Intellicenter - Took pool mode off of freeze protection ?!?

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JJ_Tex

JJ_Tex

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Jul 17, 2019
3,730
Prosper, TX (DFW)
Pool Size
13000
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
SWG Type
Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
So we just had our first blackout and I'm sitting here waiting for everything to cycle through before I go back to bed. The spa mode stayed on for a while, so I just checked the intellicenter and when it rebooted it turned my freeze protection off on my pool.

Pentair needs to get their Crud together as that could have been really bad. I remember someone posting something similar a few weeks ago.

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Blackout #2 is over, still the same problem where Freeze Guard for the Pool circuit is unchecked when it powers back on.
 
JJ, when my ET powers back on from, say, when I turn off all the breakers (simulated blackout), it resumes whatever schedule would have been running. Maybe you should set up a 24/7 schedule for pool mode, at low RPM, so that the pump never stops while this freezing weather persists. At least until you sort this out with Pentair.

And/or go into the IntelliFlo's settings (through the pump's interface, not IntelliCenter) and see if you alter the freeze-mode temp threshold to be on more.

So that either way the pump will resume after a blackout at low RPMs for the next few days...

Neither of those solutions will run the back-and-forth pool/spa protection cycle, but if that doesn't kick in on its own at least your pool plumbing won't freeze.

@ogdento, any idea why JJ's freeze protection setting won't hold after a blackout?
 
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Thanks. All 5 blackouts resulted in the same unchecking of freeze guard on the pool circuit. To be clear the spa runs fine so the pump is running, it’s just not switching to pool until I log in and re-add it.

I’m exhausted and would love any ideas to fix this so I can sleep.
 
Is freeze guard something other than the pool running? I've had the pool running non-stop. Checked it and the spa was on freeze guard, which turned it on and the pool off. So I turned that freeze guard off of the spa and turned the pool pump to run 24/7 for the pool and spa.

On another note, if I say that i'd rather replace the heater than the whole pool, is turning the heater on to heat it up viable? Assuming it gets that bad here in Houston? Pool water is still at 45, so not an immediate concern but would like to have a plan!
 
Romoth said:
On another note, if I say that i'd rather replace the heater than the whole pool, is turning the heater on to heat it up viable? Assuming it gets that bad here in Houston? Pool water is still at 45, so not an immediate concern but would like to have a plan!
Click to expand...

Relax. You will not need to replace the whole pool.

I would shutdown the pool and drain everything if you are worried rather then run the heater.
 
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Here are my circuit settings if anyone sees anything I have wrong on here. Freeze protection is checked for both pool and spa, but after rebooting only Spa is checked.

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I don't know how to program an IntelliCenter, but when something like that happens on a computer, I start deleting/recreating. If possible, you could try either of these if you haven't already:

1) REPLACE
- look through the various screens and make note of all the settings and schedules associated with the Pool circuit
- create a new Pool circuit (rename the old one first, if you can't have two of the same name)
- delete the entire Pool circuit (the original one)
- go through the various screens and recreate all the settings and schedules associated with Pool

OR

2) DUPLICATE
- rename the existing Pool circuit
- create a new Pool circuit
- go through the various screens and copy all the old Pool settings and schedules to the new one
- defeat the now-renamed original Pool circuit in some way (like by removing it from all schedules)

By deleting the old Pool after creating a new one, or by duplicating it, you're placing the new Pool circuit settings in a different sector of the non-volatile memory. It might be a long shot, but sometimes that works...

I'm guessing the IntelliCenter has two memories (at least). One, like RAM, and another is non-volatile. The non-volatile memory survives blackouts, the RAM's doesn't. Changes to settings occur in RAM, and are then written to non-volatile memory at some point. After a loss of power, the IntelliCenter first restores all the settings from non-volatile memory into RAM and then uses the ones in RAM. So either the Freeze setting is not getting written to non-volatile memory, or not being restored from it. Unless it is a programming bug (which Pentair would have lots of similar complaints about) it could be a glitch in one of the actual memory chips. You've called Pentair about this, yes?

On a computer, I would force the event that causes settings in RAM to be written to non-volatile memory. Usually that is just quitting the offending software normally, before it or the computer crashes. But I don't know what triggers writing to non-volatile memory in an IntelliCenter, as I'm assuming they don't have a shut down button or sequence. Another question for @ogdento...
 
