First, fun storytime! (Scroll to bottom if you don't like stories)
My wife and I bought this house and accompanying pool about a month and a half ago, and it's been quite a headache! About a week after I moved in the whole pool turned green. I went to my friendly neighborhood pool store and simply did what they told me to do. A week later, about $150 and LOTS of brushing and filter cleaning later, I had a clean(ish) pool. The next step was to get the chemistry into maintenance mode, which meant A) fixing my alkalinity and calcium, and B) figuring out why my SWG wasn't working as expected. I probably spent another $30-50 on chemicals to get everything in order.
First, I tried "re-calibrating" it. Really that was just setting the average salt level to the instant salt level (temporarily). Fooling the machine didn't work for long, but it produced some chlorine for a little while and kept the algae away. When that failed, I finally figured out the problem: The previous owner had somehow set the SWG for a T-15 (larger) cell, and the cell he had was a T-9. Consequently, it undermeasured the salt and it turned itself off to prevent damage. The previous owner of course saw this and simply added more salt. A LOT more salt. I Was at 4400 ppm when the pool store measured it. I set the machine to T-9 and while it still under-measured the salt by about 500ppm, it started working and producing chlorine. I was happy!
Then it stopped working again. Nothing I could do would convince it to produce chlorine ever. I ended up adding liquid chlorine to the pool for a while until I bit the bullet and spent about $370 on a new T-9 cell. It was like magic! Perfect salt measurements and VERY strong chlorine generation. I'm still trying to dial it in. That said, I'm running the pump 24/7 still so it's no wonder that 20% chlorine generation gives me what looks to be at least 4ppm of FC.
Now on to my problem. There's a reason I'm running the pump 24/7. My pump timer doesn't work! I have an Intermatic T10004RT3. I took the front panel off and took a look inside at the gears like the manual said and couldn't see any obstructions, water damage, ant nests, or any loose wires or anything like that.
Can anyone point me at anything else I can troubleshoot to avoid spending another $300 on pool equipment? Or, should I just bite the bullet and replace it?
My wife and I bought this house and accompanying pool about a month and a half ago, and it's been quite a headache! About a week after I moved in the whole pool turned green. I went to my friendly neighborhood pool store and simply did what they told me to do. A week later, about $150 and LOTS of brushing and filter cleaning later, I had a clean(ish) pool. The next step was to get the chemistry into maintenance mode, which meant A) fixing my alkalinity and calcium, and B) figuring out why my SWG wasn't working as expected. I probably spent another $30-50 on chemicals to get everything in order.
First, I tried "re-calibrating" it. Really that was just setting the average salt level to the instant salt level (temporarily). Fooling the machine didn't work for long, but it produced some chlorine for a little while and kept the algae away. When that failed, I finally figured out the problem: The previous owner had somehow set the SWG for a T-15 (larger) cell, and the cell he had was a T-9. Consequently, it undermeasured the salt and it turned itself off to prevent damage. The previous owner of course saw this and simply added more salt. A LOT more salt. I Was at 4400 ppm when the pool store measured it. I set the machine to T-9 and while it still under-measured the salt by about 500ppm, it started working and producing chlorine. I was happy!
Then it stopped working again. Nothing I could do would convince it to produce chlorine ever. I ended up adding liquid chlorine to the pool for a while until I bit the bullet and spent about $370 on a new T-9 cell. It was like magic! Perfect salt measurements and VERY strong chlorine generation. I'm still trying to dial it in. That said, I'm running the pump 24/7 still so it's no wonder that 20% chlorine generation gives me what looks to be at least 4ppm of FC.
Now on to my problem. There's a reason I'm running the pump 24/7. My pump timer doesn't work! I have an Intermatic T10004RT3. I took the front panel off and took a look inside at the gears like the manual said and couldn't see any obstructions, water damage, ant nests, or any loose wires or anything like that.
Can anyone point me at anything else I can troubleshoot to avoid spending another $300 on pool equipment? Or, should I just bite the bullet and replace it?
