Aqua Rite doesn't seem to be generating chlorine

[arjaygee]

I've had an Aqua Rite Goldline T-15 for a little over 2 years now, and it has worked great to this point. However, for some reason I now can't seem to keep chlorine up in the pool. The only LEDs on are solid green for "Power" and "Generating" (just like I would expect for nominal ops). Now for the clues...

With the chlorine setting set to 100%, Current shows as 0A, and the Instantaneous Salt level 0 as well. At one point, I did flip the toggle from "Auto" to "Off", then "Super Chlorinate" then back to Auto. A few seconds later I heard a click and current then showed at 4.4A and Inst Salt at -2200. This seemed to last for about 45 minutes and then went back to 0, 0 again.

The numbers (from Diagnostics):
Average Salt: 3400
Temperature: 58 deg F
Voltage 33.3V (seems a little high?)
Current: 0 (at least most of the time)
Chlorine setting: 100p
Instantaneous Salt: 0
AL-0
Version: r 1.59
T-15

Other numbers:
FC: 3 (yikes) -- adding liquid
PH: 7.8
TA: 70
CH: 500+
CYA: 70

I'm in Southern California, and normally, for the colder months, I would have the dial set to 40% chlorine and easily maintain FC level above 6. Lastly, the cell is clean -- just cleaned a few weeks ago and wasn't that bad when I did it.

Thoughts?

 

[YippeeSkippy]

What's the temp of the water in the pool? Most stop producing when the temp is 60 or below.

What's your Salt level? You should test that independently from the device. Taylor's K-1766 salt test kit is pretty inexpensive and easily obtained.

How's the pool look? Could you be actually having an occult outbreak of algae and your FC is being depleted there??

Get a cup and collect some water directly from a return in the pool and test the FC, it should test higher than the rest of the pool water FC. That can help you determine if the device *is* producing or not.

Maddie

 

[JamesW]

Output is scaled back to 20% at 60° F and output stops at 50° F. Cycle time is 180 minutes. So, at 100% on the dial, you should get 36 minutes of run time (100% x 20% x 180).

The instant salinity reading of 2,200 ppm is a problem.

Check the salinity with a good test kit like the K-1766.

Turn the switch off, then back on and recheck all diagnostic readings then do it again to switch polarity.

It's odd that the instant salinity is 2200 but the average is 3400. The average is the running average of the last few instant salinity readings.

Check the cell for scaling and clean if there is scale but only if there is scale.

 

[Meadow]

Rick, sounds like this is your first winter season with SWCG. I was on the same boat as you at one point until JamesW pulled out my ignorance about the SWCG system. My Hayward T-15 cell output is scaled back to 20% whenever our pool water temp falls below 63 deg F. Having said that, our SWCG is OFF since Nov last year and I've been manually adding bleach to maintain the chlorine level. Currently and as it has been for the past couple of months, our pool water average temp is 45-48 F, enough for FL pool owners to make me feel so jealous.

OTOH, the AQR "Generating" indicator light is some how very misleading. It remains lit even though the cell is not actually generating chlorine! In my case, the loss of tiny gas bubbles in the return lines are a good indicator.

As advised, a K-1766 test kit will serve you well years ahead. Also, you may want to consider turning off your SWCG to extend its useful life until your pool water temp climbed past the below threshold. Manually add bleach to maintain your chlorine level. Hope this helps!

 

[arjaygee]

Late getting back to this but thanks all for your responses. I did order (and receive) the K-1766 based on your collective advice - don't know why I didn't do this sooner. The good news is my salt level measures at 3,500 and the unit is displaying 3,200 instantaneous. I remember thinking the displayed value was low but maybe just noted it incorrectly. I agree that the light indicators are misleading and the manual only points out 50 deg F as the point no longer generating, along with a flashing generating LED (i.e. nothing about degradation leading to that point). Think I'll take Meadow's advice and shut the system off (or at least drop it down) until water temp climbs above 60 deg. To YippeeSkippy, the water is clear, so pretty certain I don't have an algae issue, especially given the 58 Deg water temp.

Hopefully I won't be back on this thread after the water temp climbs, complaining about my SWG still not working...
Thanks.