Is the SWG dying or is it something else?

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Dabby

Dabby

0
Aug 16, 2010
54
Saginaw, TX
A couple of months ago, the display was indicating low salt, 2600. I cleaned the cell which had some deposits, and added 40 lbs of salt and it increased to 2800 as expected. I added another 40 lbs, but no change was indicated.

Everything worked fine until recently. The salt level kept decreasing until finally the generator shut itself off saying extremely low salt level. It indicated 2300 before it shut down. There has been no significant rain or overflow that I am aware of.

I checked the cell again and it had no visible deposits. I cleaned it anyway, but that made no difference. I am going to have the water tested (Leslie's), but from what I read on the forum, the tests can vary greatly. In the event the tests don't show a low salt level, is there something else I can check before shelling out $400-$500 for a new cell?

The cell is a T-Cell-15. It was installed with the pool in Sept 2010. I run the generator at 30% or less all year. Is there something I can be doing that would lessen the life span? Everyone else I see on the forum is getting over twice the life out of theirs.
 
The pool store should be accurate enough for the salt test. This test will eliminate a lot of guessing on our part. A lot of times when a SWG starts reporting a low salt level the cell is starting to die. You should always test the salt level prior to adding any salt.

Have you needed to clean the cell often, each cleaning will reduce the cell life some. Are you running the pump 24/7 along with the 30% setting?

Post all of the test results you can get. Of course the best results would be from a reliable test kit, but for now we will live by what you can get.
 
Ok, the salt tested 3400 at Leslie's, so low salt is not the problem.

I have a variable speed pump. During the summer, I run it on high for three hours while the pool cleaner is running, then on low for 11 hours with the SWG set at 25-30%. In the winter, the run times are 2 hours on high and 10 hours on low with the SWG usually less than 15%.

I don't have auto-fill. It is connected to the sprinkler system and is on a timer.

The cleaning I did a couple of months ago was the first acid soak I've done. I used a ratio of 4 parts acid to 1 part acid. Before, I had only sprayed it out and I only did that maybe 3 times.

I am off to have Lesle's test the cell. I'll post the results when I get back. I will also post my other test results.

This is really going to suck if the cell lasted less than 3 years.
 
Get the cell tested, but it seems to be failing. It does seem like you didn't get as much out of it as it should have, but there might be some things you can do to get some more life out of future cells. You have long run times for the pump and depending on what chem levels you are maintaining you might be able to make some adjustments to help you out in the future.
 
Well the cell failed the test. :grrrr:

When I tested this morning:
FC = .5 (I've raised to 3.5 with bleach)
CC = 0
pH = 7.8 (I've lowered to 7.5)
TA = 60
CHA = 700 (another issue)
CYA =70

What adjustments can I make?
 
Since the FC dropped so low, I'd put in enough to raise the FC up to 8 ppm. FC 3 ppm is as low as you should ever let get down to.

What are your target levels for FC and has the SWG been maintaining those levels with your above settings? If the CYA was low, then that would have been the main adjustment that you could have made.

From all the information you have listed, I don't see much else that can be done to improve the cell life. They say you should expect 3-5 year life span for the cell, you almost got three and your pool size is large, so I would say you got the bare minimum expected life span out of the cell.

By chance is it covered under a 3 year warranty? If this was a new pool install you might have a 3 year warranty, worth a check.
 
Ok, I'll add more bleach. Should I try to keep it around 8 ppm? Since I've never had to add my own chlorine before, how much bleach and how often should I expect to be adding? Just need to know how many gallons to have on hand.

With the CYA at 70, I was trying to keep the chlorine at around 5 ppm, but I was usually having a hard time keeping it down. It was always high and I had to keep adjusting the SWG down. The CYA never got below 60 before I added more. Would keeping the CYA higher help?

I sent an email to Hayward, and I plan on calling them if I don't hear from them by next weekend. I think we are right at the end of three years. Hopefully they'll help.
 

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:shock: Wow, that is way shorter than what I'm doing. I remember reading when we first got the pool that you should run the pump long enough to turn the pool over 1 1/2 times. According to this article, I should be running the pump 8 hours instead of the 14 hours I'm doing now. If I only run the pump 8 hours, what time of day would be the best time to start?
 
'There isn't a best time to run a pool that fits everyone. Some people get electrical rate discounts for running at night so they take advantage of those times. Others want to take advantage of their water features and run at the time that fits their schedule. Then their are some who break the run times in to segments; morning, evening, night, or what works best for them.
 
Ideally running the swg during the sun hours reduces it's total workload since it can maintain an FC, as compared to a night run time where it must overshoot some to have some still left the next night to protect against algae. However, this decrease in cell life due running at night in tiered markets can be dwarfed by the difference in the tier pricing.
 
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