Polaris autoclear showing low salt and service

cclay

0
LifeTime Supporter
Dec 10, 2015
9
Burleson Texas
The salt is red/ Low and the service red light is on also... The shop in my hometown says the cell will read funny when it gets cold, should I be worried or is this normal? I'm a newbie, purchased house 1 month ago, the system was inspected by pool technician and he said all was well.
 
Welcome to TFP!

Their assessment sounds right. Find the manual and it should confirm it.

The pool will not use much chlorine during the winter so you can use bleach every now and then to bump up the FC when needed.
 
There are two possible issues here. The first, as ping mentioned is a low salt alarm due to cold water temperatures. The "salinity" reading on most SWG cells are not compensated for temperature drift. Since the cell is really measuring how electrically conductive the water is (as opposed to measuring the true salinity level), the readout will drift with temperature by 100's of ppm. Cold water is less conductive than warm water so the cell will think it's low salt when, in fact, its just temperature drift.

The second issue is calcium scale. If calcium has scaled out on the plates of the cell, then that can look like "low salt" as well because, as the plates get coated, they conduct less electrical current. This is often the trap that pool owners fall into in that they see a low salt alarm and start adding salt without first diagnosing the problem. Then, when the cell is cleaned, their pool water is over-salted.

The correct thing to do here is to disconnect the cell and visually check to see if the plates are scaled. I know you mentioned that a pool service company said everything was ok, but I would not trust them. They likely went to the equipment pad, turned on the pump, checked the filter pressure and the operating lights on the SWG and called it a day. They rarely go the extra mile to really check the condition of the pool. So do yourself a favor and pull the cell. Inspect it and report back to us.

Good luck,
Matt
 
That is way too strong a mixture. Check the manual for the appropriate cleaning method. My Pentair cell uses 5:1 water-to-MA. ALWAYS mix up the water/acid dilution first and then add it to the cell. NEVER add undiluted acid directly to the cell. Strong mineral acids like MA will etch the proprietary metal catalyst coatings on the cell plates so always follow the manufacturers directions for cleaning.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk,16k gal SWG pool (All Pentair), QuadDE100 Filter, Taylor K-2006
 
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