repair or refurbish SWG cell?

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pcmacd

pcmacd

Well-known member
Oct 3, 2010
125
Maricopa County, AZ
Forgive me if this has been hashed over before, but I could not sufficiently narrow the search to get to this question?

My ~2 year old pool in my newly acquired home has a dead SWG. Hayward and the buyer's warranty won't cover a new one because it was not properly maintained. I gave it a soak as recommended by the pool store guy and the special fixture instructions. I went about 2x the time and it was still boiling off calcium. Dead. Period.

I've found services that refurbish the cells.

1) I'd like to know of the group's experience with this process

2) what do I put in place of the SWG while it is in the shop?

A photo of the plumbing should be here someplace.

tanks

20171017_161721.jpg
 
The only refurbishment they can do is to dissolve the scale. Repeat the cleaning until it stops bubbling, but follow the cleaning procedure each time. It may work after you've done enough to remove the majority of the scale. Don't poke it to remove scale.

Have you used dry acid in the pool (the powdered stuff?). If so it may just recur. If not, once you get that cell or a new cell working, you can prevent scale build-up with good water chemistry.

Good luck with it and nice to meet you via TFP :)
 
Under the bar code is the only thing?

It is said to be w/in the 3 year limit. The tech says it was not cared for correctly and the vendor refused to honor the warranty.

It still has significant calcium in it. My TA is 150 and I've been trying to lower it.

Fool at Leslie's in Awhatukee knew it was a salt pool and gave me 2 packs of calcium shock. When I got home and read the label I knew not to put it in.

So, I can change out the pool water easy enough... it would likely be pointless to run the thing with the TA this high?
 
Use a 4:1 water to acid ratio and let that sit inside the cell until the bubbling stops. Once the cell is clean it could very well work again. If not, take it to another authorized Hayward dealer and let them replace it. A cell needs to be completely clean of scale before a rep will replace it.

Post all of the chemistry numbers along with what test kit was used and we will let you know on how to proceed with balancing the water so the cell doesn't build up with calcium.
 
I really wouldn’t bother with a refurb company. There’s no way to “service” these cells beyond what you are already doing. Anything further would require cutting open the cell body, attempting to replace the plates and then resealing the PVC body again. The chances of that lasting more than a year are slim-to-none and you’ll waste more time, money and effort trying to deal with that. Hayward replacement cells run around $500 and often can cost less with sales. There’s no need for a professional installation as a cell replacement is simply swapping the old bad one out with a new one.

If you can’t get your current cell running after a complete acid cleaning, then I suggest tossing it and getting a new one. If funds are tight, Hayward sells a winterizing dummy tube that will fit into the spot the SWG cell currently takes up and you can simply manually chlorinate the pool until you can save up for a new cell.
 
Thanks to you all.

Please have a look at the valve arrangements and speculate as to whether or not I can bypass the cell while running the pump.

My last pool had truly simple plumbing compared to this sucker. I'm just starting to figure it out.

There are lots more photos of the plumbing @my dropbox link, which might take a few minutes to upload:

Dropbox - Pool Images

tanks agin

mac
 
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You'd need to change some plumbing to bypass it. An SWG cell is just money in the bank as far as chlorinating goes, you'll be buying the next 4/5 years of chlorine all at once. Your other option is to just run it with water flowing through it, that's perfectly alright. Or if you want to own a dummy cell (in winter you could put your cell inside), then you can order this and have it in a few days.
Hayward Straight Pipe Placeholder For Turbo Cell - GLX-CELL-PIPE - INYOPools.com
 

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pcmacd said:
Did you have a look at the valve configuration around the SWG? I haven't had time to try it, but it might be possible to bypass it.

tanks
Click to expand...
Yep I did look at it and you can't bypass the SWCG in the current configuration. It's fine to just run water through the SWCG with it turned off. If it's heavily scaled that might restrict flow a bit, hence why you might want to clean it.
 
Thanks to everyone.

