I've suspected over the last few weeks that my Salt Generator hasn't been producing enough chlorine. I first wondered what-if back in March when I couldn't get my FC up after doing an AA treatment for iron. Things went ok until the heat of May hit and I couldn't keep it above 2.0 for any length of time. I left town for vacation on Friday afternoon and came home this morning to a fairly clear pool with some algae on the sides. My wife actually dropped me off at the office on the way into town, so I got the algae report 2nd hand. I've put (7) bottles of 182oz of chlorine in...but I digress.
The swg has the service light on. When I hit the button for salt concentration I get "---" When I hit the temp button I get, "HH" which means "Input has exceeded Maximum Range." Note that there is a different code when there is too much salt. I saw the other thread this morning about another guy having trouble with his swg keeping up and that all sort of sounded like my issue. I took the swg apart from the plumbing and it looked like a series of fins in each end. On the inflow end the fins looked clean. On the effluent end I saw what looked like rust or iron colored material on the fins. It wasn't in a rust pattern but rather a water flow pattern. I guess maybe 30% of the fins were covered. We do have hard water in my town. I did add about 2" of water on Friday, but that's all I've added probably since last summer. The pool was installed in August 07. I guess I assumed the scale would look like the mineral scale on a hot water heater element (white and crusty) instead of a compact, uniform rust. Is this the typical scale with the iron that's already in my pool just mixed in? If so, I assume I just do the acid treatment? Also, I don't have the spacer or plugs for this unit. I'll go ahead and order the spacer since I'll need it at some point in the future. For plugs, maybe just rubber bands and zip locs since hopefully the acid treatment won't last too long? Am I on the right track or does something else jump out?
Thanks so much for any advice anyone can offer.
FC 0.5
CC 2.0
pH 7.5
Alk - probably around 70.
CYA - it's around 60, but we did get a good bit of rain while it was gone. I'm pulling up around 70 after this is all over.
The swg has the service light on. When I hit the button for salt concentration I get "---" When I hit the temp button I get, "HH" which means "Input has exceeded Maximum Range." Note that there is a different code when there is too much salt. I saw the other thread this morning about another guy having trouble with his swg keeping up and that all sort of sounded like my issue. I took the swg apart from the plumbing and it looked like a series of fins in each end. On the inflow end the fins looked clean. On the effluent end I saw what looked like rust or iron colored material on the fins. It wasn't in a rust pattern but rather a water flow pattern. I guess maybe 30% of the fins were covered. We do have hard water in my town. I did add about 2" of water on Friday, but that's all I've added probably since last summer. The pool was installed in August 07. I guess I assumed the scale would look like the mineral scale on a hot water heater element (white and crusty) instead of a compact, uniform rust. Is this the typical scale with the iron that's already in my pool just mixed in? If so, I assume I just do the acid treatment? Also, I don't have the spacer or plugs for this unit. I'll go ahead and order the spacer since I'll need it at some point in the future. For plugs, maybe just rubber bands and zip locs since hopefully the acid treatment won't last too long? Am I on the right track or does something else jump out?
Thanks so much for any advice anyone can offer.
FC 0.5
CC 2.0
pH 7.5
Alk - probably around 70.
CYA - it's around 60, but we did get a good bit of rain while it was gone. I'm pulling up around 70 after this is all over.