Hayward Ecommand 4 Force on Freeze Protection

Cdubcincy

Member
Jun 8, 2020
18
Frisco, Texas
Pool Size
13000
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
SWG Type
Hayward Aqua Rite (T-9)
Hello everyone. I'm located north of Dallas and felt really good going about being prepared into this weeks cold weather. Everything was going fine until this afternoon when I noticed that the pool had turned off. I assumed it was because in the sunlight the air temp sensor got about 32 degrees and had cut off the freeze protection. Fast forward 3 hours and it never came back on and the reason why is the air temp sensor believes it to be 47 degrees outside currently. For the time being I've got the pump running and am cycling between pool/spa mode every 30 minutes manually. Does anyone know a way to force the system into freeze protection mode? If not it looks like it's going to be a long night for me manually cycling things until the pool supply stores open in the morning.
 
Submerge the air temperature sensor in a glass of ice water and see what it does.

Do you have a multimeter? Test the resistance of the air temperature sensor and compare it to the chart below.

If you have a resistor of 32K or greater in your parts bin then install it in place of the temperature sensor.

There is no manual way of triggering freeze protection.

Remove the return valve actuator and manually open it partially to the spa and leave your pump running so you can get a good nights sleep.


10K_thermistor_chart.png
 
Can you open all of the valves half way so you essentially run pool and spa modes at the same time? That should get you through tonight, which should be the last of our hard freeze. Then you have a few days to figure out the sensor before the next bit of cold weather hits us this weekend (but it will be more in line with our normal winter freezes).
 
I ended up taking a look at the wiring to see if it had a kink or insulation rubbed off somewhere. In doing so the resistance changed and read 42 degrees, which is the highest you can set the controller to kick on freeze protection. At that point I stopped what I was doing and carefully put the wiring back in the cabinet and let the system run overnight.

Before this happened I was considering switching the water temp sensor wiring to land in the air temp location. Water temp was a solid 34-36 all day and with them both being 10k thermistors my thought was that it would fool the controller until I could pick up a new sensor today.
 
I ended up taking a look at the wiring to see if it had a kink or insulation rubbed off somewhere. In doing so the resistance changed and read 42 degrees, which is the highest you can set the controller to kick on freeze protection. At that point I stopped what I was doing and carefully put the wiring back in the cabinet and let the system run overnight.

Before this happened I was considering switching the water temp sensor wiring to land in the air temp location. Water temp was a solid 34-36 all day and with them both being 10k thermistors my thought was that it would fool the controller until I could pick up a new sensor today.
Set your equipment to run at night, at least from 2:00AM until 8:00AM. Better is to let it run 24/7 until things warm up a bit. Use the small toggle switch on the return-valve actuator to start the valve switching to the spa position. Stop it in the half-way mark by moving the switch to its center point so that there is moving water going to the spa. Take a picture before moving the toggle so that you know where to put it back when you want to go back to normal operation. Don't change the suction valve.
 
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