IntelliChlor No Lights/Not Connected

[blackout]

Morning! I saw this morning that my IntelliChlor IC-40 had no lights on. I looked in my detected equipment screen on the IntelliCenter and it said not connected. I found the linked thread below and took the top panel off of the IntelliCenter to see the surge board, and I can’t see that any lights are on on it (it is a slightly different board than in the thread below, but same PCB#).

Last time I checked the lifetime hours of the salt cell it was only at the 2,000 hours light, and it’s only seen 4 seasons, so this is a bit disappointing.

Any thoughts would be much appreciated!

Intellicholor with IntelliCenter not working

I’m not seeing any lights in Intellicholor system and circuit breaker inside intellicenter seems to be tripped. Is it possible to reset or I have purchase new one circuit breaker ? Thanks!

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[Jimrahbe]

B-out,

My surge card has an LED light that is on when the card is working.. Not sure if all cards have this same light..

If you have a voltmeter you can test the AC into the card and the DC out of the card..

Input AC is about 28 VAC.. You measure between the two thin red input wires.

The DC out should about 30 to 40 VDC.. You measure between the large Red and Black output wires..

See if you have an LED like my card...

New SWCG PCB.jpg

• Jimrahbe
• Jul 18, 2017
• 1

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[blackout]

Thanks, Jim. The picture you posted was what I was using for comparison earlier. When I get home later I will try to pull out the voltmeter.

Can I test the board with the salt cell disconnected (it’s already in my trunk, as I was going to see if the builder’s shop may be able to test it).

Also, for testing DC, do I pull the wire connector in the upper left and test across the two pins on the board?

Lastly, for AC, you mean the two screws in the two blocks, lower left and bottom center? I should have taken a picture but I seem to remember the one block on mine had no wires going to it (I could be wrong, of course).

Thanks!

 

[Jimrahbe]

B-out,

The AC comes into the Surge card at two places.. Dead center of the card is one wire where the board shows "AC" Kind of hard to miss..
The other AC input is on the other thin red wire above the words "MAX Torque"... You measure between the two wires, right where they connect to the card. You do NOT measure to ground..

If you have no AC in, then that is the problem. The breaker could be bad, or you might not be in the Pool or Spa modes, which is required.

You can measure the DC right where the larger Red and Black wires connect to the card or on the back side of the connector, depending on what kind of connector you have.

We have seen several systems were the red wire gets so hot it blackens the white connector.. If there is not a good connection there, the cell will not work..

The "Blocks" you are taking about have nothing to do with your cell getting power. They extra connectors for you RS-485 com port.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[blackout]

Super helpful, thank you! For what it’s worth, I can hear a click in the panel when I switch on pool mode; I always assumed that’s power hitting the salt transformer, and if so, it appears that at the very least that side of circuit still works.

My IntelliCenter has a bunch of wires and boards in the way of the card so I didn’t get the best of views before — just enough to see it’s a different board than the one in the pic. But I imagine the general premise will apply and hope my hands can fit in there to test it. Will report back this evening.

 

[Jimrahbe]

I can hear a click in the panel when I switch on pool mode; I always assumed that’s power hitting the salt transformer, and if so, it appears that at the very least that side of circuit still works.

B-out,

You are mostly correct.. I suspect the click you here is the Pump/Filter relay closing.. That relay supplies input power to the SWCG transformer.. 99.9% of the time when you hear the click, the relay will work, but it is slightly possible for the relay to be bad. We will worry about that after you test for the 28 VAC input to the Surge card.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[crackers8199]

have you checked the fuse inside the IC40 power center? i just had the same thing happen last week (i don't have an intellicenter but had the same symptoms, dead IC40 with no lights on), replaced the fuse and all is good again.

 

[blackout]

have you checked the fuse inside the IC40 power center? i just had the same thing happen last week (i don't have an intellicenter but had the same symptoms, dead IC40 with no lights on), replaced the fuse and all is good again.

I saw a video with a fuse in a power center but I don’t see a fuse anywhere in the IntelliCenter (I think it has a breaker, which doesn’t appear tripped).

 

[blackout]

Ok @Jimrahbe, looks like, after moving everything out of the way, that I have an LED lit green on my surge board. 30V AC, 26V DC. DC seems low right? Pics below for posterity, including of my transformer, which has got a bunch of oil all over it.

