Intellichlor IC40 problems - fixable?

Tim239 · Aug 7, 2020

I just began taking care of our pool (described in signature & photo in avatar) a few months ago after having it serviced by a couple of different companies since construction in 2016. A few days ago I walked by the equipment for a quick look see and noticed the green 'cell' light flashing on the SWG. When I disconnected the unit I found it was heavily fouled with CaCo3 so I acid washed it based on some general instructions I found at 'google college' using a mix of muriatic acid/water at a 1:4 ratio. After a few repeats the unit looked clean so I reassembled it and turned everything back on. The SWG went through it's start up routine and soon all lights were green that should have been and the 'cell' light was not flashing. A little while later I went back out just to check on it and found that the 'cell' light was flashing again. Thinking that perhaps I might have missed some deposits or something I removed the cell and inspected it closely shining light down inside the unit and found that it was completely clean as far as I could tell. There was a bit of erosion on the end of some of the plates but no disconnected plates or anything that was obviously out of place...did a quick wash and did get a bit of dirt out of it but nothing else. Rinsed it out and reassembled the unit. Upon start up the unit did exactly the same thing...at first it seemed all was working properly but after a few minutes the 'cell' light was flashing. A few other (I think) relevant details: the unit appears to have run approximately 4000 hours or is at about 40% of expected service life, the chlorine level in the pool is in fact quite low now (confirming that the SWG is in fact not working?) and that there is plenty of salt in the water.

Where should I be looking next in the diagnostic process? As I thought back over the last few years I only remember seeing either of the pool service companies clean the SWG once in the 4 years since installation and it was very heavily fouled when I checked it this week...so while I cannot say with certainty that they did not service it at appropriate intervals it seems likely that they did not - could this have permanently damaged the unit in some way?

Any guidance for this newbie is much appreciated!

Tim

guinness · Aug 7, 2020

How are you testing your pool salt levels, do you have Taylor K-1766 salt test kit?

Jimrahbe · Aug 7, 2020

Tim,

The cell only light flashes for two reason.. The cell needs to be cleaned... (You should never let it get that bad) And when the cell dies.. ☹

For reference.. I have three saltwater pools In total they are about almost 25 years old.. I have never had the cell light flash until recently.. About 6 months ago I lost one cell that was over 7 years old.. The indication was the cell not producing chlorine followed by the cell light flashing.. If I rebooted it would work for a few minutes and then start flashing again.. This past Monday I lost another one that was over 10 years old.. Same low chlorine production and a flashing cell light.

I believe that the cell light flashes when the current through the plates is abnormal and it has nothing to do with the rated hours.

I wish they made the light flash red.. I believe that both cells were bad a few days before I realized it, as I have always been looking for red lights, like low salt or low flow.

I would be looking for a new cell..

The cell I just bought was about $100 bucks more than the cell I bought six months ago.

Thanks,

Jim R.

Tim239 · Aug 7, 2020

Yes, Guiness, I am using the Taylor K-1766 kit.

Tim239 · Aug 7, 2020

Thanks for your detailed response Jim. I rather suspected that might be the case but wanted to exhaust every possible repair option before pulling the trigger on a new cell.

Yes, I realized when I opened it up that it clearly was fouled far more than should ever be allowed and that I had misplaced my trust in the companies that I had servicing the pool in the past. I just didn't bother to check it after firing the last guy before it started flashing.

Any insight as to how the current going through the plates would be 'abnormal' as a result of the plates having been heavily fouled but now very clean? When I was inspecting it the second time I did notice that there is a removable cover over the point where the sensor cable enters the main body of the unit. This may have just been for ease of assembly but I was also wondering if this indicates the sensor is a replacement item and if so whether that could have something to do with what is happening.

Perhaps I should have also mentioned that neither of the lights related to salt content - either low or ideal - is illuminated.

Tim

Jimrahbe · Aug 7, 2020

Tim,

The cover is over the Flow Switch Assembly.. The assembly has two parts, the flow switch itself and a thermistor.. The flow switch is just a switch that closes when you have enough water flowing through the cell.. The thermistor is used to adjust the salt reading as the water temperature changes.. Neither will make the cell light flash.

When the system is running you pretty much should have a low, ok , or high salt light on.. That problem could be caused by the thermistor inside Flow Switch Assembly..

You can always just replace the flow switch and see what happens.. Or as a last gasp, before replacing the cell, you can cut the Green and White wires between the Flow Switch assembly and the cell.. Cutting those wires will remove the thermistor from the circuit and the cell will use an internal resistor..

As the plates get thinner the current either goes up or down (not sure which) and when this happens the circuitry sees this as the end of life for the cell, making the cell light flash.

Thanks,

Jim R.

JamesW · Aug 7, 2020

As the catalytic coating wears off, the amperage will decrease and the cell will give the error light when the amperage drops below the lower limit.

You can increase the salinity to try to get a little bit more life from the cell if you want, but I wouldn't exceed 4,500 ppm.

What is the salinity?

Jimrahbe · Aug 7, 2020

James,

Kind of makes sense and I assume why when there is scale build up that the current would go down and light the cell light.

Thanks for chiming in..

Jim R.

Tim239 · Aug 10, 2020

Thank you James and Jim for the very detailed and helpful responses!
Not sure what direction I'm going to go with this at the moment but need to resolve the situation soon.
Have a great week.
Tim

Tim239 · Aug 11, 2020

So I ordered a replacement cell yesterday. Since the existing cell hasn't been working properly for more than a week ....meaning chlorine levels are low....and the replacement cell won't be here for several more I am wondering if I should add liquid chlorine to the pool. There is no visible issue with the pool water at the moment but as stated the chlorine levels are low, it is very hot and mostly sunny here right now and to top it off we're getting the seasonally typical almost every day rain storms so I'm wondering if I'm courting a larger problem by just letting the situation play itself out as is or should I use liquid chlorine to stave off potential issues related to allowing the low chlorine levels to remain for another week or so?

mknauss · Aug 11, 2020

You still must replenish the chlorine in the pool water EVERY day. Use liquid chlorine. Raise the FC to the target range for your CYA following the non-SWCG chart. As you are not using a SWCG, you are a normal liquid chlorine based pool. FC/CYA Levels

WWells · Aug 26, 2020

Having the same issue, got alert needed to clean, should have done it earlier, cleaned now a couple of times and the green light starts flashing again, doing one more clean of 50/50 water/muriatic acid, this is its 8th pool season and we keep open ~5 months per year, pump runs 12 hours a day. Will look into manual chlorination until I can find a deal on a replacement - doesnt seem to be a good time to be buying pool stuff

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Intellichlor IC40 problems - fixable?

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