Pentair Easy Touch / IC40 reading vs. Taylor K-1766

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sharp7823

Well-known member
Jul 4, 2020
51
Central California
Every spring I have added anywhere from 4-6 bags of salt. I have only used the display on the Pentair Easy Touch panel for testing the salt level in the past. This is my first year of having the Taylor K-1766 and I now realize that I should have tested using K-1766 before adding any salt this year. Anyway, the IC40 has solid red light (low salt) and the panel was reading 950 salt level and last Friday I added 4 bags and let it circulate for a few days. This should raise it by about 1400-1500. Each since I added salt the panel would show an increase of about 100-250 ppm. I tested using the K-1766 today and came up with 4400 ppm (22 drops) came in and scoured the TFP site to see if I was doing something wrong in my test, but I seem to be doing it correctly. I tested again and came up with 4600 (23 drops). I decided to clean the IC40 cell and it ended up being clean – no bubbling effect at all when I added the MA.

I’m hoping I am doing my test wrong or it takes longer than 5 days to for the IC40 and Easy Touch to get an accurate reading, but I’m starting to worry there is something wrong with IC40, which is about 5 ½ years old.

Here is a summary of the above rambling :

Pentair Easy Touch = 950 (IC40 solid red light = low salt)
Added 4 bags of salt (should raise 1400-1500)
5 days later Pentair Easy Touch = 1500 then I cleaned it and it now reads 1850 (solid red light = low salt)
K-1766 = 4400
Water temp = 65-68 deg.

Any suggestions is very much appreciated. Here are some pics:
 

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S,

The IC40 (All IntelliChlor cells) are knows for not being very accurate when measuring salt.. Most of the time the culprit is a bad thermistor inside the flow switch assy.

I never trust what my cell says, and only use it as a reference.. I only trust my Taylor K-1766..

What I do is try to keep the cell happy and at the same time not allow my actual salt level to get above 3500. If I can't get the cell to read 2800 or above, then it is a sign that the flow switch is bad.

I now use a hack that JamesW showed me.. I disconnected the thermistor in the flow switch, and use an external one.. You can see how this is done in the diagram below..


Temp probe hack.jpg

Temp probe hack.jpg



Thanks,

Jim R.
 
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I'm not sure I'm understanding. So if the thermistor inside the flow switch is bad, then are you saying I need to get a external temp probe, cut the white and green wires and splice to the external? Or do I just cut the white and green and leave them disconnected?
 

IC60 Very Low Salt - K1766 Disagrees, Lack of Timely Help from Pentair

I feel like my IC60 has always read very low, but never enough to bother me and more in the higher spectrum of the +/- 500 or so ppm. However, over winter, there was a week or so when it just wouldn't report salt PPM at all, it'd just show hyphens. I opened a warranty case with Pentair, a...
www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com
 
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S,

You have a couple of options..

One is to just buy a replacement flow switch assembly and install it just like the original..

The other is to isolate the bad thermistor that is currently inside your flow switch by cutting the white and green wires coming from the flow switch assembly, and then adding an external temp probe that you connect to the white and green wires coming out of the cell itself.

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
Thanks for the quick response guys! It may be slowly sinking in.
I watched the video and read through the link provided. So I press and hold the "more" button, then release when lights scroll, but when I press again once the "cold water" light flashes, it just returns to its normal setting. There is no percentage lighting up.
Is any advantage to installing a separate probe instead of replacing the flow switch other than the the probe seems less expensive. Will it last longer than a new flow switch? The flow switch seems easy enough to replace (even for me) and I'm not sure about drilling a hole in a pipe - Kind of worried about it leaking and creating a bigger problem.
 
The separate temperature sensor is more reliable.

You can do whichever you feel more comfortable with.

For now, cut the white wire and then restart everything and check the salinity.
 

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Okay, so I cut the white wire and lived to tell about it. I started everything back up and it's still the same - red light "Low Salt " on SWCG and 1800ppm on Easy Touch display. Should I cut the green wire also? Or do you think something else is wrong?
 
I received and installed the new IC40 yesterday. The existing couplings are glued into the pipe, so I left them and replaced the old O rings with the new ones. The salt level reads 4600 (+/-1800 on the old one) which matches the K1766 test. I have begun draining to get salt down to a recommended level.
I do have a question regarding the flow light: 1500 rpm is the lowest I can go and still get a green light. The filters were cleaned last month and the gauge on the filter is only at 5 with the pump running at 1600 rpm. This rpm seems really high compared to some other that posts on here that state they can run their pumps at 1000 or below. Could this just be a normal speed for my system or could there be an issue somewhere else?
 
sharp7823 said:
Could this just be a normal speed for my system or could there be an issue somewhere else?
Click to expand...
Every system is unique. Without a heater, I would suspect you would be able to run it slower. How much straight pipe do you have before your flow switch? 12" helps a lot.
 
mknauss said:
Your signature did not show a heater is why I said you do not have one.

An elevated RPM to close the flow switch there would be expected.
Click to expand...
Good catch - I updated the signature with heater and the robot cleaner.

Are there any other downsides that a short run from the heater to the cell would cause other than having to run the pump at a higher speed? I guess what I'm asking is if it is okay where it's at, or would it be beneficial to move the heater 10"-12" further away from the SWCG?
 
You might be able to get the flow switch to close at 100-200 lower rpm. But not worth a bunch of rework.
 

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