 

[crackers8199]

I saw a video with a fuse in a power center but I don’t see a fuse anywhere in the IntelliCenter (I think it has a breaker, which doesn’t appear tripped).

does the IC40 power center not exist if you have an intellicenter?

 

[blackout]

does the IC40 power center not exist if you have an intellicenter?

That’s right, no separate power center if you have an IntelliCenter that was packaged with the IntelliChlor guts inside of it.

 

[Jimrahbe]

B-out,

I'm caught between a rock and a hard place on this one...

26 VDC sounds low to me, but I've seen cases where the cell worked off of 28 VDC..

My system puts out about 35 VDC when the cell is making chlorine, and about 40 VDC, when the cell is at rest..

I doubt the transformer is bad.. As you have 30 VAC output..

I'd hate to tell you to buy a new Surge card, if the problem is the cell..

Do you know anyone that might have an old cell that no longer makes chlorine but will still light up???

Did you test the DC output with the cell connected and then again with the cell disconnected??

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[blackout]

B-out,

I'm caught between a rock and a hard place on this one...

26 VDC sounds low to me, but I've seen cases where the cell worked off of 28 VDC..

My system puts out about 35 VDC when the cell is making chlorine, and about 40 VDC, when the cell is at rest..

I doubt the transformer is bad.. As you have 30 VAC output..

I'd hate to tell you to buy a new Surge card, if the problem is the cell..

Do you know anyone that might have an old cell that no longer makes chlorine but will still light up???

Did you test the DC output with the cell connected and then again with the cell disconnected??

Thanks,

Jim R.

Hmm I have the cell disconnected currently, maybe tomorrow after work I can check it with it plugged in. Was also thinking about stopping by the dealer’s sales/service shop and seeing if they can test the cell. Will definitely report back voltage with it plugged in when I can. Thanks again!

 

[blackout]

Quick update: I called Pentair and they said the range is 22-39 VDC. Will be curious when I check it later tonight whether the voltage drops when I plug the cell back in.

 

[blackout]

Well, this is embarrassing…

Gave the male pins on the plug a scrape or three with a T7 star bit and… it’s alive!!

Thanks for all of the help, I will accept all of your insults now!

 

[blackout]

Eeks, another update:

So I thought the chlorinator was working again. I went out a couple days later to check and it was in an endless reboot loop. It’d go through its startup steps, flash the lights per routine, and then as soon as salt flashed green, it’s shut down for a second and restart.

So I consulted this thread below and bought new wiring components from DigiKey:

Corroded power connector on Pentair IC40

I replaced my Pentair IC40 in April this year and it has just failed with communication error due to water getting into the the connector and corroding the pins. I live in Florida where water and heat is always a problem. I thought the solution was going to be easy. Cut off the old connector and...

www.troublefreepool.com

The parts came today and I got to surgery. As soon as I stripped the black wire I knew it wouldn’t work:



A poor picture as it was dark out, but the color of the black wire on the left is fairly accurate: black. I got the pins installed and started it up and got the same endless reboot. I popped the panel open one more time and the green light is still lit on the surge board, so I guess I’m calling this one a lost chlorinator. I am guessing I had a short in the connector where it was corroded.

Question: does anyone think I’ll have an issue with the black wire inside the panel running to the surge board?

 

[blackout]

Final update on this saga:

I ended up buying a new IC-40. Amazon price: $1,249 plus $100 tax; no thank you. Our friends at Marina have them on sale, $999, no tax over the phone:

Pentair 520555 IntelliChlor IC40 Salt Chlorine Generator Cell

Pentair 520555 IntelliChlor IC40 Salt Chlorine Generator Cell. Lowest Prices Guaranteed. Authorized Service Center - All Pentair Parts Available.

marinapoolspaandpatio.com

I took my some of my savings and bought a new wiring harness that goes between the SWG connector and the surge board, p/n 520724. Since it seems some water and corrosion on the connector did me in, I reengineered how to connect the SWG to the IntelliCenter using some duct seal; should have a perpetually clean connector from here on out and it should add less than 5 minutes to the season open and close routines:



If I get bored someday, I may try to rewire my old one and see if a local service shop will hook it up to a test power supply. Would be a shame to junk it if it was just a bad connector on the wire harness between the SWG and surge board.

 

[Jimrahbe]

B-Out,

I have a couple of used up IC40s that make good test units.. They won't make chlorine, but the lights light up and they don't blow the fuse. I loan them out locally to members that just want to double check that there cell is actually bad.

Thanks,

Jim R.