Contemplating going SWG... salt cell suggestions

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I have a CircuPool RJ45 and wish I had installed a SWG sooner. It eliminated my algae problems and the water quality is incredible. I can't recommend it enough.
Plus, CircuPool has good tech support. I had an issue that developed, and it was quickly resolved.
 
pikeman said:
I have a CircuPool RJ45 and wish I had installed a SWG sooner. It eliminated my algae problems and the water quality is incredible. I can't recommend it enough.
Plus, CircuPool has good tech support. I had an issue that developed, and it was quickly resolved.
Click to expand...

What kind of issues?
 
I’m a little frustrated now... I spoke with DSP and he says it’s most likely phosphates using up all the chlorine. He wants me to get my water tested at a pool store and use phosfree. I tried to explain to him that nothing is using the FC due to me passing several OCLT but he didn’t want to hear it. He says he gets this same call 50 times a day and it’s always phosphates. I guess I’ll play his game and go get pool stored since I have no other options. Meanwhile I’m chlorinating my pool with bleach since my 900 dollar swg isn’t working.
 
For grins and giggles I tested my FC away from the return and right in front of it. To my surprise I got 6.0 away and 8.0 in front of it. I went to look at my cell and it’s foggy so it appears to be producing chlorine at this time... but I don’t trust it.

I’m not sure what else to do besides do this phosphate dance with pool store chemicals. Seems to me passing an OCLT and my FC not changing at night while running the SWG is pretty clear evidence something is not working. If it was my phosphates why did they not consume liquid chlorine? Picky phosphates if you ask me.
 
Here’s my results. I had him retest the salt he got got 3200 which is closer to my 3600 readings.

Funny, I told him my predicament and he said “why would some knowledgeable with pools tell you phosphates are using your chlorine, they don’t use chlorine, they just feed algae which uses your chlorine.”

I’m any case I spent 40 bucks on this phosfree.
 

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What is your phosphate? I have not seen anywhere recently where mentioned it. So I don't know if you even a high phosphate issue. I don't think you need. it. Can you take it back and buy your self a nice lunch instead? If you do use it be prepared to pull your filters a few times to wash the gunk off. There do seem to be some conditions where high phosphates seem to have a relation to SWG performance. But at this point it is all anecdotal and the actual chemistry/science hasn't been worked out from what I've seen from the Chem gurus on the forum.
 
Leslies says my phosphates are 652. And yeah I know this is BS but what choices do I have when DSP is feeding me this Crud and refusing to consider that their cell isn’t working?
 
Someone called me back from DSP I guess from when I left a msg this morning. He also says he is confident the phosphates are using my chlorine and 650 is way too high.
 

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In their defense, the typical pool owner runs 1-3ppm FC and always has algae in their water. So phosphate in that situation will increase the chlorine demand and it will appear to be a SWCG not producing chlorine to the pool owner. So by removing the phosphate, the pool owner can go back to 1-3ppm FC and their SWCG can keep up, for awhile.
 
This is a somewhat unknown territory because there is no direct reaction between phosphate (PO4-) and active chlorine (HOCl/OCl-). However, there is evidence that even in clean and clear swimming pools, high phosphate levels tend to cause sporadic issues with chlorine demand. The go-to answer is always that the phosphates are feeding algae, causing the algae to reproduce faster and use more chlorine. That is certainly the Occam's Razor answer but I don't always buy it. There have been people that have posted and they swear their pools are clean to TFP standards (and I give them the benefit of the doubt and believe them) but the SWG doesn't keep up. Then they remove phosphates and the cell is working again. Sanitized water doesn't have much, if any, algae in it and so I have always wondered about side reactions inside the SWG cell that could cause issues. I'm still in the "thinking it through" phase and haven't yet come up with solid chemical evidence so I'm not going to say much more than that. I'll keep noodling away at it but don't expect any brilliant light-bulbs to go off any time soon.

That said, if DSP wants you to remove phosphates as a condition of them playing nice with you, then do it. It's cheap enough and easy enough to do and, if you remove the phosphates and the cell still isn't working, then DSP owes you a replacement and they've run out of at least one excuse in their "avoid the warranty" arsenal...
 
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Yeah I’m gonna remove the phosphates and see what happens. Perhaps I had a small bloom when I miscalculated my summer SWG settings, but not a big enough one to fail or last until the OCLT. The second guy was a little more reassuring than the first one I spoke with. I will keep you guys posted... not looking forward to cleaning my filter again
 
I tested my water after sundown at got 6FC... I let the pump and SWG run all night at 75%, and 9 hours later before leaving for work I tested 9FC. Not the 4.5FC pool math said it should have generated but at least its producing something. I will most likely let it keep running and have the water tested for phosphates again after I clean the filters tomorrow. If this is going to be an issue with SWG, are those phosphate test strips worth buying?
 
I don’t see that on Tft test kits. Also is there a better way to get rid of phosphates than this filter clogging goop?
 
You can find the K-1106 on Amazon. Or direct from Taylor (but they are slow to ship).

All phosphate removers will require a filter cleaning. I don’t like any of the pool store products because they are not concentrated and often have additional junk in them like polymeric clarifiers.

I prefer to use SeaKlear commercial grade phosphate remover or Orenda’s PR-10000. Those products are just concentrated phosphate remover with no additives.

If you have a sand filter, you may need to add a small amount of pool grade DE to help clear the phosphate remover. Pool School has instructions on that.
 
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Thanks. I use socks on my skimmer to cut down on filter cleanings... should I remove them or will they help my filter not get clogged when using these products?
 

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