FC tests showing zero, intex swg maybe faulty, or reagents bad?

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theskyisthelimit99

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Jun 28, 2016
428
Pittsburgh, pa
I have the pool in my sig, with swg from intex.. i'm using the tf-100 test kit, the R-0870 powder.. this test has always worked fine (except for a few cases where the fc really was zero).. when i put the heaping spoonful in, it doesnt turn pink at all.

I checked the swg .. on the left side of the generator i can see bubbles.. the right side/tube has no bubbles, left being the return (from memory this morning) i think.. i cant recall if bubbles were on the right side before or not.. does anyone know?

Is it possible that 1 year old R-0870 powder has gone "bad"? I put another jug of chlorox (generic) into the pool, will check this evening, but i also poured a small amount in the test tube and added the powder.. it didnt turn pink either.. or maybe the concentrated version doesnt turn pink until its been in the water for some time, unsure..

Not sure what is going on.

Thanks in advance
 
As a general rule, if the SWG isn't displaying warning lights or flashing codes and you see bubbles in the cell when it's supposed to be generating, it's generating.

Something is eating up the FC as fast as it's being generated. That leaves two options: sunlight, or organics. Sunlight damage is from low CYA levels. What is yours? Organics can be leaves and grass and sweat and snot and dead skin or algae. How does the water look? Clear, slightly cloudy? Lots of crud on the floor? Are the walls and floor feeling slippery?
 
Richard320 said:
As a general rule, if the SWG isn't displaying warning lights or flashing codes and you see bubbles in the cell when it's supposed to be generating, it's generating.

Something is eating up the FC as fast as it's being generated. That leaves two options: sunlight, or organics. Sunlight damage is from low CYA levels. What is yours? Organics can be leaves and grass and sweat and snot and dead skin or algae. How does the water look? Clear, slightly cloudy? Lots of crud on the floor? Are the walls and floor feeling slippery?
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I need to check the cya.. i had a sockfull of cya i put in about 3 weeks ago, within a week it was gone.

Yeah i thought it was ok because i saw the bubbles, but wasnt sure if left side only was an issue or not.. i seem to recall seeing them in the middle before (or the whole way across, not just the left side).

The water actually doesnt look that bad.. the walls arent slimy.. i run an intex robot 24/7 inside so there is nothing on the floor either. Ph levels are normal as well. Ill check the cya this evening though.
 
I suggest you try and get a sample directly from the return - hold your sample bottle right against it, and check the free on it.

If it doesn't turn pink there your cell is not working. You can also try cracking the fitting after the cell and collecting enough for a sample. That's the best way I know of to see if its truly working or not.
 
I just had to replace our Intex 7K gallon SWG. Ours was calling out low salt and not generating any or much chlorine. I finally got the Taylor Salt water test kit and checked the level. I was at 3400ppm, definitely not low. I replaced the SWG with the larger 15K gal version. I run it ~ 4 hrs a day and my FC is now at 4.5. The older unit was 2 seasons old.
 
CR172 said:
I just had to replace our Intex 7K gallon SWG. Ours was calling out low salt and not generating any or much chlorine. I finally got the Taylor Salt water test kit and checked the level. I was at 3400ppm, definitely not low. I replaced the SWG with the larger 15K gal version. I run it ~ 4 hrs a day and my FC is now at 4.5. The older unit was 2 seasons old.
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Do you happen to recall or can check.. does it produce bubbles on both sides or just the left side?

I checked last night.. after putting in the smaller jug of chlorox concentrated in the morning and setting the swg to boost.. i'm hitting 5 FC now.. i have to check today though.. cya is only 20, so i need to add a sockfull again.. so i'm not sure if it was the boost swg or the bottle that boosted to 5 FC, when i check today ill have a better idea, though the cya may have caused a loss already i'm guessing
 
Just an update here.. another day came where my FC was basically 0 or 1.. i tested the cya, its now (too high), maybe 65 or so..

I put in more chlorox to shock it back up.. read the reading, it was a 6..

24 hours later.. i had apparently ran the swg for only 5 hours, the timer got changed from 8.. checked it now and its FC of 2 at best.

I'm guessing the swg could be toast, though i'm running it now as a test and i do still have bubbles on the outbound side of it, but very little bubble activity on the right side/input portion.
 
I have the opposite situation. I run my Intex 8229 ECO swg 4 hours/day as per the manual for my size pool. FC usually tests at 3-5, CC 0-1, with CYA 50. pH is very stable at 7.5 and all other values are stable within range. Lately FC has tested at 9-15, not sure why. Lots of organic material hitting the pool from surrounding trees, sunlight and bathing about as usual. I'm thinking leave well enough alone (unless it rises above shocklevel of course) but curious as to why FC would rise?
 
theskyisthelimit99 said:
Just an update here.. another day came where my FC was basically 0 or 1.. i tested the cya, its now (too high), maybe 65 or so..

I put in more chlorox to shock it back up.. read the reading, it was a 6..

24 hours later.. i had apparently ran the swg for only 5 hours, the timer got changed from 8.. checked it now and its FC of 2 at best.

