Hurlcon VX no flow and temp fixing

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C

cams

Member
Sep 22, 2024
5
NSW
The Hurlcon VX chlorinator is more than 10 years old. It always says low salt which I think it's true because I didn't add enough salt to the pool after heavy rains. The chlorinator works properly despite the low salt warning.

A few days ago I added 1 bag of salt to the pool. After a while I went to check the chlorinator and found the no flow light is on. Thought it's a false warning and restarted the chlorinator, after the initial 5 mins running, it still had the no flow warning. Tried a few time and it's the same.

The cell was clean enough, only a little bit calcium deposit on the edge of a few cell plates. Anyway I took the cell out and soaked in vinegar as I did before to clean deposit. Noticed the flow sensor was also covered by a thin layer of deposit so cleaned it as well. After cleaning the cell, I put it back and tested again, the same no flow error.

I took the cell out again and soaked it in a bucket of pool water, connected it to a 16V power supply. The cell started to produce chlorine.

Now not sure if it's chlorinator the problem, or the cell is weak from corrosion and can't pass the check of chlorinator.

To sanitize pool for now temporarily. I connect the pump and the 16V power supply to a remote control power switch, and connect the power supply directly to the cell without the chlorinator. Now it works to add chlorine to the pool.

Will take both chlorinator and cell to a pool shop to find out which one failed.

Anyone has the similar situation?
 
Welcome to TFP,

10+ years is a good run for a SWG. I would be looking at replacing it. There are places around that specialise in repairing pumps chlorinators but if the control box need repairs and it needs a new cell a complete exchange may be a better option.

I wouldn’t be running it with an external power supply, thats a recipe for disaster. I would use liquid chlorine until you get it sorted.

The only way to know if it’s producing chlorine is to measure the free chlorine, FC, in the pool. And the only reliable way to do that is with a FAS/DPD FC kit. And the only place to get one of those as an individual test kit is from Clear Choice Labs
 
the cell does work - increased FC from 1 to 3 after 5 hours running.

will get the chlorinator and cell checked later.

here just want to discuss the possibility of a kind of DIY SWG. the possible issue of my current temporary solution is when the no flow is real but the cell is still powered. it will keep producing gas until something happens. to avoid this technically I can add a flow switch to the pipe, use it to control a relay to power the cell.
 
How are you testing FC?

I run an Astral V25, when testing the water at the return I cant detect an increase over my residual pool level. They don’t actually produce much. But theoretically a new cell in a V25 producing 25g/h running at 100% should raise the FC by 1.3ppm in 20,000L. Your 10yr old cell is doing very well.

Your immediate problem is running the cell with no flow and causing an explosion. You can get 10amp Y power adaptors from Bunnings ect. to connect the cell and pump to the same timing device but there is still no fail safe against pump failure and an explosion.

Your second problem is fire from the power source. I have no idea what a cell draws but I would have thought it would be more then a lap top.

Another problem is adjusting it. You have time but can do %.

cams said:
to avoid this technically I can add a flow switch to the pipe, use it to control a relay to power the cell.
Click to expand...

Most likely easier and cheap to default back to option 1 and get the chlorinator checked and fixed.
 
yes I will have the chlorinator checked to know which one to replace.
I use the pool test strips like this to check FC

The cell and pump are connected to the timer together with a double adaptor. the wifi timber can monitor energy consumption as well. when only connect the cell to the timer I can see the power consumption of the cell is around 55W. Also checked with multi meter to find the current is around 3.5A. It's under the capacity of the laptop power adaptor which is around 75W.

there is no fail safe against pump failure currently. the possible solution is to add a flow switch to control a relay which connects the cell. when there is no flow, flow switch will not turn on the relay to power the cell. This is just a technical discussion, not mean I'm going to do it.
 
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