Builder put too much salt in my pool...

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ummgood

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LifeTime Supporter
Jan 18, 2015
1,095
Austin, TX
So my builder came by about 6 weeks after startup and added salt to my pool. I have a Jandy SWG that is rated for a 40k gallon pool. I tested my salt using my TFP salt testing kit and it came back at 4600. The SWG is reporting 4.6. The recommended range is between 3.2 and 3.4 I think in the manual.

So I guess I have to drain and refill. My question is can I wait to do this until spring? Right now we are in wastewater averaging for our water utility and I really don't want to add the 7k or so gallons this would require until that is over. I can continue using liquid chlorine until then because the water temp is too low currently and I have a low temp indicator anyway.

Will waiting a couple months to lower the salt cause an issue with my equipment?
 
You should be fine. There's no problem with salt as long as you keep your other parameters in range.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk,16k gal SWG pool (All Pentair), QuadDE100 Filter, Taylor K-2006
 
JoyfulNoise said:
You should be fine. There's no problem with salt as long as you keep your other parameters in range.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk,16k gal SWG pool (All Pentair), QuadDE100 Filter, Taylor K-2006
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Thank you! I just re read the manual and the recommended range is 3.0 to 3.5. Should I still plan on lowering to that range or can I see if it works with it up at 4.6?

My current numbers are:
FC: 5.0
CC: 0.5
TA: 80
CYA: 50
PH: 7.2 (I just raised the CYA from 35 so this got bumped down)
CH: 250
 
It would probably work at higher levels but when the water temp increases that will increase the apparent salt level due to conductivity changes. So you might start getting high salt alarms.

I would do drain and refill to get it lowered to the optimal level.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk,16k gal SWG pool (All Pentair), QuadDE100 Filter, Taylor K-2006
 
JoyfulNoise said:
It would probably work at higher levels but when the water temp increases that will increase the apparent salt level due to conductivity changes. So you might start getting high salt alarms.

I would do drain and refill to get it lowered to the optimal level.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk,16k gal SWG pool (All Pentair), QuadDE100 Filter, Taylor K-2006
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Ok thanks! I'll keep some liquid chlorine on hand too until I get it functioning correctly.
 
Considering its winter time and waters are mostly too cold, I would just shutoff the SWG until you can adjust the water. Bleach is the easiest method right now.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk,16k gal SWG pool (All Pentair), QuadDE100 Filter, Taylor K-2006
 
I stopped my builder from doing the same thing....My fill water had a surprising high amount of Salt that I noticed before they came over with their salt. You are fine with it off. Mine is only running at 10% right now. Water is to cold for anything to grow.

One warning is you might want to wait for the water to warm up before you worry at all about salt take your salt measurements. It test very low when it is cold, both on a test kit and your SWG.....by a lot. I try to keep mine at 2600 this time of year and it could get up to 3400 in July if I have no overflow just evaporation so I have no salt loss.

I wouldn't drain at all as well, maybe some big spring rains with el nino will give you some overflow and with it being the first kids season with the pool, I'm sure they will go in early in the season and be in it constantly providing all sorts of splash out!
 
skylar18 said:
I stopped my builder from doing the same thing....My fill water had a surprising high amount of Salt that I noticed before they came over with their salt. You are fine with it off. Mine is only running at 10% right now. Water is to cold for anything to grow.

One warning is you might want to wait for the water to warm up before you worry at all about salt take your salt measurements. It test very low when it is cold, both on a test kit and your SWG.....by a lot. I try to keep mine at 2600 this time of year and it could get up to 3400 in July if I have no overflow just evaporation so I have no salt loss.

I wouldn't drain at all as well, maybe some big spring rains with el nino will give you some overflow and with it being the first kids season with the pool, I'm sure they will go in early in the season and be in it constantly providing all sorts of splash out!
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Skylar18,

Some information here needs to be corrected and expanded/clarified.

First, the Taylor K-1766 salt test is NOT sensitive to temperature. While it is always advisable in cold weather to bring water samples indoors and let them warm up to room temperature, a cold water sample will and should test accurately if the test procedure is done correctly. The chemistry is just not dependent at all on temperature. Conversely, the reading one gets from an SWG cell WILL DEPEND on temperature because ALL SWG cells read water conductivity, not chloride concentration, and very few manufacturers actually compensate their conductivity measurement for water temperature. This is one reason why TFP recommends setting the salt level using the K-1766 and then, adjust as needed to make the SWG happy. Salt test strips and aquarium hydrometers can be affected by water temperature but, again, this is usually corrected by letting the water sample come to room temperature.

Second, rain water dilution will not likely help the OP. Their water currently stands at 4600ppm salt content. They prefer to get that value down to the manufacturers recommended value of 3500ppm. In a 19,000 gallon pool with a 505 sq ft surface area, that would require a 24% change in volume or approximately 14" of rain water (not factoring in for dilution effects). I don't know how the rains are in Texas lately, but I don't think a 14" deluge is really a remote possibility. Unless water is prohibitively expensive, a 24% water exchange (~4,600 gallons or 6 CCFs) shouldn't be that big of deal to pay for and will get the water's salinity level corrected much faster than waiting for rainfall.
 
JoyfulNoise said:
Skylar18,

Some information here needs to be corrected and expanded/clarified.

First, the Taylor K-1766 salt test is NOT sensitive to temperature. While it is always advisable in cold weather to bring water samples indoors and let them warm up to room temperature, a cold water sample will and should test accurately if the test procedure is done correctly. The chemistry is just not dependent at all on temperature. Conversely, the reading one gets from an SWG cell WILL DEPEND on temperature because ALL SWG cells read water conductivity, not chloride concentration, and very few manufacturers actually compensate their conductivity measurement for water temperature. This is one reason why TFP recommends setting the salt level using the K-1766 and then, adjust as needed to make the SWG happy. Salt test strips and aquarium hydrometers can be affected by water temperature but, again, this is usually corrected by letting the water sample come to room temperature.

