I’ve been trying to figure out, with little to no insight from the manual, how the on and off cycle of the ichlor30 works. Or any SWG with a selectable output for that matter. Obviously the output percentage indicates how much of the run time the cell is actually on vs in standby mode, but how does this actually work and in what increments? For example... if I run it at 100% for 12 hours it will output .5 lb chlorine and be “producing” for all of those 12 hours. If I run it at 50% for the same 12 hours, I should get .25 lb chlorine generated, but now the cell is cycling on and off to output 50%. My question is this, given the last scenario, 50% for 12 hours, the cell is only producing for 6 of those 12 hours... does it cycle in .5 hr increments, 1 hr increments, 3 hr increments, 15 min increments??? The purpose of knowing this is to be able to reduce the output by a calculated amount by turning off to drop my FC as needed then power back on to the last setting which maintained my level after full sun and moderate bather load every day. Anyone have insight?
iChlor30 production times- SWG
- Thread starter MrAl
- Start date
Al,
Different SWCGs have different cycle times.. The IC40 is about 5 minutes.. So at 50%, the cell is on for 2.5 minutes and off for about 2.5 minutes. I "suspect" the iChlor is the same.
Your cell, in your pool, should produce about 9 ppm of FC in 24 hours when run at 100%.. That is .375 ppm per hour at 100%.. Or .187 ppm if at 50%, etc...
I have no idea what this means.. "The purpose of knowing this is to be able to reduce the output by a calculated amount by turning off to drop my FC as needed then power back on to the last setting which maintained my level after full sun and moderate bather load every day"..
If you try to keep your FC at a specific number, it will drive you crazy.. You need to look at the bigger picture.. The only thing you have to worry about is going too low, so letting the FC increase on the non-sunny does not hurt anything. I personally try to keep my FC at my Target or higher... Per the saltwater part of this chart.. FC/CYA Levels Obviously you need to know your CYA level first..
Thanks,
Jim R.
Different SWCGs have different cycle times.. The IC40 is about 5 minutes.. So at 50%, the cell is on for 2.5 minutes and off for about 2.5 minutes. I "suspect" the iChlor is the same.
Your cell, in your pool, should produce about 9 ppm of FC in 24 hours when run at 100%.. That is .375 ppm per hour at 100%.. Or .187 ppm if at 50%, etc...
I have no idea what this means.. "The purpose of knowing this is to be able to reduce the output by a calculated amount by turning off to drop my FC as needed then power back on to the last setting which maintained my level after full sun and moderate bather load every day"..
If you try to keep your FC at a specific number, it will drive you crazy.. You need to look at the bigger picture.. The only thing you have to worry about is going too low, so letting the FC increase on the non-sunny does not hurt anything. I personally try to keep my FC at my Target or higher... Per the saltwater part of this chart.. FC/CYA Levels Obviously you need to know your CYA level first..
Thanks,
Jim R.
Thanks Jim,
Im coming down off a slam and found what percentage keeps up with my daily burn off, so I’m able to keep a very stable level, only right now that level is around 8 and I need it around 5.
Im coming down off a slam and found what percentage keeps up with my daily burn off, so I’m able to keep a very stable level, only right now that level is around 8 and I need it around 5.
- Jul 21, 2013
- 53,029
- Pool Size
- 35000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
- Oct 25, 2015
- 5,187
- Pool Size
- 25000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- CircuPool RJ-60 Plus
Al,
Trying to understand your question. Are you talking about a one time reduction to get to your desired 5 ppm range? Or are you talking about doing this every day? This will drive you nuts. The system has a high volume relative to the production rate so it's just not designed to have this level of precision in control.
I've found it works just fine as Jim said to let it drift as load changes. I target a little higher than the target based on the CYA chart. For me, that's about 6-7 ppm. As bather load and many other factors like rain/sun/clouds change my FC varies from 3.5 on the low side to about 8 max. Normal range is much tighter, like 5-7. If I leave my CYA level at 70-80 I'll end up reducing % power in winter months by about 5%. Last year I just let the CYA drop from late fall to spring and left the % power the same. Worked fine all year. I used Pool Math to get the initial settings and have found it to be very accurate.
Chris
Thanks guys. All I was really looking for was the SWG cycle times at different percentages so I could get smart about letting my FC drop after a slam. All good from here.
Just wanted to put this up Incase anyone comes across this thread in the future... just got off the phone with Pentair and got a verified answer. The ichlor30 and all other Pentair SWG’s run in 5 min cycles. So at 100% the cell will produce all 5 minutes. At 50% it will produce for 2.5 min then be off for 2.5. So on and so fourth for all increments.