aquarite controller salt level reading vs tester / pool store

[ibreslin]

new to this forum, some great info in here, thanks!

I have low salt reading at the aqua-rite controller (2400) vs pool store / other tester (3200). is this always indicative of failing cell? This (I believe) is causing the cell to stop generating chlorine after just a few seconds.

I've tried resetting the salt level at the controller after cleaning the cell but when I try to reset, the current salt level starts the count down at 2500!

another thing, my seven year old controller has software revision shows R1.40, did the "select t-cell type" option come in after that? select t-cell type option (8 pushes of button) is not available on my controller, there are only seven options.​

 

[JasonLion]

No, salt reading low does not automatically mean the cell is at the end of it's life, though that is the most common cause.

Older controllers do not offer the cell type selection, and only work with with a few of the currently sold cells. The T-15 is fine on the older controllers, most of the other models are incompatible. Some of the incompatible cells will show an incorrect salt reading when you try to use them.

Low salt readings can be caused by calcium scaling on the cell plates. This can be checked by removing the cell and visually inspecting the cell plates. Calcium scale will show up as a chalky white residue on the cell plates.

The control unit does not have the ability to calibrate the salt level. You can only set it an instant salt reading, and it then starts averaging the salt reading from there. Since the instant reading always fluctuates quite a bit, the behavior you described is very common.