Is this cell bad?

[mmcgovern]

I opened the pool last weekend (Yay!) and the water was nice and clear (YAY!) but my Aquarite SWG said the salt level was at 1800 ppm and wouldn't produce chlorine. I had emptied out some water when I closed and added some when I opened so it was plausible that the salt level was accurate. My cell is 3 years old and I knew better than to blindly add salt in case the cell was bad. I took it to the LPS and they tested it and said it was good. I put salt in to raise the level up a good 1000 to 1500 ppm and let it curculate without the SWG on so I didn't overload the cell. I fired up the SWG today and it showed the level around 3000 ppm and I thought all was good. After about 40 seconds the "check salt" light came on and the level dropped to 2300 just like that. I assume my next step is to buy a new cell but I wanted to poke some brains here in case I'm missing something.

It just occured to me as I'm typing that the water temp is in the 40s. That may be my cause. Does that show up as a "check salt" light? Any help is appeciated!

 

[JasonLion]

Pool store cell testing is fairly reliable. If they say it is good, chances are that it is indeed good.

You shouldn't trust salt readings until the pool has been circulating for 24 hours after salt was added.

The SWG is not expected to work at all below 50 degrees, and there are often minor problems below 60 degrees. This would apply to salt readings as well as chlorine generation.

 

[mmcgovern]

Thanks for the quick reply. I'll let the water warm up and I bet that will solve the problem.