Expected chlorine output of a cell? 2ppm?

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C

Cowbell

0
Jun 12, 2013
94
Buffalo, NY
I'm struggling w/my chlorine level lately and suspect my salt cell (10yrs) may be going. I inspected it yesterday and as always it looks perfectly normal to my laymen eyes. Gave it a thorough cleaning with the hose and reassembled.

Today I tested my pool water and it's at 3ppm FC. Put the SWG to 'boost' and captured the water coming from a stair return - this tested at 5ppm FC. I've never done this before so I don't know what is expected. Is a 2ppm increase directly from the cell normal?

I have no error message or anything else out of the ordinary; how do I know when it's time to get a new cell?

Thank you!
 
Argh - I just retested the original pool water and this time I got 5ppm. I retested four more times because I don't know how I could be off by 4 drops of R0871 and was able to repeat, so it looks like pool water and boosted return water is the same.

My water is slightly cloudly - I put in 1.5 jugs of 12% shock 2 days ago and it's down to 5ppm so it appears something is working on my FC. I will add another 1.5 jugs now and keep the filter running 24/7 to shock and get it clear.

Should I try troubleshooting this cell or should I consider myself lucky to have gotten 10 Buffalo summers out of it?
 
cb,

10 years is a long time for a cell... But, before I bought a new one I'd make sure I could pass an OCLT.. (cell off of course..)

Once I could pass the OCLT, I would run the same OCLT test, but this time with the Cell running all night at 100%.. The difference between last test at night and the first test in the morning tells you how much chlorine your cell is producing.

Thanks for posting,

Jim R.
 
Jim, that sounds like a sound and reasonable test to verify cell is not producing. Once verified should I take any additional steps or go straight to ordering new? I've heard about reversing polarity, etc. etc. ... I'm patient and wouldn't mind trying a few things before taking $400+ from the piggy bank.

- - - Updated - - -

Addendum - could I hobble along for the next 6 weeks of pool time adding a cup of bleach a day? If I could push a new cell off to after winter I would, if only to get a nice and fresh new cell April next year.
 
cb,

I would run the test that James recommends above..

And yes.. there is no reason to buy a new cell this year (assuming it is bad..) Adding chlorine manually is perfectly fine.

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
Thanks.

This is probably a really basic question, but am I SLAMing correctly:

Earlier this afternoon, pool is:
FC/TC: 5 / 5
CH: 100
TA: 90
CYA: 40

Added 1.5 gallons of 12% bleach and retested FC, which came in at about 15ppm

5 hours later, retested FC, came in at 9.5ppm.

I added another gallon of 12% bleach to bring it up to 15 - 16.

I assume I continue adding bleach to keep it at 16ish? As I'm now adding manually instead of using the SWG, how often do I add bleach to keep it at that level, a couple times a day?
 
You are doing the process correctly. The more often you can test and add liquid chlorine to raise your FC back to SLAM (16ppm) the faster the SLAM will go. So every few hours to start and as the FC holds closer to SLAM level, you can reduce the frequency. But it is best if you still do the test and dose 3 or 4 times per day until you pass the three criteria for a successful SLAM Process
 
I added a little powdered CYA yesterday to get me closer to 60/70 once it fully dissolved and looking at the Chlorine/CYA chart I'm surprised to see I may need to increase to almost 30ppm.

At what level of FC do I have to worry about my vinyl liner?
 

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If you added CYA powder to get to 70 ppm then your SLAM level is 28 ppm.

The chlorine is buffered by the CYA. So it will not harm the liner. As long as the CYA is in there.

How did you add the CYA powder?
 
JamesW said:
Always good to get more cowbell.

If the autopilot isn't giving an error, then it's probably ok.

Have you done "Test Pool Pilot" on the box?
Click to expand...


Apologies James I missed this post. I just ran "Test Pool Pilot" and get the following:

Test Pool Pilot
Software V4.2
Cell=SC-48
Power level 1
Minerals=3300ppm
Temperature=79F
Cell=27V 5.0A

Besides normal fluctuations in Minerals and Temp this is the same output I've ever seen over 10 years from the 'test' function.
 
Cowbell said:
I just added some powder to the skimmer - I have a sand filter now so am assuming it will slowly dissolve over the course of a few days.
Click to expand...

OK. Just be sure you do not backwash for at least a week.

In the future, add the CYA by using what we call the sock method. Get an old sock (no holes) and put the measured amount of CYA you need. Tie the sock closed and either suspend it in front of a return (hang it from your brush pole works with something weighted on the deck) OR if it still allows flow thru the skimmer, place the sock in the skimmer. Every 15/20 minutes give the sock a squeeze to speed up the process. Please DO NOT follow the directions on the container of CYA to just pour it into the skimmer and don't just toss the sock in the pool as the CYA is acidic and can bleach/stain pool finishes.
 
The test pool pilot results look good. The amp reading means that it's working. If the cell was underproducing, the system would show an error.

Finish the SLAM and then see if the cell keeps up.
 
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