SWG Problem

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Cayman

Cayman

0
LifeTime Supporter
Sep 16, 2008
218
St Augustine, FL
Pool Size
17000
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
SWG Type
Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
For whatever reason, I happen to walk over to the pump and wanted to check the temp. on the SWG to see where the pool is since it has been pretty warm lately. I notice the light for generating salt was off so I check the reading of salt on the machine and it was telling me there was only 300ppm salt in the pool when yesterday it told me 2700ppm. I decided to go ahead and check all of the chemicals and noticed that the FC was at 0.5. This was due to the fact that the SWG thought there was no salt in the water so it shut the generation off. Well when I used the test strips to test the salt, it showed 2700 so there is in fact salt in the pool.

Now my question, does this should like it is the cell or the flow switch? I am not sure what detects the salt, temp. etc. I thought the flow switch just determined if there was water flow and the cell did everything else. If someone can let me know about this and what may be my problem, I would be very appreciative.

Thanks!!
 
At the moment you are minnimum level for salt and maybe it is turning off the cell due to low levels, this happens to protect your equipment.

The recommended salt levels for your SWG are 2700 to 3400. So maybe adding some more salt could help.

I would bring it to at least 3000 about 41lbs according to the pool calculator
http://www.poolcalculator.com/
IMHO having the salt at the high end of the range is better

Happy swims Frank
 
I would think it would be the cell or the control circuitry for the cell, and not the flow switch. The SWG measures the conductivity of the water, and in turn converts this to the salt reading you see. All the flow switch does is tell the circuitry that there is or isn't water flowing through the cell.
 
Thanks for all the help and advice. I will add more salt and bring my CYA up. I knew it was a little low but focused on this problem first to see what was going on.

Thanks again!! :goodjob:
 
CYA levels will not effect a SWG's ability to make chlorine. CYA could be 0 and it would still make chlorine. If the red light is on, either the salt level is too low, it needs to be cleaned, or the salt levels are fine and the unit needs to be recalibrated.

If it showed 2700 ppm one day, and the next it showed 300 ppm, my guess is the salt sensor is haywire. It doesnt really detect salt per se, it measures conductivity, as someone said above. If that circuitry is bad and tells the unit there is low salt, it will not come on.

Whats the salt level the unit is reading now? If it still reads 300ppm or there bouts, and your salt strips say 2700 ppm, no amount of salt you add will make a difference. It's a circuitry issue.
 
Brad S said:
CYA levels will not effect a SWG's ability to make chlorine. CYA could be 0 and it would still make chlorine. If the red light is on, either the salt level is too low, it needs to be cleaned, or the salt levels are fine and the unit needs to be recalibrated.

If it showed 2700 ppm one day, and the next it showed 300 ppm, my guess is the salt sensor is haywire. It doesnt really detect salt per se, it measures conductivity, as someone said above. If that circuitry is bad and tells the unit there is low salt, it will not come on.

Whats the salt level the unit is reading now? If it still reads 300ppm or there bouts, and your salt strips say 2700 ppm, no amount of salt you add will make a difference. It's a circuitry issue.
Click to expand...
While you are correct that CYA Levels do not impact the ability of a cell to produce chlorine they DO have a direct impact on cell life and failure, pH stability, buildup of scale on the cell, etc. IF the cell is scaled then it won't accurately measure th salt level (which is a measure of the electical current between the plastes of the cell..)
THIS is exactly the reason that high CYA levels are recommended for SWGs! In the long run it leads to a trouble free salt pool.
The situation the OP has described is exactly the type of problem I have seen time and again with outdoor salt pools run with low CYA!
BTW, the unit the OP has cannot be recalibrated so you advice to do so is useless.

Cayman, I suspect that you might have a dead cell or a badly scaled cell. I would try cleaning the cell with acid, bringing up the salt to a higher level and then seeing what happens.
Your Mineral Springs unit is a rebranded Goldline SWG. Bring the salt up to 3200 to 3400 ppm after cleaning the cell and see if it works. If it does then bring your CYA up to 80 ppm!
IF not then you probably need a new cell or have a circuit board problem.

Of course, you have checked the obvious such at the salt cell and flow switch are plugged in securely! :wink:
Flow switches do fail, btw. Often the reason is scale buildup caused by running the pool with a low CYA level which leads to frequent pH spikes! Bringing your CYA up to the manufacturers recommened CYA level of 80 PPM is cheap enough insurance.
 
Thanks waterbear!!! Yes, the CYA has just recently went down to this level due to the amount of water I have had to drain with that solid week of rain that week had, which I know you guys had too just 20 miles south of me :). Prior to that it was around 60-70.

Within the past month, I bought a 2" expansion plug and poured a 5:1 water/acid mixture in it and left it for about 30 minutes when the bubbling quit. I checked it again last night and appears that there may be a little scale on it but barely anything that is visually noticable.

Tonight I will clean the cell again and bring the salt up to 3200 or so and see what happens. This morning it was still reading 300ppm. My guess is that the cell is bad. If you recall I poted a while back (http://www.troublefreepool.com/swg-concern-question-t9990.html) ago about the black tar and rust spot that has dripped from the cell onto my filter pad. I am now guesing that the salt, or whatever, has worn on the unit and gotten into the circuitry of it. The flow switch appears to be working ok since the red "No Flow" light goes out once the pump starts running.

All of that being said, if I have to replace the cell... I have the MS-10 verison which is for pools up to 40,000 gallons.... would the GLX-CELL-15-W (rated for 40,000 gallons) be a plug and play swap for my current Mineral Springs Cell?

Thanks guys!!!
 

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OK... Well after some research and work, it turns out that the cell was in fact bad. It also turns out that it was a 3 year cell which had 1 month warranty left on it!!! They came out and replaced the cell today... all I had to do was pay an $85 service call. :goodjob:

Sometimes it pays to be a little lucky!! Thanks for all of your help!!
 
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