Aqua Rite showing zero salt. Generating LED on for several seconds then off. No Power LED

[blairsooley]

Hi all, a couple of months ago I put my SWG back in service with a new T-15 cell after several years. It worked very well until this week. Now the display shows 0 salt. When the pump turns on, the Generating LED turns on solid for a few seconds but the Power LED never comes on, then the Generating LED turns off and nothing more happens. I reviewed the diagnostic settings and noted that my cell was set to T-3, which was weird since I hadn't touched it. I reset this to T-15. I then followed the troubleshooting guide (http://images.inyopools.com/cloud/documents/aquarite-tsg-aqr159d.pdf) section 4 and got the following results:

240V is present - corrent
Jumpers match the power source - correct
12V between the red and black wires (too low) so I reseated the LED board and no change. As an aside I also noted that changing the switch between off, auto and super chlorinate doesn't seem to have any effect.
The wiring of the rectifier was wrong so I changed it and now reads 24VDC (correct - within the 18V to 33V range).
Voltage between yellow wires was 24VAC (correct)
Fuse was fine (correct)
Voltage between the orange wire connector and ground was 22V, which is incorrect as it is supposed to be 12V. This is interesting as the manual says " IF no/low voltage, replace the main board (GLX-PCB-RITE). IF voltage is okay, replace the rectifiers (GLX-DRK). " Mine is neither low voltage or OK. It is high. What do I do now????

I'm at a loss and figured I'd check with the group here before I started buying parts.

Thoughts? Thanks

 

[mknauss]

Hayward Aquarite SWG - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

See if anything in this article points you to a solution.

 

[C0d3Sp4c3]

Look no further, replace the Thermistor.
I couldn't imagine how it worked before if the bridge rect was miswired.
Push the diagnostic button 2x, if the voltage reading on the display is lower than 30.00 Volts when it is not generating, inspect the Thermistor and/or possible cold solder.

 

[blairsooley]

Thanks mknauss, I was hoping to hear from you on this.

C0d, thanks for the suggestion. I was surprised by the bridge rectifier wiring as well and was wondering if this was what caused the problem. The black wire on the upper rectifier was on the wrong connection. It was definitely generating but I had to keep it around 80-90% to keep the chlorine at 5 in a 15,000 gallon pool.

We have hurricane Laura just coming into the Houston area at the moment, so I just had time to run out and check the diag settings between rain and lightning. They are as follows:

0.00 (salt reading)
31 (temp, this must be in C as its actually 89F outside, which converts to 31)
6.6 (voltage) Looks like a problem. I'll check the thermister
0.00 (Amps) Not generating
92P
-0.00
AL-3
r1.58
T-15 (correct but as noted I had to reset as it was reading T-3)

 

[blairsooley]

Looks like you nailed it C0d. I used the process referenced by the documentation mknauss linked and verified that the digital readout (varied between 6 and 9V) matches the voltage between the bottom thermister terminal and the left terminal of R15, but is a mismatch with the voltage between the top Thermister terminal and the left terminal of R15 (21.9V). Per the documentation, this suggests a bad thermister.

I will order a new Thermister and take it from there. Thanks to both of you.

 

[JamesW]

The voltage points to a bad thermistor.

Display Showing Incorrect Characters or Settings Randomly Change

Most likely the display board is not making secure contact with the pins. Reseat the board.

Turn off power. Remove display. Reinstall the small display board. It snaps in place on plastic standoff pins. You have to align the metal connection wires into the correct holes in the board. Check all diagnostics.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=aqua+rite+thermistor+replacement

 

[blairsooley]

Thanks James. thermister is on order and display board has been reseated.

 

[blairsooley]

New thermister installed and all works. If there was ever a question that the thermister was the problem, here's what happened when I touched it. Thanks for all your help guys!

 

[JamesW]

Hard to tell for sure, but it looks like the thermistor is probably bad.

Thanks for the update.

 

[mknauss]

Thanks for all your help guys!

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[ducss750]

Might want to order a few extra next time...I have to replace mine every other year or so. That little part saves a ton of money!