Second, rain water dilution will not likely help the OP. Their water currently stands at 4600ppm salt content. They prefer to get that value down to the manufacturers recommended value of 3500ppm. In a 19,000 gallon pool with a 505 sq ft surface area, that would require a 24% change in volume or approximately 14" of rain water (not factoring in for dilution effects). I don't know how the rains are in Texas lately, but I don't think a 14" deluge is really a remote possibility. Unless water is prohibitively expensive, a 24% water exchange (~4,600 gallons or 6 CCFs) shouldn't be that big of deal to pay for and will get the water's salinity level corrected much faster than waiting for rainfall.
Click to expand...

That is good to know about the Taylor salt kit. It matched by jandy salinity level so I assumed it was affected by temp. Now that I think about it I probably have never used it in the winter because I do a lot less with the pool then.

My point about waiting for rain did not imply wait for rain to replace all of the water. Here in Austin they set your wastewater usage for the whole year based on the water used depending on your cycle between November and February. So any water used now can be kind of expensive over the whole year. My point is to wait and hopefully get past the rate setting time period and hopefully he has to drain and add less.
 

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JamesW said:
I think that most salt readings from the major swg manufacturers are temperature compensated. I think that Jandy, Hayward, Pentair and AutoPilot all are.
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Unless a new version of the IntelliChlor has been released, then Pentair is definitely NOT temperature compensated. My SWG salinity readout changes with temperature.
 
Also, one of things I don't like about the IntelliChlor is that there is no "instant" read function. The SWG waits a few minutes to start up, reads the "salinity" value once and then only updates the salinity value once every 12 hours. So, unless you start/stop your POOL mode function with a split-schedule, you only get two readings at most per 24hr of runtime.
 
I have seen Pentair documentation that says that the Intellichlor is temperature compensated. It might be something new.

The temperature sensor is built into the flow switch. I think that it might have a higher than average failure rate. I think that if the temperature sensor fails, it defaults to assuming that the temperature is 77 f, which will give an inaccurate salinity reading at any temperature other than 77 f.

The temperature reading from the salt cell is not displayed, which makes it difficult to know if the sensor has failed.

With EasyTouch and IntelliTouch the water temperature is displayed, but that comes from a water temperature sensor in the plumbing, not the sensor in the flow switch in the cell.
 
JamesW said:
I have seen Pentair documentation that says that the Intellichlor is temperature compensated. It might be something new.

The temperature sensor is built into the flow switch. I think that it might have a higher than average failure rate. I think that if the temperature sensor fails, it defaults to assuming that the temperature is 77 f, which will give an inaccurate salinity reading at any temperature other than 77 f.

The temperature reading from the salt cell is not displayed, which makes it difficult to know if the sensor has failed.

With EasyTouch and IntelliTouch the water temperature is displayed, but that comes from a water temperature sensor in the plumbing, not the sensor in the flow switch in the cell.
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I just read through the entire User & Setup Guide online and the only mention of temperature is in relation to the cold water cutoff. If you find documentation on it and can correlate it to a specific set of serial numbers or part numbers, that might help.

My unit, since day 1, has always drifted with temperature. It's not a day to day drift but a seasonal one. The water temp has to change by several degrees F (perhaps +/- 5-10F) for the salinity readout to noticeably change much. Typically though, the readings are fairly close to my K-1766 readings, well within the errors for those tests.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk,16k gal SWG pool (All Pentair), QuadDE100 Filter, Taylor K-2006
 
If the temperature sensor fails, then wouldn't the cold water cutoff fail to kick in as well?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk,16k gal SWG pool (All Pentair), QuadDE100 Filter, Taylor K-2006
 
The cold water cutoff happens at 52 f. If the temperature sensor fails, the unit uses 75 f for temperature and the cold water light won't come on. However, as the water gets cold, the inspect cell should eventually trip as the conductivity decreases and the voltage increases to compensate.

To test for a failed temperature sensor, press and hold the "More" button for about 5 seconds. If the sensor is bad, the cold water led will go solid red.
 
Thanks guys for the info! I wish I would have tested the salt content prior to the guy coming and proactively given him the numbers. The problem is he didn't come when he said he would and then just showed up out of the blue so I wasn't able to be there when he was adding the salt. My current plan is to wait until March (after my wastewater averaging is over) and then slowly drop the pool water a couple inches a week and refill. That way by May I should be at the right level and I don't flood my neighbor downhill from me.
 
ummgood said:
Thanks guys for the info! I wish I would have tested the salt content prior to the guy coming and proactively given him the numbers. The problem is he didn't come when he said he would and then just showed up out of the blue so I wasn't able to be there when he was adding the salt. My current plan is to wait until March (after my wastewater averaging is over) and then slowly drop the pool water a couple inches a week and refill. That way by May I should be at the right level and I don't flood my neighbor downhill from me.
Click to expand...

That's a fine plan. But please note that when you incrementally exchange water it takes more water in the long run to get the concentration down due to the dilution effect.

You could, if you have an appropriate spot on your property or a sewer drain nearby, rent a commercial submersible pump and pump all the water out at once. It will be A LOT faster than using your pool pump to do the drain. Most hardware stores will rent pumps for around $20/day.


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

I have scanned this thread but not read it thoroughly.

Can you hook up a backwash hose to your gutters? An inch of rain can easily turn into 3" of fill for your pool if you have enough gutter volume.
 

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