Pentair Intellichlor Ic40

[Krisher]

Last week I cam back home from working abroad and I noticed the lights on the SWG were blinking, High salt, but also the PWR light was reading Red. I opened the unit and realized it needed to be cleaned. I did and it looked fine. When I plugged it back in and had it up and running, the PWR light was still red. The CELL light was blinking green and the high salt light was blinking. I called Pentair and the rep wanted to know what I was reading on the panel. No communication. After opening the Easy Touch, I discovered whoever installed the pool didn't bother to connect the Intellichlor board and the easy touch panel. After a little help, I made a connection wire and the two units are communicating.

This is what the Intellichlor is listing under diagnostics:

CHLORINATOR INFO
SALT: 5150 ppm
STATUS
[CHECK FLOW/PCB}

I'm going to take a sample in tomorrow to be tested, but until then....anyone have any ideas what's wrong?

Thanks.

 

[Bama Rambler]

Was it working before you left?
What was the salt level prior to your leaving?
Has anybody been taking care of the pool while you've been gone?

What is the filter pressure?
What does the water look like?
Have you cleaned the screen at the cell?

 

[Krisher]

Yes. Pool was/is being taken care of. Pool was fine, in fact right before I left (Two weeks ago) I took a pool sample in and the water was perfect. Salt level was about 4200 (A little high for a Pentair SWG per pool store guy, but everything else was perfect). Last week I noticed the pool guy dumping two bottles (1 gallon each) of chlorine in the pool. He told me Chlorine level was zero. That's what started me investigating what had changed. First thing I did was clean the cell. (Pool guy has since opened the cell and said it looks great).

To answer your questions:

WIth the levels prefect without him adding anything, yes it must have been working.
Salt was 4200 ppm.
Yes. Weekly service.

Filter Pressure is 25 psi.
Water looks great.
Yes. I have cleaned the cell.

 

[Bama Rambler]

The next thing to do is have the salt level tested. Let us know what that tells you.

Also, Welcome to TFP.

 

[Krisher]

Thank you. Wish I would have found this site a year ago when we bought the house.

Here's the test result:

Total Hardness 750 ppm
Combined Available Chlorine 0.5 ppm
Free Available Chlorine 0.5
Water PH 7.8
Total Alkalinity 70
Cyanuric Acid 0
Phosphate 300 ppb
Salt 3500 ppm

 

[Krisher]

And water temp fluctuates from 79 degrees at night to about 83 during the day.

 

[Bama Rambler]

Have you added any CYA to your pool? I'm suspicious of that result unless you haven't added anything with CYA in it.

The cell reading higher than reality is uncommon. I suspect the tri-sensor. have you cleaned the cell, screen and sensor?

 

[Krisher]

I haven't added anything. What is CYA? (New pool owner)

I cleaned the cell two weeks ago. Is it a seperate proceedure to clean the screen and sensor?

 

[Bama Rambler]

CYA is stabilizer or conditioner. It should have been added when the water was added. It has nothing to do with the cell reading high salt though.

 

[Krisher]

Unrelated to the Intellichlor, the pool store said it might be time to drain and refill the pool. I know I haven't done it and I highly doubt the previous owners did. I believe the pool was built in 2007/8.

 

[RobbieH]

The only thing I see there showing any need to drain and refill is the high hardness level. But that could be caused by a number of things, including high CH in your fill water. So refilling may not help you. Let's discuss that more later.

Pool stores are notorious for having bad information. Most of them around me are run by people that do not have, and never have had, a pool in their life.

What does the weekly service do? With an SWG they usually only need to test your chemicals, possibly add some acid, and brush and clean. In your case, he should have told you that your CYA was low, and resolved this problem. Even pool people that don't know what they are doing will usually keep at least 30ppm in the pool.

 

[Krisher]

That's what the pool service is supposed to do. I'm pretty much taking lead on this at this point. Sadly, this is by far the best pool service I've had in the past year.

The water is definitely hard in our area so it doesn't surprise me considering I've had to top off the pool more than a few times due to kids and dog.

At this point, (recalibrating the Intellichlor, cleaning twice, etc I think it may be dead unless you can think of anything else) Something may have failed even though the cell says it's at 60% life. Might just be time to replace.

As far as the hardness goes, how can I resolve this? Could the lack of CYA be causing the Intellichlor problem? I assume they're unrelated, but I'm just starting to learn all this stuff.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks for all the advice in advance.