Hayward T-15 Low Salt Reading After Acid Wash

CTX_Traveler

Member
Jun 12, 2019
9
CT
Dear Salt Chlorine Generator forum -

I have 3 year old Hayward T-15 cell that I have been using trouble free at least for 3 years. A few weeks ago I learned that I need to acid wash it on annual basis which I have not done so :(. There were no build up that I could see on the cells.

So bought a cleaning stand, this morning followed the instruction, put the cable side on the top, poured 4:1 water to muriatic acid solution and left it for 10-15 minutes.

After reinstalling the cell, the salt reading only showed 2000 instead of 3200-3400 where it was before. The low reading automatically turned the generator off after a few minutes. Recalibrating the salt reading only shows the salt as high as 2200; then after a while will go back to 2000 again.

The voltage - 24.8 (also normal as usual)
Amperage 6.25 (also looks normal as usual)
Cell size somehow showed T-3 instead of T-15

- Is this a sign of a bad cell?
- Since the voltage and amperage still shows that it can still generate chlorine, is there a way to by pass the auto shutdown from false salt reading?
- Could this be coincidence that it happened after I acid washed the cell?
- How long is the warranty on the cell, the serial number starts with 3E16353-XXXXX

Thank you in advanced for the help!!
 
Have you tested the water itself for water content? I had the same problem this year with the salt cell. I did an acid was, then salt was low. Added to much salt based on reading from Aqua Logic. Checked salt reading by test strip, sure was too high. Need to test water, adjust salt, calibrate.
 
It was made December 18 2016 and it has a 3 year warranty.

Make sure that the tcell setting is correct. Check the actual salinity with a good test kit like a K-1766 test kit and then post all of the diagnostic readings.
 
Hi James and Alan -
Thank you for the quick reply. More updates...

I took the cell to a local Leslie. It passed the Hayward Cell test. I saw the water bubbling out of the cell when they tested it.
The salt level was measured at 2900. AquaRite somehow has tend to report ~300-400 higher. So salt level is good.

Now that lead me to believe now that there is something wrong with the board instead. I've also noticed in the past 2 weeks, which that lead me to believe to acid wash the cell, is that the chlorine level in the pool has been much lower than usual; even with good level of CYA.
FAC - 0
TAC - 0
Salt - 2900
CH - 100
CYA - 90
pH - 7.4

- Is there any way to diagnose the board?
- Is it possible that the board is not sending power to the cell?
- As I mentioned above, AquaRite now somehow showing that my cell is a T-3 instead of T-15.

Thank you again for the help!!
 
Thank you James!!! I wasn't aware that you can manually set the cell size. I thought the system will automatically recognized.

OK - the reading is back to normal again :):)

My only issue now is why the FAC and TAC are 0. For the past 3 years I ran the generator 7-8 hours per day at 40% throughput. In the past 2 weeks, I've increased it to 80%. CAH level is normal. The voltage reading and amp are within range. But FAC and TAC are very minimal. I have to shock the pool to bring the chlorine up but it will not sustain.

Is there any other test you can do to see if the cell is generating chlorine?

Thank you again!!!
 
Thank you James!!! I wasn't aware that you can manually set the cell size. I thought the system will automatically recognized.

OK - the reading is back to normal again :):)

My only issue now is why the FAC and TAC are 0. For the past 3 years I ran the generator 7-8 hours per day at 40% throughput. In the past 2 weeks, I've increased it to 80%. CAH level is normal. The voltage reading and amp are within range. But FAC and TAC are very minimal. I have to shock the pool to bring the chlorine up but it will not sustain.

Is there any other test you can do to see if the cell is generating chlorine?

Thank you again!!!
Overtime the cell will start loosing its generating capacity.. In retrospect when my first cell aged I realized I had to run it longer or turn it up. you might be starting to see that at 3 years old.. Also the quickest way to see if the sell is creating chlorine is to stick a test strip in front of a return nozzle or collect some water from a return with a tube and you can test it if you need something more quantitative, either way the water from the return should have more chlorine than the water from the pool.
 
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Ok, all of that looks good. Divide the instant salinity by the actual salinity and that will give you the performance of the cell.

Over 75% is good. Under 75% is not good.

Most likely, you just need to SLAM.
 

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Overtime the cell will start loosing its generating capacity.. In retrospect when my first cell aged I realized I had to run it longer or turn it up. you might be starting to see that at 3 years old.. Also the quickest way to see if the sell is creating chlorine is to stick a test strip in front of a return nozzle or collect some water from a return with a tube and you can test it if you need something more quantitative, either way the water from the return should have more chlorine than the water from the pool.

Thank you MGuzzy. Very logical suggestion. Will try it out.
 
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