IC40 indicating lost communication

nuke_twidget

Well-known member
Feb 29, 2020
57
Houston
Pool Size
14500
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
SWG Type
Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
We had a power surge yesterday and it appears it may have impacted my SWG. I received an alert that it had lost communications, however I can still set the output from my phone and see the corresponding change on the cell. The cell shows a red light for flow and the cell indicator lights flash green and red. We recently had to drain the entire pool for a plaster issue and just added salt before Beta hit Houston. I'm wondering if they may have disabled the cell during the work? Unfortunately I don't know enough about the Intellicenter to troubleshoot. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
 
N,

If you can make the cell change with your phone, you have good communications..

If you have a red flow light, you can't do anything else...

The red and green Railroad crossing lights show the cell is calibrating, but without flow it will never finish..

Fix the flow issue and then worry about the cell.

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
N,

If you can make the cell change with your phone, you have good communications..

If you have a red flow light, you can't do anything else...

The red and green Railroad crossing lights show the cell is calibrating, but without flow it will never finish..

Fix the flow issue and then worry about the cell.

Thanks,

Jim R.
That begs the next question, how do I fix that? The pumps are running, the valve is in auto. What should I check for flow? I'm assuming that means something is impeding the flow?
 
What is the pressure on the filter gauge? Can you see flow on the pump basket? Is flow coming out of the returns in the pool? Is your skimmer clear and can see flow? You can remove the cell and look for blockage.
 
What is the pressure on the filter gauge? Can you see flow on the pump basket? Is flow coming out of the returns in the pool? Is your skimmer clear and can see flow? You can remove the cell and look for blockage.
Pressure on the gauge is hovering around 10 psi. There's plenty of flow from the returns and the skimmers are all clear and working as intended. I'm even adding CYA via the pantyhose method currently.
 
N,

If you have plenty of flow out of your pool returns, then most likely the cell has an issue..

If this is a new pool, I would get your pool builder, or Pentair to fix it.. If an old pool, I would suspect the flow switch assembly is bad..

As a test, you can connect the red and black wires coming from the cell to the flow switch and see if the flow light goes off. If the light does not go out when the two wires are connected, then the cell is bad..

The flow switch assy is under the plastic cover at the end of the cell..

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
Awesome, I'll run that test. The pool is brand new, we still haven't finished all of the punch list items to close the pool out. I will report back with what I find!
 
Good news, got everything fixed yesterday. It was an issue with the flow switch. The metal strip had sheared and the replacement they installed sheared as well. So, they just installed a whole new cell for me!
 
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