Cell/Controller thinks I have way less salt than I do

[superdave5599]

Circupool Universal 40 SWG

It is reporting 2300 PPM on the screen, and flashing the low salt light, or even leaving the light continuous which means it thinks that there is too little salt to generate, along with the check cell light and "Slo" on the display which I think means "Salt low."

I did pop the cell off and took a peek in there. There seems to be a small seed in between a couple of the fins, (Tried to get it out with a popsicle stick, but ended up pushing it further accidentally!) But otherwise it looks good in there.
When I put it together at the beginning of the season, I did acid-clean the cell as described in the instructions as it had a little bit of build up. That was at the beginning of my TFP learning and I believe my CSI has always been in range, and below zero.

I just measured salinity with my kit and it is 4000 PPM.

Is there anything else I can try?

We bought the house in December so this is all relatively new to me; if I recall correctly, the sellers told me they installed the system in 2017 or 2018. So the cell is likely a few years old.

 

[ajw22]

5 to 6 years is a decent life for the cell.

The cell is probably depleted.

 

[superdave5599]

Blah, that is what I figured.

Any way to trick it to limp along a little longer? Raise the salt a little higher?

Also, anyone know if I bought a SI 60 cell as a replacement (I'm at the top end of the recommendation for the current cell size), will it plug into my controller?

Do they tend to go on sale at the end of the season perchance? (i.e. Would it be worth waiting a couple months using bleach so I can get a better deal?)

 

[markayash]

Might email Circupool or discount salt and ask. I know the Edge has the same power supply for a 3 different size cells.
Hard to say regarding sales, discount salt seems to always run some sort of “ upgrade” sale.

 

[superdave5599]

Well, I could have sworn the sellers said they converted the pool in like 2017 or 2018, but when I took a pic of the underside of the control panel to have the serial number to reference (so I could contact Circupool to see if I could upgrade) I see it has a build date code of 2020/03.

So I could certainly be mis-remembering the dates of things (perhaps I was thinking of when they replaced the liner in the pool). If that is the case, this is a little bit disappointing of a lifespan.

 

[superdave5599]

Update:
I have to say that Circupool's customer service is very good!

I called because I saw a "question and answer" on their site that said to "call to inquire" whether I could upgrade to the larger cell. (I assume there must have been some change along the line of the Universal models that would determine whether or not the larger cell would work with my system.)

I told him that we'd bought the house in December so I didn't know for sure how old the system was, but he was able to look by zip code and since I knew the previous owner's name, transferred the warranty to me! Easy Peasy.

That gave me a pro-rated warranty on the cell (saved me something like $160 bucks)! And, I was able to upgrade the cell size in the transaction with the same discount.

I also asked about the control panel having a few digits on the LCD screen that were out. He said since my warranty is good until next April, that he would recommend that I wait until the end of the season and send that in for the warranty work on it.

I've gotten to the point that I have little tolerance for screwing around with dumb stuff and am therefore much more inclined to spend a little more money to get the higher quality version of something and/or get better customer service. Circupool has made me very happy with this service!

New, larger cell will either ship today or tomorrow. Given that it appears they are in Texas and I'm in Kansas, I should be able to pop it in before we leave town for a couple days this weekend!