Can I clean/refurbish/renew salt cartridge?

[Wilderpa95]

I have a Hot Spring Saltwater Hot tub that uses a cartridge to maintain the chlorine level in the water by breaking down the salt in the water. The cartridges are supposed to be good for 3-4 months but a 3-pack of replacement cartridges costs $250. Is there a way I can clean or refurbish my cartridge to get more use out of it?

 

[ajw22]

No, the chemical process that depletes a salt cartridge uses the rare earth coating on the plates. There is no practical way to replace what has been depleted. When you buy new cells you are buying replacement rare earth coatings. Costs of the rare earths have increased in the last year which raised the price of the cells.

Salt Cell Price increases

Just giving everyone a heads up here , you are likely going to see a large price increase on salt cells sooner rather than later. The price of Ruthenium which is the main precious material coated on to the titanium plates has seen a price increase of 400% over the past 9 months. The other...

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[Bama Rambler]

I downloaded the user manual for this system and it appears to be a mini SWCG. It also appears that the controller sets a 'Replace Cartridge' message at 4 months whether it actually needs it or not.

First I would ask if the unit had stopped producing FC?
If it hasn't then I'd be tempted to trick the system into thinking I had replaced the cartridge and go back to using it for as long as it continues to work. As long as you monitor the FC on a regular basis you'll know when it reaches it's end of life, and can then decide what to do.

If it has stopped producing FC then I'd be tempted to install a standard Spa or small SWCG as the cell replacement cost will be a lot less than $250 a year.

 

[Roaddogmm]

I downloaded the user manual for this system and it appears to be a mini SWCG. It also appears that the controller sets a 'Replace Cartridge' message at 4 months whether it actually needs it or not.

First I would ask if the unit had stopped producing FC?
If it hasn't then I'd be tempted to trick the system into thinking I had replaced the cartridge and go back to using it for as long as it continues to work. As long as you monitor the FC on a regular basis you'll know when it reaches it's end of life, and can then decide what to do.

If it has stopped producing FC then I'd be tempted to install a standard Spa or small SWCG as the cell replacement cost will be a lot less than $250 a year.

I'm debating this same thing, especially after the first 2 HotSprints/Caldera cells I had only lasted 6-8 weeks each. At the time I was running them at full power, but after getting biofilm under control(thank you ahhsome ) I was able to lower the output significantly. I've been running it on level 3 or 4 now( versus 10 ), and I'm over 3.5 months on my 3rd cell with it still producing a good amount of chlorine. There is no way I'll replace it at 4 months unless it is no longer working.

For the first 2 cells, the telltale sign the cartridge was worn out was that it started reading the salt level lower and lower until it shut off due to thinking the salt was low. My dealer refused to replace the cells, claiming they were not under warranty. Thankfully when I reached out directly to Caldera they were willing to replace them.

I also agree with you on one of the add on SWCG, as they do appear a lot cheaper to run in the long run. I'll think long and hard about that depending on how the performance is with my remaining cells.

 

[Roaddogmm]

I have a Hot Spring Saltwater Hot tub that uses a cartridge to maintain the chlorine level in the water by breaking down the salt in the water. The cartridges are supposed to be good for 3-4 months but a 3-pack of replacement cartridges costs $250. Is there a way I can clean or refurbish my cartridge to get more use out of it?

I responded to another post, but will add it here too. My cells that wore out started reading the salt level lower and lower until it crossed the low salt threshold and wouldn't' turn on. This is what I'm watching for to decide when to replace them.

You can clean the cells, if they get a calcium buildup on them. The manual says to clean with ph down, but I've been told that can be bad for the cells, so instead i use a 50/50 mixture of vinegar and water. If the chlorine output decreases you could try that, I take it out, dry it off with a hair dryer, and look for white buildup. If so, I'll soak it for awhile.