pentair intelichlor "COM LINK ERROR"

[armstrr]

ok, so the obvious cause of this is the cable is damaged or not fully plugged in. i have disconnected and reconnected several times and still get this error.

I opened the pool a few days ago with the dummy cell in place during the initial clean up. once the water was above 60 deg, i installed the cell which gave me a low salt indication (which i expected). over the course of the day, i gradually added 8 40lb bags of salt. the easytouch panel under the diagnostic menu told me i went from 1650ppm to 2650ppm. a few hours after the last 2 bags were added i came back to this error, and have had it since.

so i am tempted to muck around with the pins...ie bend them slightly, or put an electronics type cleaner on them. and perhaps reinstall the dummy cell and see if i can check the cord connections in the cell.

i have been in contact with Pentair. They are currently reviewing. I purchased the easytouch with intelichlor, intelibrites, inteliflo and cartridge filter in july 2011 and the swg went into service in may of 2012. (build date is 30/11/11). Since i bought 3 or more pieces at once, they may warranty it, but i'm curious if anyone has run into this and if there is a possible fix that could save the cell.

thanks in advance

 

[257WbyMag]

Welcome to TFP!

Sit tight and someone with relevant experience will be by to help you.

 

[cadillac]

could be the cell or the board in the easytouch, hard to say which.

 

[geekfamily]

This is probably a long shot...but I have a new pool and got the same thing. Turned out I was getting that error when the IC was not actively on. Meaning my pump was running for some water features...but the IC does not "turn on" (green lights) during that time...so it had com error. I would have thought the IC would be able to communicate even if it was not currently activated. Again, probably not your issue...but wanted to mention it, as it had me confused for awhile.

 

[blakeusa]

Have you powered off your circuit breakers and reset the control panel.

Also try under the Easytouch Menu to turn ON and OFF the SWG to see if it recognizes the cell. Just make sure when you are pluging and unplugging the cell to the power center, the power is OFF.

 

[armstrr]

Thanks for the responses.

Yes, I have turned breaker off, and on and disconnected the unit (with breaker off). so far nothing.

Pentair is coming good on replacing the unit (I agreed to pay shipping...), so that is at least a positive. dealing with them was fairly painless other than waiting on hold for approx. 15 min....but it was a Monday morning call.

update:
I wandered out and confirmed that it still didn't "work". I did a reset on the easytouch as well.

The cell itself does light up, so it is getting power. I have green lights for flow and salt, but not on power...(obviously). my belief was that the unit, once plugged into the easytouch would not operate if it did not communicate. on a whim, I slid the plastic cover of the swg cell up to expose the buttons and I hit the + button. to my surprise, I was able to activate the cell! the power light came on and I can set it from 20 to 100%. obviously, one of the features of buying the swg with the easytouch combo is finer control of the percentage the swg is powered on (1 percent increments, I believe), however, at this point, i'll take the rough control in 20 percent increments! the replacement cell is on its way to me, but It looks like my cell is functioning, just not communicating with or controlled by the control panel. wish I figured this out before I rushed out to buy chlorine tablets! but oh well.