Burned out interface and cord

Jump to latest Follow Reply
M

Mandela

0
Oct 30, 2018
58
Tampa
Salt water pool with Auto Pilot Digital Nano +


Disclosure: I'm Scottish. We don't have pools in Scotland. We have puddles, lots of puddles, so that's my level of experience.

Got the house 3 weeks ago, in Tampa . Pool looked great. Went to pinch a penny as advised by people and they gave me salt, acid and stuff to put in the skimmer. Great.

A few days later I was checking out all the equipment and noticed that there was a red light on the pool pilot: "Low amps: Cell?". So my investigations started with google searches which led me here. From everything I read i looked at the salt cell and it was completely white with calcium. I mean covered. You couldn't even see the blades so it had obviously been neglected. Again, more searching here and I ended up acid washing it (4 times). Good news was i could see the blades, bad news was the outer ones were worn down and with 48k hours from what I read it needed replaced. Phoned Autopilot and ordered a new cell and cable.

They just arrived so i ran out to switch them in. My excitement was short lived as when I took the cable out of the pool pilot box one of the prongs was completely burned away. I got my phone under the box to get a picture of the inlet and that is also burned away. Pic below (hopefully).

1zvtnh4.jpg


I didn't want to install my new cable and cell into that burned out inlet in case it destroyed them too so I've currently just left the old cable disconnected (no cable from pool pilot box to cell) but have left the pump running. Is that advisable?

Back to google and here and I think I need a new pool pilot interface - is that what has burned out? This thing:

AutoPilot Pool Pilot Experts | SaltPoolGuys.com


If so, I can order one but will this be simple to install? I'm not particularly skilled at anything DIY.

Also, what's the root cause here? Is it the neglect of the cell led to more volts being required which burned out the interface? Or is there something else i'm missing that i will need to resolve?

...or should I just quit trying to fix this myself and just get an expert in?
 
Hi again, Mandela. Sorry, I don't know the first thing about this product. Never even heard of it before now. I would send an email to both AutoPilot and SaltPoolGuys, with the same image attached, and see what they say. Include whatever model and serial numbers you can find. The part you linked certainly seems to be the right one, but at almost a hundred bucks I'd want that confirmed by the manufacturer. Share your concern about DIYing this. See what they say about that, too. See if either company will accept the whole thing and fix it for you. Etc. Or maybe the manufacturer can point you to a local retailer or installer with the expertise to repair this on site.

Without seeing more of this unit, or being there, it'd be hard for me to guess how much trouble this would be to DIY.

As Kim suggested in your other thread, you could (should!) proceed with caring for your pool without this thing. Just do what the rest of the world does, that don't have an SWG, and dose your pool manually with liquid chlorine. If you have to do a SLAM, you're not going to be using your SWG for that anyway, that's done with manual dosing.

Just checked, they're in Florida:

Contact AutoPilot | Salt Chlorine Generators

Looks like their headquarters are less than 30 minutes from you! Drive over there and bang on their front door until they fix it for you. I bet they give you a great price, or maybe even for free, ya never know.
 
Dirk said:
Hi again, Mandela. Sorry, I don't know the first thing about this product. Never even heard of it before now. I would send an email to both AutoPilot and SaltPoolGuys, with the same image attached, and see what they say. Include whatever model and serial numbers you can find. The part you linked certainly seems to be the right one, but at almost a hundred bucks I'd want that confirmed by the manufacturer. Share your concern about DIYing this. See what they say about that, too. See if either company will accept the whole thing and fix it for you. Etc. Or maybe the manufacturer can point you to a local retailer or installer with the expertise to repair this on site.

Without seeing more of this unit, or being there, it'd be hard for me to guess how much trouble this would be to DIY.

As Kim suggested in your other thread, you could (should!) proceed with caring for your pool without this thing. Just do what the rest of the world does, that don't have an SWG, and dose your pool manually with liquid chlorine. If you have to do a SLAM, you're not going to be using your SWG for that anyway, that's done with manual dosing.

Just checked, they're in Florida:

Contact AutoPilot | Salt Chlorine Generators

Looks like their headquarters are less than 30 minutes from you! Drive over there and bang on their front door until they fix it for you. I bet they give you a great price, or maybe even for free, ya never know.
Click to expand...
Hmm...

I just spent the best part of $500 on a new salt cell and cord but I could return them, I guess. I tend to travel with work too though and I don't see my missus getting her hands dirty with the pool so the salt cell will be useful when i'm not here.

I'll be phoning Autopilot today to talk it through with them. They were extremely helpful before and and they don't sell direct so no concern about being misold. They pointed me to a number of retailers in my area for the salt cell and cord. I ended up going via Salt Pool Guys. At least now i know that manually treating my pool is an option so I'll get onto that today today. The pool is a mild yellow color so not too far gone. If I can manage it manually until the equipment is fixed I'll be happy with that.

My only real concern is why the breaker didn't trip before letting it burn out like that. Surely it should've tripped? Now I'm thinking I may have a problem there too...but I'll talk it through with Autopilot today.
 
Thanks, James. That's definitely the part I need. i confirmed with AutoPilot earlier so I'm just sourcing it now. I can get it for $40 elsewhere but not sure how long delivery will take. I might end up just paying more from SPG as i know they're trusted.

I've also been assured it's a straightforward swap out so hopefully i can do it myself.
 
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