Hey mdwallace,
Thanks for the tip on the circuit short. I'm going to take a look at my PCB and see if it has a similar defect (that apparently Discount isn't aware of!).
Sorry for resurrecting an old thread, but I'm hoping it's helpful. Let me summarize my experience with this piece of garbage Circupool Si-60 system:
Season 1: blew fuses about once every 2-3 weeks (though once I had a fuse blow in a single day). It's clearly a heat issue, even though I'm in a temperate area (Michigan). It is NOT a sudden short circuit.. all the fuses look like they slowly melted the plastic. I waited until the end of our short swim season to send it to Discount for "repairs" (HAH!). They replaced the two bridge rectifiers, which wasn't relevant to the fuses melting (I didn't know this until Season 2). Cost was $40 to me for shipping (to them). This first season, I kept the controller knob seat at around 15-20% and that was plenty to make tons of chlorine.
Season 2: blew more fuses. I kept a stock of 15 amp automotive fuses on hand and checked the controller every several days to make sure it was still alive. It *seemed* like it was going longer between blows and that it correlated to keeping the CYA levels a little higher (80~90ppm instead of 65~75). The second season, I had to keep the setting up around 50% for some reason to get the same chlorine output.
Season 3 (this year): blew more fuses. I can't see the point in sending it to them when I know they're not going to fix the core problem and I'm now paying 75% of the costs + 100% shipping. (admittedly, I never bothered to call them and complain.. it's just not worth my frustration) Half way through this season, the entire controller display and LEDs started to flicker and stop working. Eventually it wouldn't even power up. Looking inside, it's very clear that the bridge rectifiers were getting HOT and the AC lines going to them were so hot that they'd started to melt the insulation right off! The spade connectors were even loose from the thermal fatigue. Even though I have 25% of my prorated warranty left, I decided against sending it back to Discount. Instead, I ordered a 5-pack of rectifiers for a whopping $5 shipped (metal bodies, rather than the plastic ones that were in there.. otherwise identical). I just swapped them in (and replaced one of the weak spade terminals) and it powered right up. I'm currently making chlorine again and can stop using pucks.
If you choose to do this yourself, please make sure to disconnect AC power and be very careful. Use good thermal paste on the new parts. I got the part numbers off the old rectifiers and just searched for them on Amazon. Piece of cake.
Now I'm going to go look for that short circuit on the PCB that you mentioned.. maybe I can solve the actual source of the heat issue...
Short version: I DO NOT recommend Circupool products and would NOT purchase them again in the future.
Rob