AquaLogic Showing Low salt even though it is not

[smosh2002]

First time poster,

Just got home from vacation pool looking a bit green chlorine at 0,

Looked at the control panel For my Hayward Aqua Logic AQL-P-4 shows low salt. I just added a bunch of salt about a month ago and it was working fine.
I used Aquachek test strips and it shows about 3000ppm my SWG shows 1900 but the instant salt shows about ~2300. The cell keeps shutting itself off after initially turning on since it is reading the salt as being too low. I was finally able to save the instant salt so that the SWG would stay on but its still only showing at 2300 PPM

After researching I read a lot of the issue with the soldering on the back of the board for the K1 spot. From what I was reading people having this issue there is no power actually getting to the cell at all. I looked at the back of my board to check just in case and there is a little black dot in the middle of the solder but no other black areas around it on the board.

I was not able to go into Leslies yet since I just got home but plan on going in tomorrow. I just wanted to see if I could get some advice here. Do you think it is time to replace the cell? From what I have learned here on how to tell how old the cell is, it shows 1206 in the number as the date so I don't believe it is to old. (We just moved into this house about 6 months ago)

Any advice would be greatful>

Pool size: 13000 Gallons
system: Aqua Logic AQL-P-4
SWG: Turbocell t-15

Also need to mention I just cleaned the cell right before I left. Checked it again and it still looks clean.

Will get water and swg tested at Leslies tomorrow.

 

[JasonLion]

Welcome to TFP!

That does sound like a worn out cell. To confirm, get a diagnostic reading, press the diagnostic button and write down the sequence of numbers it reports.

 

[smosh2002]

Welcome to TFP!

That does sound like a worn out cell. To confirm, get a diagnostic reading, press the diagnostic button and write down the sequence of numbers it reports.

Hey Jason, Thank you for taking the time to help me out.

I came home after work and turned my filter on and it showed chlorinator off low volts and when I looked at the diagnostic screen as soon as the SWG would attempt to turn on it would show a bunch of random numbers then went to 0000ppm which seems to be the same error everyone else was getting with the K1 solder issue.

I still took the cell to Leslies and they said it failed. Not sure how much I should trust their test they used the same test water in my cell that the used in someone elses cell, would that be an issue?

Either way I tried to re-solder the K1 spot and re-cleaned the cell for a longer period of time. Put everything back together and turned on the system and it seemed to have worked ok, cell seems to be reading salt extra low but it stayed on. Then I turned it off and on again to see what it did then it would give me a different set of numbers. Did this about 4 times to see what happened and every time seemed to gt different results. I will post the results below. Im guessing it is a bad cell but would like your feedback.

1st reading:
+24.89V
+6.30A
94 degrees
2800 PPM

2nd Reading:
+40.62v
+10.04A
94 Degrees
1700 ppm

3rd reading:
-25.48V
-5.98A
94 Degrees
2200 ppm

4th reading:
+25.96V
+5.03A
94 Degrees
1900 ppm

I am also listing below the info from my chemical tests for you in case it helps:

FC: 0
Salt: 3100ppm
CH: 300
CYA: 60
TA: 120
PH: 8

 

[JasonLion]

Definitely not a K1 issue. You never see amps above zero when K1 is out.

Those results are confusing. The numbers are varying all over the place, which is not what you normally see for a worn out cell. Some variation in the salt level is common enough, but I've never seen to go to 10 amps before.

Pool store cell testing is usually fairly reliable. Reusing water is normal, shouldn't make any difference.

I wonder if there is an intermittent connection somewhere in the cell cord. If there is, it would tend to get very hot at the spot where the connection problem is.

 

[smosh2002]

Should I assume I should just replace the cell and see what happens with a new one?

As I mentioned before the cell is only about 2 years old, should I attempt to contact Hayward and see if it would be covered by warranty? Or should I just bite the bullet and buy a new cell?

 

[swahl]

My experience, 10 years with an Aqua Logic P4, and currently on my 3rd cell, is that I get low salt when the salt is not low for some time before the cell completely dies. So, yeah, probably new cell time for you.