is my swg dead?

[zacc44]

moved to this house for some months now, it has a jandy aquapure 1400 installed cca 2010-2011
my cya has not always been great but salt is stable at ~3500 (test w taylor kit)
chlorine ive had to add almost weekly

i've at times turned the swg to 100% for 1 day... which didnt do anything
and now its been at 75% for 3-4 days, again without change to chlorine level without me adding

 

[ping]

We need actual test results posted. Is the chlorine staying at zero or is it maintaining some in the water? Does the SWG have any error codes?

It is a very common problem for SWG users to think that the SWG is not producing chlorine when in fact it is. A SWG pool can look clear but has a low level of organics that the SWG can not completely kill off and it barely stays ahead of it to prevent the algae from blooming.

 

[JamesW]

Is the unit showing any error codes? What lights are on? Is it saying flow or no flow? What salinity is it reporting?

 

[woodyp]

Test results please.

 

[umpalumpajay]

Do you have ANY chlorine in the pool? Seems about the right time frame for a cell to die - 3 years. On that specific setup, you have to tell us if it says its flowing and producing chlorine - OR if there are any errors...low/high salt, dead cell, low flow, etc. Should be pretty easy to tell on your panel. could be SO many things including:
Bad salt sensor
Low/high salt
algae issue eating up all your chlorine as fast as you make it
Dead cell

 

[pooldv]

Be sure to use bleach to keep your chlorine level above the minimum level for your CYA level so that you don't have a questionable SWG and a green pool! Chlorine CYA Chart

 

[koffie]

When SWG is running, do you see a stream of small gas coming from the outlet into the pool?

 

[zacc44]

no my pool is not been green even with 0.5 chlorine(but i do not let it there for many days)
SWG control indicates no error, green lights, working properly, flow, salinity reporting now is 3.1 (close result to the taylor drop test), as i said its now set at 75%
i do not see gas, but a certain outlet is making bubles (not small), tho i dont know if its related to SWG being on or not

test now (3-4 days after fixing chemicals per pool calc), jug of WM bleach, lots of bakin soda and whole bunch of cya
before this change i did do an overnight FC test and remained FC 0.5 after 9 hours

ph 7.6
FC 4 (from 0.5)
CC 0.5
TA 100
CYA 50
CH 250

 

[ping]

To do an OCLT you should raise the FC to a higher level around 10 ppm, with bleach, and run the pool overnight with the SWG at 0% to make sure it is not adding any chlorine to the pool. You will not see very many bubbles out of the returns caused by the SWG due to your single speed 2hp motor. Pools with low speed pumps will have bubbles come out of the returns when the pump is running on low speed.

It seems like the SWG is working fine but you have enough algae in the pool that it consumes the FC as the SWG is making it. We have had many many threads in this exact situation in the last month and all of them have turned out that the SWG's were working but just could not get ahead of the algae. Your pool looks clear but it really isn't and the SWG is making just enough chlorine to keep the pool from blooming. Run a proper OCLT and most likely it will show a significant loss of chlorine overnight and you will have to follow the SALM process, see my signature.

 

[pooldv]

If the SWG is not reporting any errors then all signs point to an algae bloom consuming your chlorine. Definitely raise the FC and perform the OCLT again. Another clue that you have algae is if the filter is clogging quickly, pressure rising and water flow through the returns is dropping.

 

[zacc44]

oh... ok then i have to do it again, thx guys

 

[zacc44]

Cl = 1.5 right now ... uhhh...

if i add bleach to 10, can i start the test half hour later tonight? or should i wait till tomorrow

 

[pooldv]

You can start tonight

 

[zacc44]

kids might go swim tomorrow so i delayed,
does it have to be 10 or can it be 6,7 ?

 

[pooldv]

7 or 8 is fine

 

[zacc44]

uhm w. t. h ... i go to swg today and i see this - green lights... but then i look closer ... it was -- cell resting -- ... no error nothing... and then i click the ? button and it say 09F ... i look in the manual .. this thing has a some kind of temp limit where it doesnt work ... how long's this been going on then... (that i didnt look close maybe)... how can it not work... this is texas ... its gonna be over 100F ... is this on all the SWGs ??

 

[zacc44]

turned off the equipment and then
last night 10pm tested FC = 7.5, 7am today tested FC = 7.5

but now i have testing paranoia...

like usual if i wait like 15 seconds after it turns clear i see a shade of pink coming back so i put another drop, this AM after the 15 sec and drop,, i waited again 15-20sec and it turned faint pink again (but i didnt add a drop) so both 7.5 are after waiting 15 seconds and getting a drop.
this is the FC, i didnt do the CC (CC i usually get 0.5)

..what does that mean? is the chlorine being held by something?

 

[ping]

It is normal for the test to turn pink after sitting a little bit so disregard everything that is happening after you get the first result.

The OCLT passed so you are dealing with the SWG not working or it's not running long enough. The cell resting light will come on if the SWG is not set to 100% when it is not producing chlorine. I'm not familiar with the 09F code, usually the error codes are three numbers such as 120 on the Aquapure itself. I'm not sure how the automation deals with codes. Watch the readout for several minutes and see if any other error codes pop up.

For now make sure you are adding bleach if necessary.

After the SWG is working properly you need to raise the CYA to 80 in the Texas heat, and that will help considerably with retention of chlorine during the day.

 

[zacc44]

i cleaned the swg although it didnt have much buildup and didnt fizz for too long, and had it back up at 100% for 2 days without change in the chlorine pool level

so i got a new plc1400 (kit) at amz, just swapped it and left it at 100% ...

... its been less than 12 hours and the chlorine went from 2.5 to 7

i didnt change the power cable or sensor ... how does one know when those break ?

 

[ping]

You will start getting error codes or the no flow led will light up when the sensor starts to go out. It's not always the sensor when you get codes or no flow problems as other issues can cause the same symptoms. I've seen very few power cable problems and the ones I have seen it is obvious that the cord is damaged beyond use.