SWG and pump optimization

[XsAllOverIt]

I've finally gotten my SWG running. I've got my pool cover off and I'm getting the following:

FCL 8.5
CC 0.5
ALY 70
CH 220
CYA 52
pH 7.5
Temp - approximately 70 deg F.

I run my pump 24 hours a day and my Intellichlor is set at 20% (lowest setting). I've got my pool cover off in an attempt to burn off some of the chlorine. I don't like to stop my pump since I'm about 2' higher than water level and don't want to be absent when the pump is struggling to prime. I've run the pump 24 hours/day since we had water in it in November last year.

1. Is there any way I can get the Chlorine down to 3-5 without doing some plumbing work.
2. My SWG is on yellow - LOW salt even though I've tested salt at 3720-4200 throughout the past week. I cleaned out the SWG once with a hose and nothing appears to be on the fins anywhere. I turned off the power supply and the electrical box with no success. Any suggestions?

 

[JohnT]

Equipment 2' higher than the water shouldn't give you any priming problems. You can put a good quality check valve in front of the pump inlet and it should prime immediately.

 

[XsAllOverIt]

Explain to me how the check valve works. How would the water stay resident in the pipe when it could flow back down hill. When I open the skimmer, would the check valve keep the water from draining away also? That's what I run into each time. The pump doesn't have any real hard time getting prime again, but I normally move the valves around so most of the water is coming from the spa drain which is much higher and when primed, I turn the spa drain off again since the entire system is plumbed together and I want waterfall effect going from the spa. It usually takes seconds for it to self-prime. Provided is a picture of my set up. The deck level is approximately 12" below the floor of the pool house. The pump is inside the pool house on the floor. The spa is probably slightly higher than the pump.

 

[XsAllOverIt]

I may also want to say how I normally have the configuration. I've got incoming from both skimmers and very small amount from main drain. I never take water from spa drain unless I'm only running spa due to the fact that it resultantly drains the spa. Outgoing is 1/2 jets from spa and 1/2 from returns in the pool, so it's really hard to get prime from skimmers, right?

 

[JasonLion]

A check valve only allows water to flow in one direction. It is like a door that only opens in one direction and springs closed again if nothing is pushing against it.

 

[susa]

>> Is there any way I can get the Chlorine down to 3-5 without doing some plumbing work.

yes there is. since we both run IC40 & IntelliChlor xformer, I purchased a simple Voltage Control Relay (Macromatic in my sig) which turns on intelligently the IntelliChlor when power exceeds ~160-165 watts and otherwise keeps the cell Off, allowing me also to run multiple slow filtering schedules in addition to running 3 days a week 24 hours/day at below 90 watts of power.

>> My SWG is on yellow - LOW salt even though I've tested salt at 3720-4200.

In my case I finally solved the issue of calibration (steps are posted somewhere on forum..) by purchasing a Pentair IntelliWand which tells me precisely what the IC40 *thinks* the parameters are, it may report *totally* different results from your own tests and I calibrate according to the cell report. Example here