I'm guessing the swg could be toast, though i'm running it now as a test and i do still have bubbles on the outbound side of it, but very little bubble activity on the right side/input portion.
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I checked again on day 2 after just running a boost on the swg and setting to 10 hours instead of 8.. FC went from 2 to 1 if that.. i verified this morning i had bubbles on the left (and verified thats how it should look).. i'm puzzled.. i'm guessing the swg isnt working despite the bubbles, but no error codes? Ph down to 6.9.. time for another shock and maybe just get a 3" chlorinator block to put in the basket inside the hayward for now until i can fix or replace i guess.. otherwise its a jug of chlorox almost every other day it seems.. cya levels are normal.. very puzzled here
 

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Update yet again..

Intex sent me new plates for the SWG.. put them in.. they appeared to give more bubble action.

I decided to shock the pool with a bottle of chlorox again..

4 days later i checked.. FC was around 4.. i thought maybe things were working.

2 days after that the FC was down to 2..

Then the next day the FC was at 1..

So i decided to run the boost.. the next day now, the FC is only up to 1.5 or so.
I have the swg running 9 hours out of the day.. the solar panels are on, pushing in temps of say 93 on an 83 degree day typically.. pool temp fluctuating between say 74 and 81 depending on the weather.

Could the solar panels and the warmer water have any effect.. what else could be causing the drop.. unless the swg pump itself is bad in some way? No error codes.. no low salt warnings etc..

It worked fine last summer (before adding solar to the mix and pvc and a much bigger pump)..
Thats the other change is that the return valve is a 1" i believe or maybe smaller (hayward).. i changed it from the factory intex one.. with the much larger sand pump and hayward 1.5 hp pump it really spits out from the return.. but its angled enough that it shouldnt be getting much air..

I also checked it at the return and got the same values
 
If your CYA is below 70, that may be your problem. For me anything below 70 gave me big problems using my SWG.
Here in TX I have to keep mine between 70 and 80 and FC ~9ppm. The pool water here is 90f during the day in full sun.
 
domct203 said:
As mentioned, your CYA should be at 70ppm.

Before you add any CYA, you should perform an Overnight Chlorine Loss Test to rule out organics.
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A few weeks ago when i started having issues.. my CYA was indeed low.. but i corrected that issue.. its around 65-70.. or at least it was.. ill check it now again.. but pretty sure the CYA is ok. The test kit's CYA tube is a little hard to gauge.. pun intended on the cya and when the black dot disappears, so it could have been higher than 65 when i tested it after correcting

I hadnt seen that on the overnight loss test.. will also do that (unfortunately i didnt do it before i added the cya before though).. is it still a valid test if the CYA is still high?
 
An OCLT is valid at your CYA level.

Be sure to raise your FC to 10 or so for the OCLT. Pump on all night, SWCG OFF.

Take care.
 
The reason I mentioned the OCLT before adding CYA is because if you fail the OCLT it is easier to SLAM at lower CYA.

As mentioned, the OCLT is valid at your CYA level.
 
I went and did the test overnight.. I overdid the chlorox a bit, but that might have been just as well.

The night before i turned off the swg and turned the pump on for the night..
The FC was at 18.

Next morning, after roughly 2 hours of sunlight or less.. the FC was at 17.5

By evening around 630pm, after the pump was on all day and the swg was back on, the FC dropped to 7

I'm assuming that kinda drop is expected..

We noticed a flake of what appeared to be green algae in the pool last nite.. or at least i think.. though i'm not sure where its coming from if so.. maybe the ladder or the inside of the ladder where you cant see.. i also leave the robot in the pool water 24/7, but i empty it every few weeks and havent noticed any.

So i'm hoping the high chlorine might have burnt out any if there really was algae causing FC drops to the point where i was only averaging an FC of 1 to 1.5 per day remaining at the days end.
 
I am not familiar with Intex SWCG - but you show a 7000 gallon pool with a SWCG rated to 7000 gallons. So to combat the normal 2-4 ppm loss each day, you need to run the SWCG nearly 24 hours a day to create that.

Up your run time to 24 hours and see if your FC keeps up with the daily loss.

Take care.
 
gtty said:
seems like to me if you went from 17.5 to 7ppm in an afternoon, you either have a lot of algae/organics etc in your pool or not enough CYA.
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I just dont see the algae if so.. and the CYA is at 80-90 roughly (tested before doing all this).

- - - Updated - - -

mknauss said:
I am not familiar with Intex SWCG - but you show a 7000 gallon pool with a SWCG rated to 7000 gallons. So to combat the normal 2-4 ppm loss each day, you need to run the SWCG nearly 24 hours a day to create that.

Up your run time to 24 hours and see if your FC keeps up with the daily loss.

Take care.
Click to expand...

I had the pool going last summer for the first time.. i had the pump on for the same hours during the day as now.. roughly 9am till 7pm.. the salt water system was set to run about 6 or 7 hours per day then.. my FC was maintaining at 4-5 easily.

Flash forward to this year..

New pump installed.. the hayward 1.5 hp vs the old that was much much less hp maybe 0.75.. pvc pipes installed.. solar panels on roof with pvc pipe to the pool etc...

Now the pump runs the same hours basically and the swg is set to 9 hours and its only averaging an FC of 1.. It really shouldnt need run all day and night, plus that would kill the electric bill for sure with this larger pump.

I figure ill wait another day and check the FC again.. if it holds at a higher number this go round, then maybe there was some hidden algae issue (caused by what i cant figure out, maybe stale water from last year never fully "cleaned" with shock treatments or high enough levels.. or the pool steps having something in them).
 

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