Easytouch / Intellichlor & Heater Wiring

[glo76]

TFP experts - I need some assistance with rewiring my Easytouch 8. A couple of weeks ago I had an Intellichlor IC40 installed and the installer swapped two of my relays in my Easytouch control panel. Previously, my heater was wired to the load side of the pump relay. The installer changed this so now the Intellichlor is wired to that relay and my heater is wired to a separate “aux 7” relay, assigned to the high speed circuit. This means a) I have to activate that relay to get my heater to work, and b) I have no failsafe to prevent activating the heater without the pump being on, other than the logic within the Easytouch itself.

I want to rewire to correct those two issues, and have a couple of options that I want to check with you as to the best approach. The attached file gives a pictorial of the way my system was & is wired, and the two options below that I am considering. The circuits in question are both 220V/20A:

Alternative 1. The simplest / obvious solution is to wire the Intellichlor and Heater on a dedicated circuit, but wired through the ‘pump’ relay. I know this will work and will keep the amp draw well below the 20A rating of the breaker. The concern I have is that any trip of that breaker will disable the intellichlor and I could lose sanitation without realizing it (I've had issues with rodents chewing on the wires inside the heater). This concern would be alleviated if I could get a notification via the Screenlogic app that I had lost power to the intellichlor (I know it sends notifications if I lose comms to the pump). Anyone know if it will do that (either by default, or enabling it)?

Alternative 2. Rewire to have the Intellichlor and Heater wired to the same circuit as the pump, via the pump relay. This will reduce the concern of losing power to the intellichlor (will definitely know if the breaker trips as the pump will not run) however it puts extra load on the breaker and I’m concerned it will overload if I have the pump running at high speed with the heater running. I think I should have enough headroom but it'll be close, as the Intelliflo VS seems to pull 2800 watts at 3450 rpm (roughly 12-13A at 220V?), plus I could have the heater going at the same time (3A at 220V?), and the Intellichlor (1A at 220V?).

Any thoughts / suggestions? Realize this is a lot of info but may have missed something crucial so ask away.....thanks in advance!

 

[Jimrahbe]

76,

The IntelliChlor MUST be wired through the pump relay, but there is no reason to wire the heater through any high voltage relay at all.

I suggest that you wire the heater so that it gets constant AC power, and allow the EasyTouch to tell the heater to turn on and off.

The reason that the SWCG must be wired through the pump/filter relay is because if the flow switch is bad (closed) and the pump was not on, the cell could explode. This will not happen with the heater.. the heater will not come on due to the pressure switch and even if it were bad, there are several other safety devices that will shut the heater off without any damage.

The basic operation of the heater is that it it always on and set to full hot.. Nothing happens of course because the EasyTouch is controlling the heater's operation via the fireman's switch. When you either schedule the heater to run, or you turn it on manually, the EasyTouch will close the fireman's switch and the heater will start to heat. When the pool water gets above the set point in the EasyTouch the heater will shut off. Since you have the IntelliFlo and ScreenLogic, you can set the pump speed you want when the heater is running.

It is how it is supposed to work and I am surprised your installer did not set it up this way.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[glo76]

Jim - thanks for the reply. The SWCG will for sure remain wired to the pump relay; just a question of whether it is powered from the same breaker as the pump, or a dedicated breaker. Your suggestion to wire the heater to get constant AC power works, given there is the pressure switch and other safety devices to shut the heater off.

The heater has always functioned mostly the way you describe; the only difference in my previous install was that the original pool builder set the heater up to run on the load side of the pool relay rather than constant power. I vaguely recall him telling me this was to avoid having a constant 'hot' electrical connection at the heater junction box unless the pump was running. That JB inside the heater doesn't seem particularly well sealed, so I can understand why they erred on the side of caution. Maybe I'll swap the wire nuts inside that JB for waterproof ones for extra peace of mind.

This retrofit of the Intellichlor was a bit half-assed - the installer just swapped the pump and aux relay connections to get the SWCG powered from the pump relay, and didn't make any consideration for what was now on the aux relay. He also didn't connect my SWCG power center comms cable either, so that was another little job I had to do.....grrr.

 

[Jimrahbe]

Graeme,

The original Pentair manuals basically said to not power anything but the pump from the pump's GFCI breaker. Later versions of the manual say it is ok to power the salt system and the IntelliFlo from the same breaker. So it is not a problem either way.

You can, if you want, power the heater through an Aux relay.. It just causes more button pushing and uses up a relay.. Since there is no reason to do it, the question is why do it at all...

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[glo76]

Thanks! I rewired today so the pump / intellichlor are one on breaker and controlled via the pump relay. The heater is hardwired on a separate breaker. All looks good - thanks for your help!