Pool Pilot Salt cell not generating

[CanadaDave]

Hi all,

I have a Pool Pilot Digital with an RC-5 salt cell. I'm unfortunately making 0 chlorine even in Boost mode.

Unsure of the age of the components as I've only been in the house for just over a year.

Visual inspection of the salt cell shows things are clean - no build-up. I did a cell clean anyway just to see, but no change.

No warnings on the Pool Pilot or anything like that about low amps or anything, even after a restart.

Putting it in Boost mode, I ran the test:

Pool Pilot v4.01
Cell SC-48
Power 3
22v 8A
Temperature 84 degrees (accurate)
Salt 3200 (water sample at my pool store shows 3200 as well)

...then a force reverse, boost and test:

Pool Pilot v4.01
Cell SC-48
Power 3
22v 7.9A
Temperature 84 degrees
Salt 3200

One potential contributor: I was doing some work on the system about a month ago, and I may have plugged the cable in to the cell incorrectly. I noticed that my plug has three spots and the cell only has two prongs (and the two prongs are side by side, so I can only plug in an outer and center prong, leaving the third prong open). Which way should it be plugged in? I've tried a couple of combinations with no change in chlorine performance. I can't see any polarity markings or anything on the cell. This may be a red herring, though, as I've tried a couple of combinations.

What do you guys think? Is it time for a new cell?

Thanks for your time!

dave

 

[ping]

Please post all your pool chem levels:
FC
CC
TA
pH
CYA
CH

I believe the amps and voltage look like they are good so the cell should be fine. You need to check for organics in the water by performing an OCLT, see my signature. There could be a low level nascent algae problem and that is consuming the chlorine as it is being generated. To perform the OCLT make sure the SWG is off and raise the FC to 10 or so for the test and make sure you are using a FAS/DPD test.

I can't help out on the plug.

 

[chiefwej]

You say it is making no chlorine, how have you tested? Take a sample of the water directly from the return and compare to a sample from center of the pool. Is there any difference?

 

[CanadaDave]

Hi all - sorry for the delay.

I used to use strips, but found them unreliable, so I take my samples to the pool shop for testing.

Most recent results (2 days ago):

0.0 fc
1.0 tc
7.4 ph
3200 salt
28 stabilizer (I added a box after the test)
I had a test done a week prior and it showed 0 free chlorine but they didn't run total chlorine. I grabbed grabbed 4L jug of chlorine, dumped it in and made sure they ran both, so the above numbers are there. The pool is big, which to me says the 4L jug probably gave me the 1.0 of total chlorine where before there was 0.

The pool is totally clear, but I threw a bit of algaecide in just to be sure. I'm on the road for 3 more days, but will do the test you recommend when I return.

Basically, it seems to me like there's no chlorine being generated because the 4L jug gave only 1.0 total chlorine, where if it was generating the heck out of chlorine, it should be a pretty high number, no?

 

[chiefwej]

Pool store testing is inconsistent, and completely unreliable. You need a proper test kit. We can't advise you without knowing what is going on with the pool chemistry, and with pool store testing we would just be guessing. You need a proper test kit and there are only two that we recommend. Since you are in Canada they are more expensive than in the States.

Pool School - Test Kits Compared

I honestly think you have an algae problem that is consuming the chlorine as it being produced, and you need to do a SLAM on the pool.

Pool School - SLAM - Shock Level And Maintain

You cannot do that properly without the test kit. My recommendation would be to order yourself a proper test kit and add a gallon of bleach each day while waiting for it to arrive.

If you've got a friend across the river you could have it shipped there and save some money on the purchase.

 

[ping]

Can you give an approximate amount of gallons the pool has? If not, post the dimensions of the pool and we can calculate it.

It looks like a classic case of nascent algae in the water consuming chlorine as it is generated by the SWG which keeps the algae from being visible but the SWG can not produce enough chlorine to kill all the algae.

Like it was said in the above replies, one of the recommended test kits will be required if you want to fix your pool without blindly adding chemicals.