SWCG keeps up tomorrow.
 
CYA of 50 is perhaps a bit low for Florida but not bad. 70 is better but your testing results seem a little inconsistent.

Is your water crystal clear? For reassurance, I think I would do an OCLT on your pool just to eliminate the possibility that some algae is NOT growing.
 
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duraleigh said:
CYA of 50 is perhaps a bit low for Florida but not bad. 70 is better but your testing results seem a little inconsistent.

Is your water crystal clear? For reassurance, I think I would do an OCLT on your pool just to eliminate the possibility that some algae is NOT growing.
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I'll do an OCLT tonight after we get out of the pool and the filter stops running.
 
Added my last gallon of LC last night, then tested after running the pump. Last night: FC 9. This morning: FC 7. I ran the pump for a half hour last night after adding a gallon of chlorine. Didn't have time this morning - I had to get out of the door as soon as possible for work.
We are leaving on a weekend trip tomorrow, so the plan is to test again when I get home, dump a bunch of chlorine in to get to SLAM+ levels, do the OCLT test tonight, get some pucks to float while we're gone, and see where we land on Monday. Not perfect, but we can only do what we can do.
If you're looking at my numbers, I added MA this am, but didn't stick around to test, so my guess is that the pH is in range now.
 
I was in the same boat last month. I felt like my SWCG could not keep up and I thought it was defective. I posted on here and everyone encouraged me to do the OCLT. I failed and SLAMmed for a week. Since passing SLAM, I have been running my FCL on the high side of the recommendation and the SWCG has been running like a champ. In reality, it always was but my chlorine demand was so high. My water looked clear and clean, so I did not want to believe that I had a potential problem. After my SLAM, I now am running my SWCG at 20% and my FCL is steady at 7.5 ppm.
 
Patrickoleary said:
I was in the same boat last month. I felt like my SWCG could not keep up and I thought it was defective. I posted on here and everyone encouraged me to do the OCLT. I failed and SLAMmed for a week. Since passing SLAM, I have been running my FCL on the high side of the recommendation and the SWCG has been running like a champ. In reality, it always was but my chlorine demand was so high. My water looked clear and clean, so I did not want to believe that I had a potential problem. After my SLAM, I now am running my SWCG at 20% and my FCL is steady at 7.5 ppm.
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That's awesome to hear!!! Looks like we need to do a SLAM. I'm traveling next week, and I'm not sure that hubby is going to be up for it, so I'll buy a bunch of chlorine, and just have him test and keep the levels at SLAM to the extent possible while I'm gone. Hopefully that will mean we will be in good shape for the actual SLAM process next weekend when I get back.
 
OK - as of Monday and Tuesday (when hubby tested) the SWCG was totally keeping up with the daily chlorine loss, so we were maintaining at SLAM levels. I want that to drop down, but not get into the "not enough chlorine being generated" trap again. Should I just dial back slowly until the FC gets into target range, then dial it back up to maintain? The other alternative is to just stop generating chlorine for a few days and then when we are in the target range, turn the SWCG back on...
 

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