Goldline Aqua Logic check system, Low salt error.

[JaySav]

I'm sorry if this has been posted, I've searched and searched the forum, have came across a few threads that were helpful but none of them exactly similar to my issue. About 2 days ago I noticed the low salt warning, I thought maybe its just a fluke and it will get back on track since the salt reading on the board has never been accurate from the day we bought the house in March, new home/pool owners. Had the salt tested, before I started doing my own testing and it turns out it was 116 lbs low so I added 120lbs of salt in April to get the salt up to proper level, I have since tested the salt a few times in the past month and they have all been similar readings, last week was the last salt test, I use the salt strips, and it was 3400. Yesterday I noticed it still showed low salt, check system light, and showed salt level to be 2600 which I found out is "too low for the cell to gen chlorine" so the cell shuts down at 2600. I checked the chlorine and it dropped 3ppm from the previous day so now I don't think its a fluke but its actually not producing chlorine at all. Thank fully I have been battling high chlorine levels and trying to find the sweet spot so the chlorine was already high. The chlorine went from 15 2 days to 12 last night so I have a day or so until I will need to start dumping bleach in which will be another completely new aspect for me to learn.

I have inspected the cell, not a single piece of buildup, fins look great. The cell is from 2016, I took it out last night and had Leslies inspect it and it passed, took it a while to start fizzing compared to the fresh new one it was up against but it did fizz and system showed pass. From what I've read it looks like it could be 3 things, actual low salt, cell going bad or is bad (still a possibility I guess) or the board going bad. On the bright side, we negotiated a full year subscription to American Home Shield with full salt water equipment/all pool equipment optional add on so I'm not extremely worried about it but curious what you guys think? I submitted a claim with them and paid the $100, got a call from a pool tech today and he is coming out to check it out.

Some insight on this would be appreciated and I'd also like to hear some reviews on American Home Shield's pool coverage, has anyone had experience with them? Good/Bad???

Thank you for your guys continued support and as soon as I can get over the initial home buying hump you will see "contributor" next to my name I promise. The help and knowledge I've gained off of this site has already saved me a ton of $$$ and taught me a lot which is priceless. Thanks

Here’s what the board is reading. The check sys wasn't lit in this pic for some reason but it came on shortly after.

 

[mknauss]

I do not have experience with this type of equipment but let's ask @JamesW if he can help you out.

 

[JamesW]

I think that the board is good. Based on the diagnostic readings, it's generating chlorine.

A low salt error means the average salt level is less than or equal to 2600 pm. Cell is still operating.

A very low salt error means the average salt level is less than or equal to 2300 ppm. Cell has shut down.

What cell do you have (T-15 etc)?

What are the first seven characters of the serial number?

You need another good salt test to verify the actual salinity. I recommend the K-1766 salt test kit.

Go to settings and check the percentage setting for the chlorinator.

Recheck the diagnostic readings and push the + button to reverse polarity and recheck the readings.

The salinity in both polarities should be the same +/- 200 ppm.

 

[JaySav]

Thank you for the info. I have the Aqua Logic not Pro Logic tho, are they pretty similar? It seems hard to find stuff online about Aqua Logic, most of the time the search brings up Pro Logic or Aqua Rite for some reason. I will further troubleshoot today but I think it was a little of a false alarm. Of coarse when the guy showed up all was operating properly, long story short he cleaned the cell, called Hayward for IT troubleshooting, Hayward confirmed board was operating properly, they both discounted the Aqua Check salt test strips and told me to go get an actual salt test done. I did and here was my results:

Aqua Check salt strips: 3400 ppm
Aqua Logic board: 2700-2800 ppm (jumping from one to another)
LaMotte Tracer: 2800 ppm (got this same reading from 2 diff pool stores, 1st was a local shop 2nd was national chain, on same type of device)
"Fancy spin tester" possibly the LaMotte Waterlink: 2400 ppm (Local shop)

It's almost funny how many diff readings I have for this, I mean how do you determine which one to actually go with? One guy did the LaMotte Tracer test when I went in the first store, as I was walking out I forgot I wanted to see my phosphate reading so I turned around and the first guy all of a sudden was busy so the next guy did the spin test and that's when I noticed the diff readings, 2400 vs 2800, all within 5 min of each other. I asked the guy to explain the conflicting readings and he just said "the first guy shouldn't have used the LaMotte Tracer, he should've used the Spin tester"....good explanation. Phosphates on spin tester was around 800 some and at the second pool store phosphates were 300 some with dropper test. LOL. I've read some threads on here that the phosphates are very debatable, I probably wont do anything with them. My goal is to put the least amount of chemicals in the pool as possible. This all makes me that much more thankful to do my own water testing, what a headache.

I've read pretty good things about the the Aqua Check strips. I know they have a +/- but to have a +/- 600 ppm is just completely unreliable and unusable. Their next stop is the trash can. That fancy spin tester is reading pretty low but overall I think I'm going with the LaMotte Tracer/Pool board since they are all in the same ball park and the board is the actual device I need to satisfy since it's reading the salt and producing the chlorine. I added 2 bags of salt and will see if the reading comes up on the board in the next day.

Side note the pool service tech that came out, which was a really nice ma'-n-pa' family owned pool service company (very nice and honest), basically said he thought the Hayward system is one of the better systems out and to go with the salt reading the board was showing. The guy at the 1st pool store all but said my set up was junk in so many words. I've read the Aqua Logic isn't great and has some problems but man its hard to know who's advice to take with this stuff.

 

[JamesW]

AquaLogic was discontinued. ProLogic is the current version.

I suspect that the salinity shown on the box is pretty close to actual.

Are you sure about the age of the cell. What are the first four characters of the serial number?

If the cell was made in 2016, the serial number should begin with 3E16.

Monitor the actual salinity to detect when the cell is beginning to fail. When the cell begins to fail, the box will begin to show lower than actual salinity.

 

[JaySav]

I'm at work so not sure of the exact serial number but I know its 2016, think the service tech said it was the 256 day of 2016 so its still under its 3 year warranty. Wish I would have realized that and saved myself $100 but you live and ya learn. I will monitor the salinity a little more often. Thanks for the help!