CircuPool RJ series Spring Time Gotcha

Holydoc

Gold Supporter
Jul 17, 2016
499
Navarre/FL
Pool Size
17500
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
SWG Type
Hayward Aqua Rite (T-15)
Well when it started getting colder and the pool water dropped into the 60's, my CircuPool SWG started giving strange error messages starting with the word "Temp" and the generator light started blinking. These forums once again came to my aid and quickly identified that the controller error message was the way CircuPool identified that the water was too cold for the salt cell to activate. No problem there. Florida winters are very short and I needed to add CYA anyway (we have a lot of rain in Florida and everything eventually gets diluted) so I placed some pucks in my floating duck and called it a day, or winter. :) Chlorine and CYA added with little to no work on my part.

During the course of our three month winter, I left the duck floating and the CircuPool SWG running. The error message would change some days but always seemed to have the word "Temp" first and then some nonsense that followed. Generator light still blinking all winter as I wait for the water to warm above 60 degrees so that I can see my beloved SWG kick in and I can retire ducky.

Now we come to today. I do my normal check of the water chemicals (btw chlorine is perfect and CYA is up to 70, my summer setting) and notice that the water is above 70 degrees now. However the SWG is still giving an error message, "Temp eNo" (makes perfect sense what that means) and the generator light is still blinking. Being concerned and needing to remove ducky to prevent CYA from rising any more, I searched the forums but did not find a hint of why my SWG had not kicked back on. It was only 1 year old and I knew the flow meter had no broken lines but the only suggestions I saw on the forum pointed towards a faulty flow meter temperature indicator. Ugh! That is the only part of the SWG that is permanently glued into the PVC piping. But then I did the most obvious thing...

I pressed the On/Off toggle button and turned the CircuPool SWG to off. Then I turned it back on. Presto! The percentage of runtime came on the LCD instead of the error message and the Generator Light went solid. Looking at the SWG cell (it is clear on the CircuPool so us geeks can gleefully cheer), I could clearly see the bubbles as the SWG kicked in pumping chlorine into my pool getting it ready for swim season.

So the Gotcha is that the CircuPool SWG does not automatically clear itself of the low temperature error messages. Either cut your SWG off until the pool water rises above 60 degrees or recycle the power once that happens to get your SWG pumping again. Love, love, love my SWG and was worrying that it was just lasting me a year with no work. Nope, I get another year of blissful laziness taking care of my pool.

Hopefully this post will help someone else have a wonderful year with their CircuPool SWG too!
 
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Doc,

I do not know how the CircuPool works, but my IntelliChlor (IC40) does not seem to constantly monitor things.. A good example is the salt reading. It does it at start up and then 12 hours later. So, if salt is low at start up and then you added a million pounds of salt, the cell would not know for 12 hours... :mrgreen:

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
If the world does not end and I end up with one, I plan on putting in a bypass cell for the winter. For that reason. If it isn't going to do anything, then there is no sense letting scale build up on it...
 
If the world does not end and I end up with one, I plan on putting in a bypass cell for the winter. For that reason. If it isn't going to do anything, then there is no sense letting scale build up on it...

Scale only builds up when the cell is generating. If the cell is not generating due to low water temperature there can be no scale built up.
 
Hmmm. I have my SWG power tapped off of the power for the pump, so it is regularly powered up and down. It can be dangerous to have the SWG powered on when the pump is off and I see you have a 2 stage pump and no automation; do you have something to safeguard that?
 
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My pump runs 24/7 at low speed. My SWG and the pump are on the same circuit. So if the pump's power is knocked off, the SWG's power is as well. With those precautions and the flow valve, I do not worry at all.
 
Again, I will bypass it in the winter. If done right it's a five minute job. How many gallons of water will run through it in four months? If it's not doing anything I will pull it out... Clean it if needed at my leasure, etc. But who knows when or even if now...
 
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