Hello from Nor Cali...

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roguegeek

roguegeek

0
Sep 30, 2016
88
Alamo, CA
Hello all,

My name is Rich and we just had our 22,000 gallon in-ground pool and spa completed a month ago. Instead of hiring a professional to take care of it, I will be doing all of the maintenance myself. I'm a fairly handy guy, so this should be a new and fun hobby for me. I have a lot of questions and am looking forward to interacting with this community. I'm hoping in time I'll be able to contribute something on my own instead of just consume material. Anyway, here are all of the specs on my pool.



I'm going to lurk around for a bit and see if I can find some answers for myself, but I'm sure it wont take long for me to start posting some questions. Thanks in advance!

-Rich
 
kimkats said:
HI and WOW! You have been around forums before I am guessing!
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Haha. Thanks, man. Yeah, I'm a part of numerous forums out there for my numerous interests, so I know how much this kind of information from a new member can really help out the experienced ones. I'm also a pretty comprehensive kinda guy and do a fair bit of reading of rules while lurking before actually signing up. Just like to have my ducks all lined up, I suppose.

kimkats said:
So what kind of questions do you have?
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I'm not exactly sure yet. I tend to take a thoughtful approach to things instead of just reacting, which is always not the best way to go about things. But hey, that's me. I haven't gone through all of the school contents yet, so let me finish that first and see what questions I have afterwards. I know I have some issues with the chlorination system SWG turning itself off right now due to low salt ppm, yet the tests measuring that it's fine. I'm sure there's a user error there, but I'll circle back to it after I've gone through the documentation here first.

kimkats said:
We would LOVE to see your pool build. I bet you took some pics along the way. Care to share them?
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So many. I'll try and go through them in a little bit and post here.

Thanks everyone for the warm welcomes!
 
I can give you a heads start on the SWG "problem"........the tests have quite a wide margin of error for salt. The main thought on salt for the SWG is "make the SWG happy above all else".....if it is saying it is low you need to add salt. Don't worry what your test show right now. The machine that needs the salt says it is not happy so.......

:kim:
 
kimkats said:
I can give you a heads start on the SWG "problem"........the tests have quite a wide margin of error for salt. The main thought on salt for the SWG is "make the SWG happy above all else".....if it is saying it is low you need to add salt. Don't worry what your test show right now. The machine that needs the salt says it is not happy so.......
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So I threw in a bag of salt just now. Dumped into the deep end and brushed into the main return until it was either dissolved or got sucked in. Went into ProLogic system and started the chlorinator manually. The error code cleared and then almost immediately turned back on again. "Low Salt Levels". The good thing is the SWG didn't turn off this time.

Questions: Is there some feature in the system that will turn off the SWG (the system is calling it the "chlorinator", same thing?) if it senses low salt levels? If so, I should be able to find in the system at what level that happens at, right? How long after dumping salt into the pool should I wait to take the salt level reading from the system seriously and accurately? If I am getting a large discrepancy between the system's measured salt levels and the manual test's measurements, what do you recommend I do? The reason I'm asking that is because even if it is a brand new system, couldn't there be a defect or is that something to not worry about?

Thanks!
 
If you are seeing large discrepancies between the salinity readout and the K-1766 measurements then something is wrong. Pull the cell and inspect it for scale. Please post the diagnostic codes from the Hayward controller and please post your latest set of test results -

FC
CC
TA
pH
CH
CYA
Salt
Temperature
 
And, stop adding salt. That is not the solution at this time. We only advocate adding chemicals when testing calls for it.

And, for future reference, when you do add salt, the SWG should be powered off and the water allowed to mix for 24 hrs. Salt water has a high specific density and it takes time for salt to dissolve and for the water to completely homogenize.
 
JoyfulNoise said:
If you are seeing large discrepancies between the salinity readout and the K-1766 measurements then something is wrong.
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I am not. I was asking if I did because it had earlier in the week and what do it if it did again. The test kit now show 2700 ppm, the system is reading 2700 ppm, and my local pool supply store tested it at 2700 ppm, so that's all very consistent. The "instant salt" reading from the diagnostics menu is bouncing between 2200-2300 ppm. What's the difference between salt levels and instant salt levels?

JoyfulNoise said:
And, for future reference, when you do add salt, the SWG should be powered off and the water allowed to mix for 24 hrs. Salt water has a high specific density and it takes time for salt to dissolve and for the water to completely homogenize.
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That's definitely not consistent with the advice given to me by the company who installed the pool. They said to do exactly what I did and then wait 4 hours to get a proper measurement. The advice here seems far more conservative and I prefer that.

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BTW, if anyone sees me using the incorrect terminology, please call that out as it's important I'm using the common terminology here and outside of here.
 

