- Jun 18, 2019
- 594
- Pool Size
- 30000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
I feel like my IC60 has always read very low, but never enough to bother me and more in the higher spectrum of the +/- 500 or so ppm. However, over winter, there was a week or so when it just wouldn't report salt PPM at all, it'd just show hyphens. I opened a warranty case with Pentair, a warranty vendor contacted me (more than a week later) and said they'd be out the next week and that if there was nothing wrong that they'd charge me a truck roll charge. Between that call and the appointment, suddenly out of nowhere it started reporting salt again. I canceled the work order out of fear they'd say it's working fine and charge me. They said I could call back and reactivate it. As it was winter, I wasn't really concerned.
A couple weeks ago, I started the IC60 again as water was warming up and chlorine bottle consumption was increasing to the point of annoyance. I wasn't really paying attention to the salt level, but it was like 2800. I figured maybe I was a little low due to splash out (maybe 3200 and reading 2800 which was within reason). We had a winter storm, lots of high wind with water splash out, then refill with rain, etc. Regardless, the chlorinator was working fine, and I was seeing chlorine increase in testing. It's worth noting outside temps and water temps were in the 70-72 range (they're lower now).
This Tuesday I had a piece of coping removed to be replaced and in the process they chipped a water line tile. I was forced to pump out about 1,000 gallons to get the water level below the tile. I basically backwash hosed out using the multi-port "Waste" port. Upon firing the pump up again, I saw the red low salt light. IC then reported 2400 ppm. So either it's purely coincidental as I hadn't been watching the salt level since the 2800 reading or maybe more salt was at the bottom of the pool and a higher ratio of salt level in the waste dump (I had NOT been running the pumps for several hours prior to draining the pool). I also hadn't added salt in 6+ months so I'd have assumed it was all diluted and wouldn't settle anywhere with pumps off. It's probably all coincidental and also we had started to see cooling temperatures in the water (mid 60s).
I K1766 tested at 3400 ppm on Tuesday. Despite numerous IC60 on/off cycles, I'd see 2350-2450. After filling the 1,000+ gallons back using softened tap water, it was still reading 2350. I did add a bag of salt this morning which should've given me 175-200 ppm. I brush diluted the salt and the reading after resets went down to 2200 (early morning, 62F water). Now it's at 2300 at 65F water temp. I'm convinced the thermistor or some other thing is just out of whack. As stated before, water temps have played a role in the past, but I wasn't tracking closely enough. As we've been having cold nights and warmer/sunnier days, water temps are fluctuating a bit, and some of these readings may be related to that. I'll keep a closer eye. Maybe hit the hot tub tonight and see if that makes a difference.
So I called the warranty service company and they said they're not doing ANY warranty calls because they're still focused on Texas winter storm damage, and they led me to believe everyone is in the same boat. They gave me a 6+ week lead time before they could come. They said they would reopen the ticket with Pentair and have them try to find another vendor, but I'm not optimistic.
So any suggested options here? These newer models don't have an override/recalibration. I'm not sure if there's some form of a master reset, my reading here leads me to believe there's no options to trick this thing. I'm ok with monitoring salt on my own if I can just get it working. I've considered buying a replacement on just to get it going then trying to warranty the one for repair, but I'm fearful if I remove it, I can't get it warranted. Also, seems like the prices of these have gone up recently, they're now about $1,000 where as before I recall maybe $700.
Can I just replace the thermistor component that does this detection? Finally, the unit is just under a year old, so I doubt I have any massive scaling, but I could descale it, but I don't want to do that unnecessarily or honestly touch it until I get warranty work done.
Any other ideas?
A couple weeks ago, I started the IC60 again as water was warming up and chlorine bottle consumption was increasing to the point of annoyance. I wasn't really paying attention to the salt level, but it was like 2800. I figured maybe I was a little low due to splash out (maybe 3200 and reading 2800 which was within reason). We had a winter storm, lots of high wind with water splash out, then refill with rain, etc. Regardless, the chlorinator was working fine, and I was seeing chlorine increase in testing. It's worth noting outside temps and water temps were in the 70-72 range (they're lower now).
This Tuesday I had a piece of coping removed to be replaced and in the process they chipped a water line tile. I was forced to pump out about 1,000 gallons to get the water level below the tile. I basically backwash hosed out using the multi-port "Waste" port. Upon firing the pump up again, I saw the red low salt light. IC then reported 2400 ppm. So either it's purely coincidental as I hadn't been watching the salt level since the 2800 reading or maybe more salt was at the bottom of the pool and a higher ratio of salt level in the waste dump (I had NOT been running the pumps for several hours prior to draining the pool). I also hadn't added salt in 6+ months so I'd have assumed it was all diluted and wouldn't settle anywhere with pumps off. It's probably all coincidental and also we had started to see cooling temperatures in the water (mid 60s).
I K1766 tested at 3400 ppm on Tuesday. Despite numerous IC60 on/off cycles, I'd see 2350-2450. After filling the 1,000+ gallons back using softened tap water, it was still reading 2350. I did add a bag of salt this morning which should've given me 175-200 ppm. I brush diluted the salt and the reading after resets went down to 2200 (early morning, 62F water). Now it's at 2300 at 65F water temp. I'm convinced the thermistor or some other thing is just out of whack. As stated before, water temps have played a role in the past, but I wasn't tracking closely enough. As we've been having cold nights and warmer/sunnier days, water temps are fluctuating a bit, and some of these readings may be related to that. I'll keep a closer eye. Maybe hit the hot tub tonight and see if that makes a difference.
So I called the warranty service company and they said they're not doing ANY warranty calls because they're still focused on Texas winter storm damage, and they led me to believe everyone is in the same boat. They gave me a 6+ week lead time before they could come. They said they would reopen the ticket with Pentair and have them try to find another vendor, but I'm not optimistic.
So any suggested options here? These newer models don't have an override/recalibration. I'm not sure if there's some form of a master reset, my reading here leads me to believe there's no options to trick this thing. I'm ok with monitoring salt on my own if I can just get it working. I've considered buying a replacement on just to get it going then trying to warranty the one for repair, but I'm fearful if I remove it, I can't get it warranted. Also, seems like the prices of these have gone up recently, they're now about $1,000 where as before I recall maybe $700.
Can I just replace the thermistor component that does this detection? Finally, the unit is just under a year old, so I doubt I have any massive scaling, but I could descale it, but I don't want to do that unnecessarily or honestly touch it until I get warranty work done.
Any other ideas?
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