IC40 Chlorinator Gushes Water at Seal

[TCardenas]

Hello TFP forum,

First time poster and a general newbie when it comes to pool plumbing. We have in ground pool/spa (about 15k gallons) with a Pentair system (variable flow pump, 4 cartridge filter, Intellichlor 40 chlorinator). Long story short, our IC40 was shot and I replaced it with another Pentair IC40. It was about 3 years old and had the service light on (no chlorine was being produced even though we had been cleaning it on a regular schedule). After installing the new IC and powering back up system, all appeared to be working fine on the pool setting. Normal flow back to pool (with some to spa for spillover) and our chlorine, salt, and other numbers were all as expected. All readings on the IC are green and no errors noted from the Pentair panel. Running the heat for pool also was normal.

Here’s where my issue is. When I enabled the spa yesterday (this is about 2 weeks after installing the new IC40), when the return and suction valves get to about 1/2 rotated, water starts gushing (more like high pressure streaming) from the inlet side of the IC40. I immediately disabled spa and everything returns to normal. Flow to pool is normal.

I did a quick test to verify flow to the spa by powering down system, manually actuating the suction/return valves to the spa position (my layman’s understanding is all returns are from spa and all suction is from spa), and then started system with pool pump RPM set to about 1850 RPM (not high SPA RPM which is set at 3150). In this setting, flow is to spa seemed to be working normally with no flow to pool. However when I ramp up pump RPM, same thing happens - water starts gushing/streaming from IC on the inlet side.

I’m obviously not a plumber but I seem to be missing something easy here.

Sorry for the long post - any advice you can provide would be immensely appreciated.

Respectfully,
Tony C.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Please post some pictures of the valves. It sounds like the automated return valve is rotating the wrong way and your “dead heading” the return pipe which is causing a pressure build up. The water is spraying out of the pipe because it has no where else to go.

Let see some pictures of the valve positions.

 

[TCardenas]

Hi Matt - I truly appreciate the reply! I attached some pics for your review. Green is main return valve and Red is the main suction suction valve.

I was thinking the same thing however I manually tested things by:

- manually actuating return 180deg to Spa
- manually actuating suction 180deg to Spa

When I do that, I have all suction/return in the Spa and verified no return to the pool (both by putting my hand over returns in pool and felt no flow and observing return flow increase in Spa). I'm using the normal pool pump RPM which is at 1850 RPM. No issues. Its only when I then manually set Spa to the Spa RPM at 3150 do I see the pressure issue. I was toying with putting in the old IC40 just to test the flow issues - let me know what you think. I can't think that a brand new IC40 would have an issue or somehow something is in the line as a blockage but at this point I seriously have no idea.

Thanks again for your time and advice,
Tony

Edit: None of the lines/valves were labeled so I had to try and map everything out myself. I'll eventually get some proper labels printed.

 

[Jimrahbe]

T,

Like Matt, my first guess would have been a misaligned valve, but yours look ok.

It could just be that the unions on the cell are not as tight as they should be.

Coincidently, I was working on a system today that worked at low RPM but would leak heavily at higher RPMs.

Took the cell out, removed, cleaned, relubed, and reinstalled the O-Rings, and the problem went away.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[TCardenas]

Thanks Jim - Good advice for sure. The next thing I'm going to do is power everything down and check out the cell. I did use the new o-rings that came with it with a bit of silicone grease. I thought I had things as hand tight as I could but maybe not. Either way - that will be something I try later this afternoon. Will give it a shot. Thanks again for the feedback

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Pull the cell and look for a restriction. There’s an inlet screen that should capture anything large. I would also open up the return side valve just to make sure the slide window is seated properly and there’s nothing restricting the flow.

What happens when you’re in POOL mode and you crank the pump up to full RPMs?

 

[JoyfulNoise]

You also have a lot of odd ball valves all over the place. Ball valves can go bad and they are not easily repaired. Are you sure that ball valve going to the spa return is in good shape?

Unless those ball valves have some purpose, I would suggest doing away with them. They add needless restriction to the water flow.

 

[TCardenas]

Pull the cell and look for a restriction. There’s an inlet screen that should capture anything large. I would also open up the return side valve just to make sure the slide window is seated properly and there’s nothing restricting the flow.

What happens when you’re in POOL mode and you crank the pump up to full RPMs?

Thanks Matt - will do - I will be pulling it out this afternoon and will post back. The more I think about it - maybe I had one of the o-rings not fully seated in the circular groove? Either way I will explore and let you know.

In pool mode - same thing at high RPM - starts gushing.

 

[TCardenas]

You also have a lot of odd ball valves all over the place. Ball valves can go bad and they are not easily repaired. Are you sure that ball valve going to the spa return is in good shape?

Unless those ball valves have some purpose, I would suggest doing away with them. They add needless restriction to the water flow.

I totally agree. When I first saw them it made me think of the low-cost PVC valves my dad used on his irrigation system in the garden - just a couple sizes bigger. I figured for a pool they would have used something more substantial but not knowing I didn't think twice. I really only turn 3 of them to the off position when I'm doing maintenance. Unfortunately the equipment is slightly below grade which means I have to close everything off to do any maintenance (even cleaning the pump filter basket).

 

[JamesW]

Maybe the O-ring fell out.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

So the equipment is below the water line of the pool?

 

[TCardenas]

Maybe the O-ring fell out.

Heading outside now. Hopefully will have an answer in a bit. Thanks for the feedback

 

[TCardenas]

So the equipment is below the water line of the pool?

Yeah - below water line

 

[TCardenas]

Gentlemen,

I wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone for their time and help today. Long story short, it apparently was just an o-ring issue. After powering everyone down, re-seated/lubed, and then connected - everything fired up as it should in spa mode. No more gushing water works. I shouldn't be surprised I guess that something so simple caused the issue. As a old mentor of mine once advised in the IT world, the 1st thing to check when an issue arrises with computers: "power and cables." I should have used that logic and said check seals and fittings.

As a side note, I ran into a 2nd issue that turned out to a simple fix. Last night the pump would randomly go offline and lose connection with the panel. Same happened today. After killing power at the breaker I popped off the cover to the pump electronics and low and behold, the fitting from the I/O cable was indeed loose. For some reason the I/O cable connector never fit flush and sort of wobbles against the pump housing. The installer left it like that when he replaced the pump a year ago.

So it has turned into a good night over here. Many thanks again. If we were in person it would be my pleasure to buy you all a round of drinks (or at least a cup of coffee).

Best regards,
Tony C.

 

[JamesW]

Glad we could help.

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[TCardenas]

Donation just sent. Thank you guys.