I've been debating whether or not to get the Intellichem and decided to take the plunge and wanted to share some info about the install and settings - Just finished the install this weekend and I haven't had a chance to have it "take control" of my chemistry yet. Will update with that experience later.
Here are some things I found confusing before installing/setting it up and where info was lacking or out of date
My usage:
ORP:
I plan to continue controlling my IC60 as a % and not let Intellichem control it as I only want to monitor ORP. I plan to maintain a set ORP manually, and not really worry too much about the exact FC amount so long as I set a fairly high FC baseline (around 8-10ppm for 45 CYA). e.g. if I see ORP drifting upward, I will decrease the IC60 %, and likewise, if it's drifting downward, increase it. I think a daily adjustment or every other day adjustment of IC60 run time is all that's needed. With the Intellichem ORP hardware set as "None" - I can use the Intellicenter to remotely adjust the IC60 %. I think having the Intellichem do intra day adjustment doesn't make sense as there isn't enough time for mixing.
pH:
I plan to set the pH mixing time to 1 hour and set the pH dosing volume (in oz) to be equal to my total weekly acid usage (in oz) divided by the total weekly pump run time in hours. I set pH sensitivity to None to avoid under-dosing and never reaching the set point. With this, I'd expect the Intellichem to dose every hour that the pump is running, just like an IntellipH, but with the added benefit of pH monitoring. Unfortunately, there is no way to remotely adjust the dosing amount. So if pH drifts higher, with this setting, I won't have enough acid to compensate. I might need to set the dosing amount higher, so it has headroom to compensate if pH drifts higher than my normal rate. I think I'd also need to adjust the sensitivity to High instead of None in this case to avoid overshooting the target setpoint.
Initially, with a CYA of 45 and FC of 8.0, I have an ORP of 600mV. My pH test is showing 7.8, but the sensor has shown 7.77 and later showed 7.58. Not sure what caused this difference. I will let it run a few days to stabilize.
Here are some things I found confusing before installing/setting it up and where info was lacking or out of date
- You can tweak pH by +- 0.3. Meaning, if the sensor reports 7.6, but you believe it is 7.3, you can dial in an 0.3 offset so that 7.6 sense reports 7.3. I plan to monitor for a week or so and then dial in whatever tweak I need. This can, in a way, be used to extend the set point range or pH lockout range.
- You can tweak ORP by +- 50 mV. Likewise, this can be used to extend the range.
- Intellicenter can set the setpoint for pH from 7.0 to 7.6 and ORP from 400mV to 800mV
- The flow cup is now white and protected from sunlight. The cables are quite short and the cup needs to be mounted pretty much right next to the control unit.
- pH lockout is now defaulted to 8.0 and only locks out chlorine dosing. The range for lockout is 7.7 to 8.2
- The acid and chlorine tanks with pumps are exactly the same, except for the labeling of the chemical contents for safety purposes. I bought the two tank version even though I only needed the acid tank in case I want to dose liquid chlorine in the winter. It's also nice to have a spare.
My usage:
ORP:
I plan to continue controlling my IC60 as a % and not let Intellichem control it as I only want to monitor ORP. I plan to maintain a set ORP manually, and not really worry too much about the exact FC amount so long as I set a fairly high FC baseline (around 8-10ppm for 45 CYA). e.g. if I see ORP drifting upward, I will decrease the IC60 %, and likewise, if it's drifting downward, increase it. I think a daily adjustment or every other day adjustment of IC60 run time is all that's needed. With the Intellichem ORP hardware set as "None" - I can use the Intellicenter to remotely adjust the IC60 %. I think having the Intellichem do intra day adjustment doesn't make sense as there isn't enough time for mixing.
pH:
I plan to set the pH mixing time to 1 hour and set the pH dosing volume (in oz) to be equal to my total weekly acid usage (in oz) divided by the total weekly pump run time in hours. I set pH sensitivity to None to avoid under-dosing and never reaching the set point. With this, I'd expect the Intellichem to dose every hour that the pump is running, just like an IntellipH, but with the added benefit of pH monitoring. Unfortunately, there is no way to remotely adjust the dosing amount. So if pH drifts higher, with this setting, I won't have enough acid to compensate. I might need to set the dosing amount higher, so it has headroom to compensate if pH drifts higher than my normal rate. I think I'd also need to adjust the sensitivity to High instead of None in this case to avoid overshooting the target setpoint.
Initially, with a CYA of 45 and FC of 8.0, I have an ORP of 600mV. My pH test is showing 7.8, but the sensor has shown 7.77 and later showed 7.58. Not sure what caused this difference. I will let it run a few days to stabilize.
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