Aqua Rite not generating enough chlorine

Jump to latest Follow Reply
H

hsmyers

0
Jul 10, 2009
32
Yorba Linda, CA
I have a 5 year old Aqua Rite chlorine generator with a T-Cell-15. For the first 5 years it worked great. Now it seems to generate about half the chlorine it used to. Normally I set the output rate at 50% during the summer, but now I have it set to 100%, and it still can't keep the chlorine level at 3 ppm. Here are the particulars:

Pool size: 22,000 g
Pump: 6 hrs/day
Salt Level: 3300 ppm
Temp: 80-85
ph: 7.5
TA: 80 ppm
CA: 100 ppm
Phosphates: 100 ppb
Calcium hardness: 500 ppm
TDS: 2500 ppm
Nitrates: 0 ppm
Nitrites: 0 ppm

I replaced the cell, but this didn't fix the problem. I took both the old and new cells to the pool store, and had them tested. Both tested OK. I can switch back and forth between the cells, but this has no effect. I've looked at the voltage and current readouts using the diagnostics button on the controller. They are both within the acceptable ranges.

I called Goldline. They recommended increasing the pump time from 6 hours to 8 hours, but I live in CA where a kw/h costs 50 cents, so I really don't want to do this. Besides, I've been using 6 hrs/day and 50% for 5 years. Some thing has changed.

I'm out of things to try. Any suggestions?
 
You may be fighting an algae bloom. Do an over night test of your chlorine loss: One night after sunset, turn off your filter for the night. Measure your FC. In the morning, before sun rise measure the FC again. If you have lost more than 1 ppm FC over night, you will need to shock the pool.
 
dschlic1 said:
You may be fighting an algae bloom. Do an over night test of your chlorine loss: One night after sunset, turn off your filter for the night. Measure your FC. In the morning, before sun rise measure the FC again. If you have lost more than 1 ppm FC over night, you will need to shock the pool.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the quick response. I did the overnight FC test and had 0 chlorine loss. I also tested for CC, and as near as I can tell it's 0.
 
waterbear said:
6 hours a day is a bit low for summer months, IMHO.
Have you tested for ammonia?
Click to expand...

I tested for ammonia and got 0. I've been running 6 hours per day at an output rate of 50-60% for 5 summers now. I've never had a problem keeping chlorine in the pool until now. Something has changed, I just can't figure out what it is.
 
hsmyers said:
dschlic1 said:
You may be fighting an algae bloom. Do an over night test of your chlorine loss: One night after sunset, turn off your filter for the night. Measure your FC. In the morning, before sun rise measure the FC again. If you have lost more than 1 ppm FC over night, you will need to shock the pool.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the quick response. I did the overnight FC test and had 0 chlorine loss. I also tested for CC, and as near as I can tell it's 0.
Click to expand...

The SWG has to be off for an accurate test.... was the SWG off?
 
Hi Dave,

It was a DPD test I did myself (I don't have FAS-DPD). I measured 2.5 ppm an hour after sunset, and the same 2.5 ppm just before sunrise. I know this test isn't as good as the FAS test, but my understanding is that as long as the morning measurement was above 1.5 ppm, I'm OK. To my eye the two measurements were identical.
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
I think the CA-100 up above was the CYA level?

Certainly looking like a problem with the unit... You could always try around of shocking with bleach to see if that helps anything.

If your CYA is 100, that's a bit high, we recommend 70-80.
 
The CYA is about 100. I don't think it's the cell because I can switch back and forth between the new cell and the old cell and I get the same results.

At this point I'm planning on shocking because I don't know what else to try. According to the pool calculator, I need to raise the chlorine level to 25 ppm :shock: . That's 5 gallons of 10% chlorine in a 22000 gallon pool. Am I doing that right?
 
hsmyers said:
The CYA is about 100.

At this point I'm planning on shocking because I don't know what else to try. According to the CYA/CL chart I need to raise the chlorine level to 25 ppm :shock: . That's 5 gallons of 10% chlorine in a 22000 gallon pool. Am I doing that right?
Click to expand...

Actually it's 39 ppm according to the chart. If your FC is zero, I get 8.3 gallons of 10%.
 
Sorry. I was editing my post while you were replying. I was actually using the pool calculator rather than the CYA/CL chart. I used a current chlorine level of 3, and a desired level of 25 (25 is the shock level listed in the suggested FC level section). The calculator tells me I need to add 4.7 gallons of 10% chlorine.
 
So I shocked the pool last night. According to the pool calculator, I needed to add 6 gallons (of 10% chlorine) to go from 2 ppm to 30 ppm (22000g pool with 100 CYA). I did this and measured the chlorine 1 hour later. Instead of 30 ppm, I measured only 12 ppm :eek: . I measured it this morning: 12 ppm. I measured it tonight: 10 ppm (It was 95 degrees in So Cal today, so losing 2 ppm sounds about right). My SWG was off during this whole process.

What happened to all that chlorine? How could I go from 30 ppm to 12 ppm in an hour? BTW, the pool looked perfect prior to shocking (crystal clear, no measurable CC, no algae). The only reason I'm doing this is to try to understand why my SWG isn't working as well as it used to. Prior to all this, I had done an overnight FC test and there was no chlorine loss.

On a related note. Does anybody have any figures about how much chlorine an Aqau Rite T-Cell-15 should generate per hour?
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply