My pool was finished a bit over 9 months ago and has an IC40 SWCG. It worked great last season. Then it got cold and it shut off -- still fine. This season as the waster has warmed up I raised the percentage to keep the water balanced -- and raised it -- and raised it. OK something is wrong. I bit slow, mind you, but I finally notices the "check cell" light was blinking on the unit. It's be nice if it relayed this to the controller inside, but my fault for not noticing.
I thought that it probably has some build-up on it and pulled the cell out to inspect. As suspected, there was some nive calcium buildup on the center vanes, but the ones near the sides were clean. Either way, hosed it out -- no effect -- still stuck on. I know an acit bath is the right ting to do now, but I don't have a cap to plug the bottom and I really want to get it working. So I took a coathanger and without cutting it bent one side to a tight loop and gently ran this betwene the vanes. It fit perfectly and pushed off a boatload of calcium deposits. Did not take much pressure to get off. After hosing off again and reassembling, it worked great. No more blinking light.
Questions:
1) did I do terrible harm by by unorthadox cleaning method? Seems if I didn't scratch it, it might be better than burning off some of the metal with acid....
2) Why so much calcium build-up so soon? Probably because it was a new plaster pool... The manual states to use a pass-through dummy cell for 30 days. The PB (otherwise great experience) said he never heard of that and didn't know if they were even available.... Maybe pH was a bit high...?
3) Has anybody bought a cap forr the bottom to acit clean the cell? I guess I could make one with a half of a screw fitting, a section of pipe and a cap...
Thanks,
Steve
I thought that it probably has some build-up on it and pulled the cell out to inspect. As suspected, there was some nive calcium buildup on the center vanes, but the ones near the sides were clean. Either way, hosed it out -- no effect -- still stuck on. I know an acit bath is the right ting to do now, but I don't have a cap to plug the bottom and I really want to get it working. So I took a coathanger and without cutting it bent one side to a tight loop and gently ran this betwene the vanes. It fit perfectly and pushed off a boatload of calcium deposits. Did not take much pressure to get off. After hosing off again and reassembling, it worked great. No more blinking light.
Questions:
1) did I do terrible harm by by unorthadox cleaning method? Seems if I didn't scratch it, it might be better than burning off some of the metal with acid....
2) Why so much calcium build-up so soon? Probably because it was a new plaster pool... The manual states to use a pass-through dummy cell for 30 days. The PB (otherwise great experience) said he never heard of that and didn't know if they were even available.... Maybe pH was a bit high...?
3) Has anybody bought a cap forr the bottom to acit clean the cell? I guess I could make one with a half of a screw fitting, a section of pipe and a cap...
Thanks,
Steve