Having to crank up my salt cell...a little TOO much?

Jump to latest Follow Reply
umpalumpajay

umpalumpajay

0
Dec 23, 2014
163
West Hills, CA
Pool Size
14000
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
SWG Type
Jandy Aquapure 1400
So for the past few month i've been crankin' along at what i established was the right number for my cell at 40% to keep me in the right zone - we had a big party Memorial Day (especially for my pool size) and woke up to pretty much 1-2ppm even after i pre-loaded with chlorine to 7-8 to bump it up in anticipation. i added bleach to get it back to where it needed to be and kept rechecking assuming it would still be digesting the party for a couple days. fast forward to now, and it just slowly lowers itself more than it did before - i bumped it up to 50%...still wasn't enough - now im at 60% weather hasn't warmed all THAT much (although its 100 today) - but thats what worries me, this cell should really be putting out more than enough at that level in my opinion. is the next step to do an OCLT to make sure theres really nothing crazy going on?

My numbers are right on the money by the way other than a little low in CYA.
cl 6
cc <.5
ph 7.6
ta 80
cya 70
ch 250
 
this is my first year with the pool so i have no standard for comparison. now, lets talk about scaling! so i removed the cell to inspect it and it looked pretty clean, no obvious scaling - maybe (MAYBE) some small bumps forming on the plate faces inside the cell, but nothing i would say is obviously scaling on the bottom of the plates. was thinking about giving them a soak to see if they bubble and pulling them out if they don't. this is a pretty new pool, less than 6 months old. it just seems like i have a pretty big cell for a pool my size and i shouldnt have to be running it this high - now 60% for 8 hours.
 
The biggest mistake people make is not running your filter pump long enough in the summer. You can get away with a short run in the cold months but not when it is warm. I run my pump 20 hrs a day. Your salt system only works when the pump is on.
 
Bump up the FC to 10 and run an OCLT.

For the next large party raise the FC to at least 10 beforehand. If there is any cloudiness after the party raise it again to at least 10 and see how it looks the next day and run the pump extra that night.

Do you have FAS/DPD testing reagents? If not, you really need it. If you do have it then change your signature to K-2006 since that is what is missing from the K-2005 kit.
 
Something is wrong. I have a similar sized pool and the same SWCG. I am running my pump 6 hours a day at 50% and easily maintain chlorine at 3.5 to 4.0. Question, when are you running your pump, during daylight at the hottest part of the day, or at night. If you are running at night you will see a noticeable drop during the day. I second what JBLizzle says and run the OCLT.
 
oh trust me ping, i've read it. lol! thats how i got to 40% in the beginning. i think youre right about bumping it up even higher for the next monster party. @Conrad, thats true, and its quite possible i've underestimated the amount of time i'll need to run it. our weather really hasnt changed all that much, BUT i did heat the pool that day to 80 so obviously thats a factor as well. now that its starting to warm up a bit, maybe i'll just have to really jack it up to get to that new happy time/%.

ComputerGuy, im running it 2x a day, 7am-11am and 7pm-11pm. i know that im creating a bit of an up and down cycle by not running it during the warmest part of the day. i just did that to skim the water and keep the top debris out (i have a lot of trees) - but do you think i should just spew out 8 hours in the middle of the day when the chlorine is getting consumed?

SO, i'll take a reading tomorrow night (too late tonight) and retest in the morning before it turns back on and get the oclt. i had 7.0 Cl this morning and was just going to give it a couple days at 60% to see how it holds anyway. hopefully i wake up to 7.0.

edit: BTW i DO have the FAS/DPD test - i bought it separately.
 
i haven't tested salt other than a test strip salt tester i bought. the SWG consistently reports between 3.6 and 3.7 - its supposed to be at 3.5. im pretty sure i have enough salt in there.
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
tackettaj said:
I run an Aquapure Pro Series 10 hrs (8 am - 8 pm) at 60% to maintain level throughout the day with salt levels at 3000 ppm. My pool has no shade. Tested my CYA yesterday @ 70.
Click to expand...

I do everything you do except that I run mine for 12 hours (8 am - 8 pm)!!!

Sorry, couldn't resist :D
 
interesting on your size of pools and the amount of hours you all run with basically the same setup as me. it really follows no pattern....of course, i don't know your water temps or climates. but im thinking that i might be okay reading your posts, just need to turn it up to make it happen in 8 hours...or add more time. thanks.
 
So to get back to this, I finally got to doing my OCLT after limping along with bleach supplements . Shut everything down at 10:30pm and tested at 7.0. Woke up at 6am and retested....7.0 again. Great for my piece of mind but not good as far as a cause, so it must be an equipment problem. Gonna call Jandy and try to sort it out. One thing that was odd, I had my cya at 70 a couple weeks ago and retested yesterday and it was down to 50. I'm pretty dang good at doing the test and am quite sure it wasn't me. Does sun and heat burn off cya? From what I think the answer is NO. Heavy swimmer load?
 
So to get back to this, I finally got to doing my OCLT after limping along with bleach supplements . Shut everything down at 10:30pm and tested at 7.0. Woke up at 6am and retested....7.0 again. Great for my piece of mind but not good as far as a cause, so it must be an equipment problem. Gonna call Jandy and try to sort it out. One thing that was odd, I had my cya at 70 a couple weeks ago and retested yesterday and it was down to 50. I'm pretty dang good at doing the test and am quite sure it wasn't me. Does sun and heat burn off cya? From what I think the answer is NO. Heavy swimmer load?
 
CYA should not change that much unless there was water replacement. My best guess is that there was a slight testing variance involved and the test is only accurate to +- 15ppm anyways. Double check the CYA and if it is 50 again bump it up to 80 and that should help. With the CYA at 50 in your climate the SWG will have to run more than it should.

To run a true OCLT you should let the pump run overnight while the SWG is turned down to 0%. This way you eliminate the filter and anything else in the plumbing consuming the chlorine.

Are you still supplementing with bleach and have you seen any error codes on the SWG?

As a side note, I just had to increase my SWG's output by another 10% because it was dropping to the low end of my target range.

- - - Updated - - -

CYA should not change that much unless there was water replacement. My best guess is that there was a slight testing variance involved and the test is only accurate to +- 15ppm anyways. Double check the CYA and if it is 50 again bump it up to 80 and that should help. With the CYA at 50 in your climate the SWG will have to run more than it should.

To run a true OCLT you should let the pump run overnight while the SWG is turned down to 0%. This way you eliminate the filter and anything else in the plumbing consuming the chlorine.

Are you still supplementing with bleach and have you seen any error codes on the SWG?

As a side note, I just had to increase my SWG's output by another 10% because it was dropping to the low end of my target range.
 
I have a 25,000 gallon pool that's in sunlight all day. IC60 at 100% for 12 hours to maintain at 70 CYA. During the early and late season I can put it down to 9 or 10 hours run time.

You can think it's a lot but the manual indicates it can chlorinate a 60,000 pool if it's run 24 hrs at 100%. Sinice I have half that size 12 hrs at 100% seems right. Sometimes it shoots up and I have to back dial and during high load it needs a boost.
 
In addition to the OCLT, run the pump and SWG at 100% overnight - and do an OCLT with the SWG on. As you are not loosing any CL at night, this will give you an estimate of the CL production of the SWG. You can then compare the the manufacturer's specs.

I just did this with mine after having similar issues. Mine wasn't putting out enough CL, so I did a thorough acid wash and clean with the hose pipe and now it seems back to normal. I had acid washed at the beginning of the season, but my guess is that somehow some debris got in to the SWG.
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply