A way to check output of SWG?

umpalumpajay · Sep 3, 2015

so I've had a problem with the chlorinator not producing enough chlorine pretty much since summer started. I cranked it up from 40% for 6 hours in the beginning of the summer to 80% for 12 hours and it still didn't keep up. called jandy and they said it should be doing fine in that its rated for up to 40,000 gallons and I only have 13k. I increased the flow from1900 - 2300 as a test to just see if it would help, and it didn't. it just feels like the cell is maxed out - I see bubbles so its doing something but it just won't get me what I need. lost some cya over the summer and am replacing it but not sure if that would be enough. I'm probably adding 50oz of 8.75% every day just to keep it at a safe level. any thoughts? probably having a tech come over since its all under warranty but I really just don't have time to set a date for that for a couple weeks.

fc 4
cc 0
ph 7.5
cya 55 (would 70-80 really help stop burnoff THAT much???)
ta 75
ch 250

ran oclt a few weeks ago and it was 0 - so I'm guessing its the cell? its only 7 months old.

Agent99 · Sep 3, 2015

How much salt is in your pool?

cowboycasey · Sep 3, 2015

I really think that raising it to 80 CYA would help you immensely...

umpalumpajay · Sep 4, 2015

Agent99 said:
How much salt is in your pool?

the swg says its 3.6 or 3.7 and it seems to like it there. I was getting some 3.8 readings early in the summer and it warned me...didn't shut down, just warned me. I haven't checked it with a tester.

JoyfulNoise · Sep 4, 2015

A couple of comments -

1. Yes, increasing from 55ppm CYA to at least 70ppm will help. In my own pool, when my CYA drops to 50ppm or lower, my SWG works much harder.

2. You can test the FC production by turning the cell on to 100% output, wait a few minutes and then take a water sample from in front of a return. You should see an increased FC level.

3. How did you pass OCLT? Did you elevate your chlorine level up to 10ppm prior to testing, shut off the SWG and run the pumps continuously? I know many on TFP just measure an overnight loss at target levels and call that an OCLT but there's been some discussion that it is not correct to do that. Nascent algae blooms (the ones you can't see) create enough of a chlorine demand that make it seem like the cell is the problem when it's not. You could try bringing your pool up to SLAM levels and then see what kind of of overnight loss you are getting. It happened to me once - clear pool, no CCs but a persistently high SWG output. I performed a SLAM and, lo and behold, I registered a significant overnight loss and my CCs spiked up. Held the SLAM for 3 days and after bringing it back down my SWG returned to normal output levels.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

ping · Sep 4, 2015

First thing to do before having the tech come out is the OCLT as explained by Matt.

Do you ever have "No Flow" light up when on lower speeds? If the "No Flow" light does not come on then there is no need to speed up the pump.

Raise the CYA to 80 if you pass the OCLT.

Make sure the cell is clean of scale.

umpalumpajay · Sep 9, 2015

i HAVE NOT passed on OCLT in that manner. I'll give that a shot - i was using target levels. cell looks great. never get "No Flow". i'll try to make that test happen this weekend and try to pump up the CYA to at least 70. thanks guys.