Circupool RJ45, low salt and check cell light on

[djdonte]

My cell has been doing the same. Last year it was reading a bit low, and they had me send it in. It got sent back saying it worked fine and they just told me to run the salt a little high. Now its flashing low salt again, and reading even lower, 2500-2700 when my drop test shows 5000. I am going to call them today. My SWG was purchased in 2020, but replaced under warranty in May of 2022, so its barely two years old. I really hope it's not needing to be replaced already. It's been cleaned once with very dilute muriatic because it had a ton of buildup, which I am guessing was from running the CSI a bit high due to new plaster. I also had the temperature sensor read too low once which stopped FC production. I sent it in again and they charged me a little bit for a cooling fan and some connector pro-rated. I am pretty sure the flow switch only reads flow, and the temp sensor is in the cell. The salinity is not a sensor from what I understand but a reading between the plates.

I am mostly happy with DSP as not many other places offer such a long warranty and honor it for DIY installs. Their support has been pretty good with supporting my aging system with connectors, parts and a control pad at a decent price after warranty. BUT... its pretty clear they are not that that sharp on their product since its just a repackaged cell from China, judging from their canned responses of "try cleaning it." They even tried blaming phosphates on it not producing FC once. We'll see what they say here in about an hour.

 

[ajw22]

Now its flashing low salt again, and reading even lower, 2500-2700 when my drop test shows 5000.

Don't run your actual salt higher to make the SWG happy.

Higher actual salt levels accelerate corrosion around the pool.

 

[djdonte]

I’m not so sure an extra 1000ppm of salinity significant accelerates corrosion. I converted my pool to salt after a few years of living here and even from that alone I do not experience any more corrosion than I did with chlorine only. I would argue that FC alone is way more corrosive to metal than salt.

 

[djdonte]

DSP said low salinity readings mean low conductivity. It’s not temperature as my water is over 85 degrees so it’s either a dirty cell or failing cell. I am going to clean it today and if that doesn’t work they want me to send it in for possible testing and/or warranty claim.

 

[djdonte]

I did clean it once. It bubbled up for a few minutes then didn't do much else. After hooking it back up it reads around 3200ppm which was a little closer. DSP advised I let it run for a few days to let it average out. At the end of the weekend it was back to reading 2600ppm, so they want me to mail the cell in.

 

[JonoVegas]

I am experiencing the same thing with my RJ45, original install 2020 season so I am entering my 5th season with my RJ45.
Low salt indicator starts flashing after 10 minuts, then after 20 minutes low salt solid red and cell maint solid red.

I don't use acid to clean, zip tie and hose spray have done the trick. My pool is only about 15,000 gallons so my RJ45 is certainly not being stressed. Pool temp 74 and chems are about perfect. Salt test indicates 3000 ish. I remove the RJ45 every winter, clean it and store in garage each winter.

Really don't want to run the gamut with DSP by sending back for testing. Do I have any other choice?

 

[djdonte]

Lol not really. They will tell you to clean it for sure. TBH, if your cell is that old, you may benefit from cleaning. My original cell was from 2020 as well. The first time I cleaned mine it looked fine too but bubbled so violently I had to empty some solution from it. From your time and symptoms I would bet you need to clean it. You will have different concentrations recommended here and some will say vinegar not acid, but I just used 1:5 muriatic like DSP suggested.

 

[JonoVegas]

Well that kind of sucks. I sure expected to get more than 4 seasons from the RJ45+

Worked fine last season. Took off for winter and cleaned very well with garden hose on jet spray and a zip tie to knock loose the crud. No visible crud, no visible discolor on the plates when I put in garage for winter.

So now I'm stuck with taking the RJ45+ off my lines, soaking in some mild acid mixture (because that's what DSP vendor says I have to do) and then put back in line and try again.

If this doesn't work, I'll do my best to warn EVERYBODY not to go with DSP for and SWG.

 

[proavia]

Well that kind of sucks. I sure expected to get more than 4 seasons from the RJ45+

Worked fine last season. Took off for winter and cleaned very well with garden hose on jet spray and a zip tie to knock loose the crud. No visible crud, no visible discolor on the plates when I put in garage for winter.

So now I'm stuck with taking the RJ45+ off my lines, soaking in some mild acid mixture (because that's what DSP vendor says I have to do) and then put back in line and try again.

If this doesn't work, I'll do my best to warn EVERYBODY not to go with DSP for and SWG.

Use vinegar - non-diluted - instead of the diluted acid mixture. It's a bit easier on the plate coating.

One other - purely anecdotal - option is to test for phosphates. One cell manufacturer has their users test (and treat if high) for phosphates. While we normally don't bother because we keep enough FC in the pool water, a few here have found is can correct their cell problem. It's a last ditch effort after a mild cell cleaning. If you do decide to treat, use a good quality phosphate remover - I believe Seaklear and Orenda have been mentioned here. Stay away from that watered down 'phos free' gunk they sell a LPS.

If none of that works, a warranty claim with DSP is next.

 

[djdonte]

DSP will make you test and clear phosphates as well if the voltage is good but you’re not holding FC. They pulled that one with me, but it turned out I was a bit low on CYA. In fact, every time I found myself having FC trouble I needed to bump up the CYA. I now test it more frequently in the summer as it seems the heat makes it dissipate faster.