I've put the SWG in a stand and have been boiling calcium out of it for over several hours. Changed the water, flushed the cell with clear soft water, put it back and put in a new 4:1 water/HCL, and it boils still.

After the first HCL boil, I put it under a tap in my garage sink and got all manner of black/gray, very soft stuff out of it? What's that? Calcium plus HCl should yield calcium chloride, which is white or clear. Must be other minerals in the pool... I expect copper, but not for sure yet.

Can 'yall look at the plumbing configuration in my initial post? I've never seen such complex plumbing on a pool. My 30+ years in Kalifornia with a simple Anthony Pool was pale in comparison to the complexity of this sucker.

THE QUESTIONS ARE:

--> The way the valve shown is set, is any water AT ALL going thru the SWG?

It is pointing at "RETURNS" and not at the SWG.

---> what the what is a "QUICK SKIM?"

and,

---> What's the gray stuff flushing out of the SWG after the initial acid soak?


It took me too long to realize that the arrows on the valve don't matter; it is where the valve handle is pointed that does!!!

swg boiling 20180315_123524.jpg
 
If black stuff is coming out, that could be the coating itself. The plates are constructed of titanium and are coated with a thin film of transition metals (mostly ruthenium with rhodium, platinum or iridium added). If the coating wears off in one spot, the acid can attack the coating/titanium interface and lift it off.

I’d stop acid washing it and try to visually inspect the cell under a very bright light. My guess is the cell plates are completely shot.
 
It's a bit of a tricky camera angle, something from a little farther out would be helpful, but here's what I think.

All the water after the filter goes through the SWG cell, and it's flowing upward through it. It looks like the pipe coming out of the filter toward the pool was modified and goes down just below ground level, then comes back up into the SWG cell. This might have been done because the SWG was added after the original construction, and whoever did it needed a bit more length to install the cell.

No idea re: quick skim. If it were mine, I'd turn the 3-way valve part way to allow a small amount of the return water to flow through it and see where it comes out. Maybe there's some returns closer to the surface or something.

Sounds like that cell is very heavily scaled. The grey stuff might just be accumulation of debris that was getting caught around the scale, but I truly have little idea. It should stop bubbling soon! Either way, cleaning it is the only way to find out if it will ever work again.
 
Returns is the pipe heading toward your return jets in the side of the pool. With the valve set as it is in the picture, all the flow from the pump in the picture is going to those return jets.
 
needsajet said:
It's a bit of a tricky camera angle, something from a little farther out would be helpful, but here's what I think.

All the water after the filter goes through the SWG cell, and it's flowing upward through it. It looks like the pipe coming out of the filter toward the pool was modified and goes down just below ground level, then comes back up into the SWG cell. This might have been done because the SWG was added after the original construction, and whoever did it needed a bit more length to install the cell.

No idea re: quick skim. If it were mine, I'd turn the 3-way valve part way to allow a small amount of the return water to flow through it and see where it comes out. Maybe there's some returns closer to the surface or something.
Click to expand...

needsajet has nailed it, I think. Easy enough to verify if you need to see it for yourself. That soil looks soft, just carefully dig up just below the SWG, you'll see that it's just a U that comes from your filter. The SWG was probably added after the original plumbing, and that's how they fitted it in. No mystery there.

And he's already told you how to figure out what quick skim is. Just turn it on and see what it does! Turning it only part way on at first, so some of the water still flows to the returns, is prudent, in case that pipe leads nowhere for some reason or someone plumbed something stupid, whatever. But if you don't hear the pump labor while turning it part way on, then crank it! If the result somehow helps your skimming (throw a few ping pong balls on the surface to see if skimming is improved), then you've got a handy option when leaves fall. Otherwise, just ignore it and run it in full "return" mode.

You've actually got a pretty simple system. No solar, no water features, no spa, no actuators. EZPZ. Just skimmer, drains, vacuum, returns and mystery skim, which you'll have figured out in a jiff. That's almost as basic as there is. Relax, man, go for a swim!! ;)
 

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