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And just for reference, this was the test from the local store this morning before adding the one bag of salt.
111edd9066bfd873765a103b77016356.tiff
 
Update: Turned the SWG on today, 24 hours after I threw a bag of salt in there and it stayed on for 5 minutes before turning itself off due to very low salt. System read 2100 ppm. Is it possible for a pool to drop that much in that little time?
 
roguegeek said:
Update: Turned the SWG on today, 24 hours after I threw a bag of salt in there and it stayed on for 5 minutes before turning itself off due to very low salt. System read 2100 ppm. Is it possible for a pool to drop that much in that little time?
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No, it's not. Unless you have a massive water leak somewhere.

What does the K-1766 say?
 
Yes. Chunky is what happens when the chloride concentration is high. If you use a SpeedStir it makes life easier.

You've over-salted your water. There's a problem with the cell plates, likely calcium scale build up. You need to pull the cell and inspect it. Also, please post your diagnostic codes.
 
JoyfulNoise said:
Yes. Chunky is what happens when the chloride concentration is high. If you use a SpeedStir it makes life easier.

You've over-salted your water. There's a problem with the cell plates, likely calcium scale build up. You need to pull the cell and inspect it. Also, please post your diagnostic codes.
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Well that sucks. One bag could bring it from 2700 to 4200? That seems like a lot. The pool supply store recommended the one bag as did a couple other sources. I pulled the cell, inspected it, saw no build up at all, but rinsed it out anyway. Could there be a problem with the cell plates already on a cell that is less than a month old? In terms of the diagnostics codes, I've gone through every part of the ProLogic controller and haven't found any. The "check system" light is on and the only warnings that pop up are "Chlorinator Off, Test Salt Levels" and "Check System, Very Low Salt".

Edit: We also have a very light rain today. Not sure if that's something to take into consideration.
 
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Unfortunately I'm not a Hayward expert so I've requested some other folks chime in here. They can help you get the diagnostic codes and then we can see where you are at.
 
According to PoolMath a 40lb bag of salt will raise the salt level by 217 ppm in a 22k gallon pool. As the water temp drops my SWG (Pentair) tends to give a low salt error even though the salt level hasn't changed. Not sure if the sensor in yours also reads lower salt level at lower temp. Or as Matt suggested, it could be scale build up on the sensor in the smell causing get it to read low. The first year I had the SWG cell I got my salt up over 5000 ppm because it kept saying low salt and I kept adding salt until I figured out that it was temp related. I turn off my SWG when the water gets to 70 and switch to bleach.
 
Hayward/Goldline units are usually pretty accurate on salt levels over a large temperature range when operating properly. Try this:

First make sure the SWG Cell plug in the main unit is in and tight

Next, use menu button in the display to go to the Diagnostics Menu.

Click right arrow button

Click + button (above menu)

After the SWG turns on and the numbers stabilize, write down Volts, Amps, Salt and Temperature

Repeat above procedure and write down the numbers again.

Post both sets here
 
JoyfulNoise said:
Unfortunately I'm not a Hayward expert so I've requested some other folks chime in here. They can help you get the diagnostic codes and then we can see where you are at.
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Ok. Thanks for getting me to this point so far.

pooldv said:
According to PoolMath a 40lb bag of salt will raise the salt level by 217 ppm in a 22k gallon pool. As the water temp drops my SWG (Pentair) tends to give a low salt error even though the salt level hasn't changed. Not sure if the sensor in yours also reads lower salt level at lower temp. Or as Matt suggested, it could be scale build up on the sensor in the smell causing get it to read low. The first year I had the SWG cell I got my salt up over 5000 ppm because it kept saying low salt and I kept adding salt until I figured out that it was temp related. I turn off my SWG when the water gets to 70 and switch to bleach.
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See, that's so strange. So mine tested at 2700 ppm from several sources before throwing anything into it. The documentation says to get my 22k pool to 3200 ppm (the optimal amount for my system) from 2700 ppm, I need to add 92 lbs of salt. I threw in one 40 lbs bag and it's now testing at 4200 ppm on the test kit? Strange.

I have read the same about the how the sensor can be off depending on the temperature. My question to that would be, when the temperature does drop and the reading on the sensor is off, shouldn't you be able to override the chlorinator turning off on its own based on a bad reading?

Anyway, I'm pretty confused right now. I was FINALLY able to get in contact with someone from the pool company and they will be sending out someone hopefully do something that get this thing on the right path.

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mas985 said:
Hayward/Goldline units are usually pretty accurate on salt levels over a large temperature range when operating properly. Try this:

First make sure the SWG Cell plug in the main unit is in and tight

Next, use menu button in the display to go to the Diagnostics Menu.

Click right arrow button

Click + button (above menu)

After the SWG turns on and the numbers stabilize, write down Volts, Amps, Salt and Temperature

Repeat above procedure and write down the numbers again.

Post both sets here
Click to expand...

Doing this right now. I'll report back in a couple of minutes.
 

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