Cell lifetime - does it matter when/how/how long the chlorine is being generated, or just how much overall?

poolnoobgrandma · Aug 31, 2019

I'm trying to find the right run-time / percentage to run my system so that the chlorine levels stay correct. I finally got my CYA levels up, but overestimated how much that would impact my SWG percentage needed, and am now lower in chlorine than is good. Nothing bad has happened, and I just added almost a gallon of LC to quickly bring up the FC levels.

My question is, am I correct that in terms of impacts to the life of the salt cell, all that matters is how much chlorine it is generating? In other words, I could run a long time on low percentage or a short time on high percentage to get the same FC result, and the impact to the cell life would be the same. Right?

Thanks!

mknauss · Aug 31, 2019

The SWCG will generate chlorine for a certain number of hours, plus or minus. So if you run it 10 hours at 50% or 5 hours at 100%, it does not care.

Biggest threats to the SWCG are sulfates in your water (from dry acid, sulfuric acid) and cleaning it with acid unnecessarily.

Flying Tivo · Aug 31, 2019

The cell does not distinguish %, its either on or off a certain amount of time in 60 sec. You are correct the life is measure as of the ON time of the cell. I always run 100% and just change runtime with my pool needs.

mguzzy · Aug 31, 2019

In theory you can find the sweet spot for the amount of time you want to run your equipment and the amount of time you run the SWG to get the FC you require.... set it a forget it.. but in reality I find my pool is more variable than that. Factors like the water temp, swimmer load, and dilution (I see you are in Fla, so you probably get summer rains) will play into it as well. So I set the runtime I want and the change the % to suit the conditions. I find it's easier to turn the % knob in on my SWG controller than it is to change the timer stops on my old school Intermatic timer gizmos.

poolnoobgrandma · Aug 31, 2019

Agree... If I can get it in the ballpark I'll be happy. I travel a lot, and hubby is less OCD about testing than I am. Once we're close, the SWG keeps things in general good shape, and I end up adding some muriatic acid and/or adjusting SWG % when I get back. Also, we have the automation, so in theory it should be easy to adjust the timer. It's still easier to adjust the SWG percentages.

mguzzy · Aug 31, 2019

OK.. also Pool math app has a feature that will allow you to "ballpark" the runtime of your SWG to get a certain amount of FC. I would start there.

poolnoobgrandma · Aug 31, 2019

mguzzy said:
OK.. also Pool math app has a feature that will allow you to "ballpark" the runtime of your SWG to get a certain amount of FC. I would start there.

Thanks! Now I just need to figure out how much I lose each day with the CYA at 70.

mknauss · Aug 31, 2019

Start at 3 ppm. Test for several days and see what it does. Adjust % or run time as needed.