I am a 3 year pool owner with limited experience had pool installed 3 years ago. The pool is 33000 gallons of inground vinyl lined. This pool has been a great experience until this year. The salt has been great and my wife loves it!! This year the chlorine went to 0 and after working the the local pool company they told me my salt cell must be shot. I bought a new one that day and installed it myself a couple days later. Since the installation in early July I have spent a huge amount of money getting the chemicals balance to allow the chlorinator to do it's job. Now a month later I am completely confident the chlorinator is not producing chlorine. The PH was perfect along with other chemicals and after boosting about 6 times there is still no chlorine in the pool. I now believe the original chlorinator was not the problem, but I have not installed the old one yet. Both the old and new chlorinators are reading high salt and when I take water in for a test the salt level is around 3000 which is below where Pentair tells me it needs to be to work properly. I have not test OHMS or voltage because that intimidates me a bit. Any suggestions are appreciated.
brand new Pentair IC 40 will not produce salt
- Thread starter jlilley
- Start date
If your current chlorine is still zero, as your post suggests, you need to IMMEDIATELY get some clorox in your pool.
Can you post a complete set of test results?
Can you post a complete set of test results?
Welcome to TFP!
There are quite a few things that can cause chlorine to test at zero even when the SWG is working perfectly. Also, I wouldn't trust pool store test results. While the SWG can be wrong about the salt level, it is far more likely for the SWG to read lower than actual, and incredibly rare for it to read higher than actual. The chances are high that it is the pool store that is wrong about the salt level.
I would start by posting a full set of water test results, a description of how the water looks, and are you seeing any error lights other than high salt on the SWG?
There are quite a few things that can cause chlorine to test at zero even when the SWG is working perfectly. Also, I wouldn't trust pool store test results. While the SWG can be wrong about the salt level, it is far more likely for the SWG to read lower than actual, and incredibly rare for it to read higher than actual. The chances are high that it is the pool store that is wrong about the salt level.
I would start by posting a full set of water test results, a description of how the water looks, and are you seeing any error lights other than high salt on the SWG?
Here are the readings from my last four tests on ClearCare Expert Water Analysis from my pool company
Test Name Acceptable Rating 8-10-13 8-7-13 8-3-13 7-29-13
Free Available Chlorine 1 to 4 ppm 1.5* 0 .73 0
Total Chlorine 1 to 4 ppm 2.25* 0 .95 .23 *After the 8-7-13 test we were told to added chlorine Super Soluble so add 22 lbs along with 4 chlorine tablets.
Combined Chlorine < 0.2 ppm .75 0 .22 .23
pH Level 7.2 To 7.6 6.7 7.2 7.2 7.1
Total Alkalinity Input 102 111 199 122
Total Alkalinity Adjusted 60 To 120 ppm 69 80 168 74
Calcium Hardness 200 To 500 ppm 182 212 256 228
Cyanuric Acid 20 to 50 ppm 98 92 93 145
Salt 2500 to 4000 2950 3000 3000 3000
Saturation Index -0.3 to 0.3 -0.8 -0.2 0.1 -0.3
The water is currently clear but not as clear as it was before we started having these problems. Pryor to this problem starting the end of June our water pretty much sparkled. Since opening the pool this year (late May) the chlorine was testing high each test
around 10 which I think is where the test machines stop. In June the chlorinator was turned off for about two weeks trying to bring Chlorine level down. That mission was accomplished. It was shortly after this that the pool turned completely gray and cloudy where I could not see 2 feet into the pool. I have spent a lot of money getting chemicals being told that the chlorinator would only work with chemicals perfect so I just kept buying what they told me. That was more than $2500 ago in the last 6 weeks. I am getting desperate and my wife very much prefers the salt water to normal chlorine.
Since at this point I feel like I don't know anything about pools any questions or other information needed I am happy to provide. I am in central IL and the weather has not been a negative for the last month and I do have an auto cover so I don't think weather is a factor.
Test Name Acceptable Rating 8-10-13 8-7-13 8-3-13 7-29-13
Free Available Chlorine 1 to 4 ppm 1.5* 0 .73 0
Total Chlorine 1 to 4 ppm 2.25* 0 .95 .23 *After the 8-7-13 test we were told to added chlorine Super Soluble so add 22 lbs along with 4 chlorine tablets.
Combined Chlorine < 0.2 ppm .75 0 .22 .23
pH Level 7.2 To 7.6 6.7 7.2 7.2 7.1
Total Alkalinity Input 102 111 199 122
Total Alkalinity Adjusted 60 To 120 ppm 69 80 168 74
Calcium Hardness 200 To 500 ppm 182 212 256 228
Cyanuric Acid 20 to 50 ppm 98 92 93 145
Salt 2500 to 4000 2950 3000 3000 3000
Saturation Index -0.3 to 0.3 -0.8 -0.2 0.1 -0.3
The water is currently clear but not as clear as it was before we started having these problems. Pryor to this problem starting the end of June our water pretty much sparkled. Since opening the pool this year (late May) the chlorine was testing high each test
around 10 which I think is where the test machines stop. In June the chlorinator was turned off for about two weeks trying to bring Chlorine level down. That mission was accomplished. It was shortly after this that the pool turned completely gray and cloudy where I could not see 2 feet into the pool. I have spent a lot of money getting chemicals being told that the chlorinator would only work with chemicals perfect so I just kept buying what they told me. That was more than $2500 ago in the last 6 weeks. I am getting desperate and my wife very much prefers the salt water to normal chlorine.
Since at this point I feel like I don't know anything about pools any questions or other information needed I am happy to provide. I am in central IL and the weather has not been a negative for the last month and I do have an auto cover so I don't think weather is a factor.
Above I created a chart with my last 4 water tests but the posting removed the spaces for the chart.
The tests were August 10; August 7; August 3; and July 29 the numbers in each row represent the tests in this order. It was very clear before I hit submit sorry!
The tests were August 10; August 7; August 3; and July 29 the numbers in each row represent the tests in this order. It was very clear before I hit submit sorry!