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Here's something else you can try (another derivative from computer troubleshooting non-sticking settings). The IntelliCenter might not be recognizing properly that you've altered the Freeze setting. So when you click the save button, the IC might be first asking itself "Any settings need saving?" before doing so, rather than just rewriting every setting of every circuit. If the IC doesn't recognize that you've changed the Freeze setting, then it won't actually save it. And for the same reason, it may be saving the setting to RAM, but not writing it to non-volatile memory.

So try any of these, to force the write:

1)
- when the Freeze setting is on, turn it off.
- perform a Save.
- turn the Freeze setting back on.
- perform another Save.

2)
- when the Freeze setting is on, turn it off.
- change one or more of the other Pool circuit settings (like turn on "Show as Feature")
- perform a Save.
- turn the Freeze setting back on.
- perform another Save.
- restore the other settings you changed
- perform another Save.

3)
- do either of the above, but also throw in some changes to any of the other circuits
- restore the other circuits' settings after completing the other steps

Do either of the above multiple times.
Do various variations of #2 or #3, in a variety of orders. You're trying to force the IC to recognize the Freeze setting as changed and to write it to memory.

When I have a non-sticking setting, I'll bang my head against it, as per above, until I can get it to stick. I'll repeat steps multiple times, even if something didn't first work. I'll jumble up the steps, too, trying to find the right combo of "magic" to fool the computer into doing its job!

If all you've done is turn the Freeze setting back on and saved (and you are saving it each time, right), then we know that's not working. You gotta try other things along with that action, even if they don't seem to make sense.

4)
It's also possible that the firmware software that runs the IC got corrupted and needs to be re-flashed to firmware. The ol' "Reinstall the operating system" troubleshooting nuclear option that tech support people love to suggest, because it's not their several hours of life...

I think IC firmware is upgradeable, right? Can it be reinstalled using the upgrade mechanism? By "upgrading" the firmware with the current firmware maybe it'll reinstall it, if the system allows that.


Let's see what @MyAZPool thinks about any of my hair-brained schemes. Or if he's run into something similar with his IC.
 
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Thanks guys. I'm still hanging in there, we are up to 8 outages so far and now we have frozen pipes in the kids bathrooms. Fun stuff.

The theory on the neighborhood website is that we are on the same grid as the elementary school across the street. Those of us closest are prime candidates for blackouts since they can take down that grid and impact fewer houses than the other grids in the neighborhood. Most of the neighborhood has only been hit once or not at all. While it makes sense, it is still time for them to spread the pain around for a while.
 
Hey guys, Dirk's scenarious sound logical to me, but I haven't used intellicenter so I'm not sure why it would shut off freeze protection after a restart... I'll defer to @MyAZPool ;)
 
I'm sorry, but I don't think I can offer up any assistance here. I have zero hands-on experience with Freeze Protection. The only thing I know about it is what I have read in the manual which of course is not much help.
r.
EDIT: Also, sorry to hear about all of the inconveniences/problems that y'all are experiencing there.
 
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JJ,

I was going to ask what firmware version you have. But I thought I'd look at my default values first. Turns out they all defaulted to "freeze protection off" just like you. For me it doesn't matter sine we never freeze for more than an hour or two. Maybe @MyAZPool can get this on the list for the next firmware version? Seems like they would prioritize it for liability reasons. Ron what do you think?

Chris
 
setsailsoon said:
JJ,

I was going to ask what firmware version you have. But I thought I'd look at my default values first. Turns out they all defaulted to "freeze protection off" just like you. For me it doesn't matter sine we never freeze for more than an hour or two. Maybe @MyAZPool can get this on the list for the next firmware version? Seems like they would prioritize it for liability reasons. Ron what do you think?

Chris
Click to expand...
Chris...
I actually did play around with freeze protection a little but it never seemed to act the way that one would assume it should work. So, I just turned it all off and forgot about it since I would never really need it I don't think. I figured that if we were ever going to have one of those "100 year" cold spells here in AZ, that I would just override the scheduling and just activate one the lowest flow Feature Circuits and let it run until the cold spell passed.

As far as getting that "defaulting to off" problem fixed by a firmware update. Yup, that make too much sense. That's too logical for Pentair. If they do fix it because of all that is going on in Texas and other states, I would be surprised. They just don't seem to really care about product improvement in my honest opinion.

r.
 
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