How to check salt level

[PhotoEd]

Curious,
Generally, how many bags/pounds of salt do you find yourself adding over a season?

I know all of the factors, but how many do YOU add?

 

[mas985]

Photoed,

I usually don't add salt during the year as I don't lose much but there is probably a good reason for that.

Normally, I have to replace some of the water in my pool due to high calcium around this time of year which I have already done. At this point, I have added the salt needed to bring the SWG back up to the proper value. However, we don't get much rain after this point, or really ever, so splash out is the only reason that I would need to add salt but I think that much of that is replaced by the small amount of salt we have in the fill water. And because we have high evaporation and no rain, I need lots of fill water which again adds lots of calcium to the water not to mention TA.

Strannik,

While increasing the voltage of the cell automatically at end of life might seem like a good idea, to me it masks the fact that the cell is failing. I would prefer that the chlorine drop which I measure weekly and would indicate to me that something was not quite right. Then if I notice the cell salt/amps level reading had dropped and assuming we haven't had any rain, it would indicate to me that the cell was nearing end of life which would allow me to prepare for that. In general, I am not a big fan of autocompensation of anything as it takes the owner out of the loop and can hide problems that may exist. Now if the cell were able to detect end of life and give you a warning with a time frame, I might reconsider.

 

[polyvue]

Curious,
Generally, how many bags/pounds of salt do you find yourself adding over a season?

I know all of the factors, but how many do YOU add?

ME adds two (2) 40 lb. bags of salt per year on average, attributable to water lost from splash-out and my love-to-spit-in-your-eye Polaris cleaner. More bags are added after partial drains.

 

[Strannik]

mas,

it doesn't
since it cannot auto compensate forever, after a while you will still get a warning to check cell (assuming the unit is equipped with such functionality). but it means you can use your cell for longer, instead of having to buy a new cell early.

it's hard to detect cell failing with 100% certainty, because a number of conditions can cause same behavior: low salt, low temperature, dirty cell, cell failing all appear the same to the controller. so unless your unit has a proper salt meter you won't be able to tell which one it is.
and then even if it does - it still cannot distinguish between failed cell and dirty cell, cause they behave the same.

hence why autochlor labels the appropriate warning light "Low salt/check cell"

 

[mas985]

since it cannot auto compensate forever, after a while you will still get a warning to check cell (assuming the unit is equipped with such functionality). but it means you can use your cell for longer, instead of having to buy a new cell early.

Couldn't I just add more salt to extend the life of the cell? Increasing voltage or salt accomplishes the same thing. Higher amps and higher chlorine production. Granted it is not as easy as autocompensation but without autocompensation, it would seem that I would get a warning earlier in the cell failure.

it's hard to detect cell failing with 100% certainty, because a number of conditions can cause same behavior: low salt, low temperature, dirty cell, cell failing all appear the same to the controller. so unless your unit has a proper salt meter you won't be able to tell which one it is.
and then even if it does - it still cannot distinguish between failed cell and dirty cell, cause they behave the same.

hence why autochlor labels the appropriate warning light "Low salt/check cell"

The Aqualogic also has a low salt warning light. But if I were to get a low salt light, there are several steps I could take to determine if the cell is faulty.

First, the Aqualogic salt readings stay fairly constant (+-100 ppm) with temperature all the way down to 50 degrees so that has never been an issue for me.

Second, if I check and clean the cell, then I have eliminated that as a reason.

Third, if I know there has not been any rain/spash out recently, I can eliminate that as well. If I did have that, then I would simply add salt.

So that only leaves a failing cell and I can confirm that with a salt test drop kit.

My orginal comment was that I didn't think periodic testing more than once a season was necessary unless of course the cell starts to fail. In fact, I have gone 4+ years testing salt levels with a test kit no more than once a year just to check the condition of the cell. Not everyone may be able to get away with this but it has worked out ok for me.

 

[Moniyque]

What brands are the ones you use in the shop that never fail?