FWIW, the lady at DSP told me they usually see cells needing to be replaced around 4-5 years. At least you are still under the pro-rated warranty. How many other SWGs will warranty you that long, and with DIY?

 

[Rancho Cost-a-Lotta]

Well that kind of sucks. I sure expected to get more than 4 seasons from the RJ45+

Try reaching out to DSP/Circupool support and see if they can help you. As a consolation, you may still be eligible for a 20-40% credit for warranty replacement.

 

[Newdude]

If this doesn't work, I'll do my best to warn EVERYBODY not to go with DSP for and SWG.

Both have oooodles and oooodles of members reporting good experiences here. Nothing/nobody can be perfect though. I'm sorry your experience doesn't fit the norm.

 

[JonoVegas]

Ok, time to eat some humble pie . As discussed here on TFP the salt measurements between the CicraPool SWG and the Taylor test kit 1766 are two completely different methods "trying" to provide the same measurement (salt content). The engineers can explain the difference but in the case of SWG's, the Taylor kit ends up being an "indicator" and the SWG salt reading ends up being the "buck stops here" reading. If the SWG sensor "indicates" low salt the SWG won't work period end of story. Confusing he matter, is the SWG low salt indicator has been known to be triggered by other "non-salt" related things (dirty cell, phosphates, etc.).

In my case (see thread), I decided to re-test the salt content with my Taylor kit 1766 before taking things apart again and recleaning the cell. The reading was 2600. Why I lost about 1000+ salt content over the winter is a question for another day. Since CircuPool clearly states salt content of 3500 to 4000 I added a couple of bags salt last night.

Well guess what, the RJ45+ is running normal for the last 3 hrs this morning, so fingers crossed!

At this point, I think I should come back off the ledge and apologize to DSP. Here is a case where double checking your salt content before blaming the SWG is the lesson learned. Hopefully I'll get at least 3 more seasons out of my RJ45+

 

[djdonte]

So I just spoke with DSP and they want to replace my cell. The invoice they sent me was 20 percent off for year 5 warranty coverage at $614 plus shipping and tax. I went back and looked at my original invoice and I ordered the salt system on 4/27/2020. We are now indeed in year five of the warranty period, but I originally contacted them on 4/25/24 and we went back and forth on some things before they told me to send it in this past Monday 4/29/24. I called and explained, and they changed the price to reflect 40 percent off for year 4 warranty. Total out the door was 402 shipped. Not awful I guess. Hopefully I get another 4-5 years out of this one. They claim 4-5 years is about what they see out of a properly sized cell, less if your pool is closer to the cell rating. DSP is on the other side of town from me, so I should have my SWG back up and running tomorrow.

Still better than lugging bottles of bleach home. I am going to do a better job this time staying on top of crud in the cell. It looks clean while mounted, but you really need to remove it to see if there is build up inside on the plates. Maybe instead of washing it with 1:5 acid when it gets bad, I will remove and check it maybe 1-2 times a year and use vinegar to clean if need be.

 

[sgoosman]

The very last menu screen says RJ-45 for mine, which is correct. And apparently there are little arrow buttons below the + and - buttons I've never noticed before that will cycle between all the models.

Hi I'm late to this conversation.

Another thought on the possible source of the issue. Have you checked the connectors on the head unit and the salt cell? I had issues on my RJ60+ this would not work at startup. I turned the head unit over and noticed corrosion on the connectors. Quick clean with a wire brush and the unit fired right up. I'm thinking of adding a bit of dielectric grease too and will probably do that going forward to prevent future corrosion.

 

[djdonte]

Mine was good but I have been putting dielectric grease on from the start.

 

[lightmaster]

Hi I'm late to this conversation.

Another thought on the possible source of the issue. Have you checked the connectors on the head unit and the salt cell? I had issues on my RJ60+ this would not work at startup. I turned the head unit over and noticed corrosion on the connectors. Quick clean with a wire brush and the unit fired right up. I'm thinking of adding a bit of dielectric grease too and will probably do that going forward to prevent future corrosion.

Hadn't thought of that, will check it today.

 

[lightmaster]

One other - purely anecdotal - option is to test for phosphates. One cell manufacturer has their users test (and treat if high) for phosphates. While we normally don't bother because we keep enough FC in the pool water, a few here have found is can correct their cell problem. It's a last ditch effort after a mild cell cleaning. If you do decide to treat, use a good quality phosphate remover - I believe Seaklear and Orenda have been mentioned here. Stay away from that watered down 'phos free' gunk they sell a LPS.

Are there any reliable phosphate tests? In all my time owning pools, I've never once looked at that, and I know most people here treat phosphate remover as snake oil.

 

[ajw22]

Are there any reliable phosphate tests? In all my time owning pools, I've never once looked at that, and I know most people here treat phosphate remover as snake oil.

Taylor has the K-1106 phosphate test kit. The Taylor K-1106 test kit can test at phosphate levels of 0-1000 ppb or 0-6000 ppb. It has two different color comparator cards for the two tests

 

[djdonte]

So I got the new cell and it seems to be working ok. It reads the salt around 4000 and makes good FC. The plates bubble so much it clouds the enclosure, so I am going to let it run a few days and problably turn it down some. However, it looks really weird. Like there is a carbon steel plate rusting inside of it. I sent an email to DSP to see what they say.