Hayward Aquarite giving me ajada

[s1njin]

My pool is 3.5 years old. I noticed my pool seemed to be having problems keeping the chlorine up in the pool. I was running my generator at 90 percent and was still seeing my levels slowly drop.


To make sure it wasn’t something in my pool, I did a OCLT (overnight chlorine loss test) and verified my readings at sundown with the pump running all night (generator off) matched my readings at sun up - nothing is eating the chlorine.


So I did a salt test on my pool (drops) and noticed there was a wide gap between what the panel was telling me vs. what the drops told me. The panel is reading much lower - to the tune of 600-800 ppm depending on the variability of my salt tests. So after reading some more I did a muriatic acid clean of my cell (it wasn’t crusted but I did it anyway) and still got the same results. I assumed the cell went bad so I purchased a new one from Amazon. The box is genuine and the serial number on the cell indicates it was born in 2018.


Plug the new one in, same low salt count after 24 hours.


I verified with 5 different salt tests (drops) in my pool, I purchased new reagents to make sure my results weren’t sqewed by old reagents. I even took a salt test from the pump basket water because that’s the most mixed water I have. My tests are showing much higher salt then my board is telling me.

The cell is a T15. Verfied just now that it IS making more chlorine then the old one I pulled.


Is it possible my board is going bad? Do I need a service call? Or should I just dump more salt in my pool?


Board readings
3000
85
25.1
5.85
1.59R
00
T-15

Thanks Gang !

 

[jblizzle]

When I first installed my Prologic with a T-15 cell, it consistently registered 600-800ppm lower than my Taylor test.
I even installed the cell on another member's pool to confirm it was fine.
That just became the norm.
So I raised the salt level up to where the SWG was happy and just knew that my Taylor test would be 600-800ppm higher than what the SWG was reading.
I knew when the discrepancy became larger and larger that the cell was going out.

Interestingly, my new cell results in the SWG reading very close to what the Taylor reads ... no explanation

 

[s1njin]

Thanks for the quick reply !!!

600-1000ppm more salt in my pool is safe? That would put my ‘real’ salt level up around 4300-4500 ppm.

 

[jblizzle]

Some SWG in Australia run around 6000 ... and the ocean is over 30000

 

[s1njin]

Thanks again !!! I’ll let it run more while I’m at work and drop a bag or two in when I get home. Each bag nets me about 200 ppm for my pool size.

 

[jblizzle]

Recommend you turn the SWG off when you add salt so that a high concentration does not mess with the SWG while dissolving.

Or at least only add the salt far from any suction lines.

 

[VinceL]

Over the past week I was beginning to think our salt cell was going bad. When testing the water I only had 1 or 2 ppm of FC (O CC). The water was clear;no sign of algae.

The instantaneous readings on the salt cell were about ±26.5v and ±6.4a. The salt was within 100 of the average salt reading. So, it appeared the SWCG was working fine.

The salt level was running around 2800. The K-1766 gave a reading of 2900.

I decided to dump about 25 lbs of salt into the pool to get above 3000 (closer to the "sweet" spot for the SWCG).

Wow! What a difference! I'm getting plenty of chlorine now. The voltage on the SWCG is up about .25 volts and the current is almost a full amp higher.

I was surprised that the chlorine output would vary that much with the salt level in the "recommended" range.

 

[s1njin]

Interestingly, my new cell results in the SWG reading very close to what the Taylor reads ... no explanation

That's interesting - so when you put the new salt cell in that registered what the Taylor test read - did you have to drain the pool to dilute the salt? In my case if the salt cell goes bad down the line and the new cell reads accurately, I'll need to drain 20-25% of my water to get the salt down.

 

[jblizzle]

It was after a complete water replacement.

 

[s1njin]

Is it possible that my water temperature is in some way modifying what the board is displaying? My pool gets full sun and often sits around 87-93 degrees during the afternoon/early evening when my pump is running.