I wanted to post my experience repairing my DIG-220 using info in posts from this forum, since the posts I read were so helpful and perhaps the additional information can be of use to future troubleshooters. I have a pool that I'm told was redone in 2013 by the previous owner. I have an intelliflo pump with an Autopilot digital 220 salt generator. About a month after I opened the pool for the first time, I observed the low amps error and free chlorine dropped to zero. I verified the circuit breaker had not tripped. A pool supply shop lent me a salt cell and cable to test those components, but the same error existed with the the new components, so I returned them. The old cell was in good condition on visual inspection, and the salt level in the pool was around 2900 on the autopilot display which agreed with test strips my pool contractor had.
I took out the PCBs from the power supply and inspected the capacitors. The one on the display board was brown(I don't know what the original color was). The capacitors on the main board appeared to be in good condition, no bulging or blown vents, and color appeared normal, but capacitors can fail internally without any change in appearance. I replaced the four capacitors on the main board that usually fail with 565-4874-ND from digikey which has higher tolerances than the original capacitor. However, another user used 565-3404-ND which is a lower ESR capacitor. I wasn't sure if this was appropriate, and I didn't really think about it until after I had the capacitors so I went ahead and installed them. If anyone thinks it's worth changing to the low ESR please let me know. I also replaced the display board capacitor with a 493-15293-ND.
Capacitor replacement took about 1 hour. I do have experience soldering, but it was not a difficult job. Removing the capacitors was a little awkward and should be done carefully to avoid damaging other components.
The new capacitors made no difference and the display still reported low amps. I haven't seen many postings about this issue recently so it seems the manufacturer may have fixed the capacitor problem by 2013, or it least it wasn't the problem in my case. After reassembling I noticed that jiggling the multi-pin connector on the main board could cause some relays to audibly click over. I decided it was worth a shot to replace the cable(part is called "wiring harness"). At the same time, I ordered a new fan even though mine was working since postings here suggested that there is no overheat protection and the circuit could be damaged when the fan eventually goes. The cost of the wiring harness was $75 and the fan was $40, so between that and the capacitors and shipping I probably spend around $150 on this repair, while a new autopilot power supply seems to cost about $700.
With the new parts the power supply is working, and reports 21.5v and 6.5A. Chlorine levels are also now adequate in the pool.
Now that this is working I'd appreciate any advice on how to minimize the wear and tear on the salt cell. I have it set to 85% with a pump runtime of about 10 hours per day. The pool is about 25k gallons we think, and cell is an rc35/22. Can I reduce it to 50%?
Thank you so much!
ETBD
I took out the PCBs from the power supply and inspected the capacitors. The one on the display board was brown(I don't know what the original color was). The capacitors on the main board appeared to be in good condition, no bulging or blown vents, and color appeared normal, but capacitors can fail internally without any change in appearance. I replaced the four capacitors on the main board that usually fail with 565-4874-ND from digikey which has higher tolerances than the original capacitor. However, another user used 565-3404-ND which is a lower ESR capacitor. I wasn't sure if this was appropriate, and I didn't really think about it until after I had the capacitors so I went ahead and installed them. If anyone thinks it's worth changing to the low ESR please let me know. I also replaced the display board capacitor with a 493-15293-ND.
Capacitor replacement took about 1 hour. I do have experience soldering, but it was not a difficult job. Removing the capacitors was a little awkward and should be done carefully to avoid damaging other components.
The new capacitors made no difference and the display still reported low amps. I haven't seen many postings about this issue recently so it seems the manufacturer may have fixed the capacitor problem by 2013, or it least it wasn't the problem in my case. After reassembling I noticed that jiggling the multi-pin connector on the main board could cause some relays to audibly click over. I decided it was worth a shot to replace the cable(part is called "wiring harness"). At the same time, I ordered a new fan even though mine was working since postings here suggested that there is no overheat protection and the circuit could be damaged when the fan eventually goes. The cost of the wiring harness was $75 and the fan was $40, so between that and the capacitors and shipping I probably spend around $150 on this repair, while a new autopilot power supply seems to cost about $700.
With the new parts the power supply is working, and reports 21.5v and 6.5A. Chlorine levels are also now adequate in the pool.
Now that this is working I'd appreciate any advice on how to minimize the wear and tear on the salt cell. I have it set to 85% with a pump runtime of about 10 hours per day. The pool is about 25k gallons we think, and cell is an rc35/22. Can I reduce it to 50%?
Thank you so much!
ETBD
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