Replacement for SWG? - not sure that it is working

[Richard_S]

Hi all,

I have a SWG which was installed when the pool was constructed - about 5 years ago - and not sure that it is actually doing anything or working properly.

1) To keep the pool at approx 3-4ppm of FC I need to add approx 4-6 tablets of slow release chlorine in the baskets each week. If I don't then the FC levels drop to close on zero. At the start of the season I flushed out the cells with muriac acid to get rid of any scaling but this has made no difference. The salt content is at around 4200-4500 which is about 500 above the working level of the machine, as this is mentioned somewhere on this site as the "correct" level to operate at.

1) If the pump and system is running at least 12hrs/day - pool is at 28/29C (heated by the Sun) and the CYA levels are at about 80 and the PH at about 7.5 I would have thought this to be the correct operating time. Is there any way to test if the cell is producing chlorine?

2) Assuming that it has died, because it's a cheap install, can anyone recommend a suitable replacement? I would also be interested in machinery that runs at a lower salt PPm level if that's possible. The Pool is a liner pool with approx. 90,000 litres or 23,000 US gallons of water being heated by the sun in SW France. It needs to be as maintenance free as possible as it's a rental property.

thanks for any help on this,

R.

 

[jblizzle]

Cells seem to last 3-5 years, so your could be going bad. Careful with how many tablets you are using as they will raise your CYA too high

Try turning the SWG up to 100% (which will ensure it is "generating") and take a water sample directly from the return water ... that should show a higher FC level than the bulk of the pool.

What unit do you have? You can likely just replace the cell. We always recommend sizing the cell 1.5-3 times larger than the pool ... so a cell designed for a 40k gallon pool would be good.

The SWG do not make the pool maintenance free. While they do add the required FC everyday, you have to keep a close eye on the pH as SWGs tend to make the pH drift up.

 

[Richard_S]

thanks for that. I have a sneaky suspicion that the cell is no longer doing it's stuff. It was an "all in one" package when installed, and as I had not yet found this forum I was probably conned... I was very much a novice as to what to expect. The first year I did absolutely nothing, including no testing nor adding salt....but I realised by the second year that it might be a good idea if I actually knew something about my pool!...Once I had been here and seen all the info my eyes were opened and I've suffered sleepless nights since, working out my PHs, CYA, TAs, FCs and CCs and that's just the ones that come to mind right now... Huge amounts of money and hours of research have been expended keeping it crystal clear....The water quality is now so good I am thinking of bottling and selling it at the local market.

The system is an Aqualyse 80 - http://www.corelec.eu/index_en.cfm?sect ... t=aqualyse have you come across this system before?

 

[jblizzle]

Well the first thing I see is that the Aqualyse 80 (I had never heard of it) is designed for pools up to 80 m3 (your pool is 90 m3 right?). So it was certainly undersized from the start. We would recommend something in the 120 m3 - 240 m3 sized cell.

It may be possible for you to just replace the cell with the Aqualyse 120 ... but I can not be sure if the same controller works for all their cell sizes.

Or you may have to look for an entirely new setup ... and apparently what you have available sounds much different than what we have available to us.

 

[Richard_S]

Jason,

yes - I spotted that. The calculation of 90m3 is based on measurements of the pool made by me. Even with a ten percent variance this SWG is undersized. The reality is that the Aqualyse 120 is still too small so I need to go for a new box as well as new cell if I am to follow your & TFP suggestions of a system 1.5-3x (lets say 2x for argument) so now the floodgates are open to suggestions....