Could someone post pictures of the inside of Zodiac PLC1400 - odd request I know

[chris_r11]

Hello all.

I know this is an odd request, but could someone be kind enough post a couple pictures of the inside of their PLC1400 cell by Zodiac from the side closest to the 3 pins? The reason I would like a picture is that I received the newer cell model and I think part of the cell is broken off but I have nothing to compare it to. I was going to replace my older square cell and put this one in, when I noticed that the middle pin was pushed way down and not even with the others. Looking inside the cell, it seems that there is no support for the middle pin. It looks that there is some "rectangular" piece that hangs from the pin that I can see on the inside - I can spin the pin with my fingers and the part in the cell is not connected to anything which does not seem quite right to me.

I sent an email to the seller and he is a bit skeptical so I wanted to make sure it is not supposed to be that way before I ask for a new cell. I tried to do a web search, but there are no pictures of the inside that I could find.

Thanks,
Chris

 

[Xexys]

You caught me just in time as I'm installing this today...

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[chris_r11]

So, is there "some part of the cell" that is holding the middle pin up? Mine seems to have cracked off. Just trying to make sure I don't look like an idiot and try to return something that is not broken.

I will try to post a pic in a few minutes.

 

[chris_r11]

Here are a couple pictures. You can see in the top pick that the middle pin is depressed.

 

[Xexys]

Looking at mine more closely, I see that the pin is held up with a "substantial" piece of metal, I would say at least 3/8" wide. It does look like your cell is damaged in that the bottom picture shows a lesser amount of metal holding up your pin, almost half of what mine shows. Also, the middle electrical pin looks depressed in your photo. I think you should return the cell. Where did you get yours? I bought mine from amazon and got everything needed except the control box for less than $500.

 

[chris_r11]

Xexys,

Darn, but exactly what I thought.

Thanks for looking!
Chris

 

[Xexys]

You betcha, glad to help. As I said, you caught me just in time. I just got done with the install of my new salt cell and I'm glad to report things went well indeed. On my old cell I wasn't getting a reading for salinity or temperature and it wasn't producing chlorine for nearly a year. Now, everything works great! Waiting until tomorrow to run a full set of tests with my new TF-100 (Thanks Dave) + my salt water testing kit. Will post in the general section tomorrow with that.

 

[chris_r11]

Xexys,

Did you replace the older cell or just an easy swap out? I am wondering about the new cabling that is required. It does not look hard, just one more thing to take apart.

Chris

 

[Xexys]

I replaced the cell and the power cable + the flow salinity sensor and wiring. It was not hard at all. The main thing is that my front board was an old model with a different version of firmware. The wiring for the flow sensor came with an extender that had a small circuit board attached with a small button on it that enabled me to calibrate it after running the cell for at least 4 minutes. It's called a "tri-sensor". So, after the 4 minutes of running the cell, there is a small button on the tri-sensor that you press for 5 seconds. If done correctly, a small light will illuminate on the tri sensor. It really was easy and took me only about 40 minutes for the whole process.

Now I have everything working properly and can't wait to test the water tomorrow. The salinity sensor shows that I have 2800 ppm in salt so I will wait for tomorrow to come and check with my Taylor K-1766 salt kit to verify the numbers. Hopefully, I'll only have to add 2 1/2 40 lb bags or so to get it to my desired 3300-3400 ppm.

 

[chris_r11]

Xexys,

I will need the tri- sensor as well - that's mostly what I was getting at. I am hoping when I get this all behind me, it is more accurate than my 8 year old sensor is.

Thanks for all the feedback.
Chris

 

[Xexys]

The sensor is dead on accurate. Taylor K-1766 said I had 2800 ppm and the salt cell readout concurred. Came here to pool math and figured I needed 80 lbs of salt to get me to 3200 and lo and behold, 24 hrs later I'm at 3200 on the readout. Nice when things work out right! Now my time is going to be spent dialing in the chlorinator.