intex cell voltage, low salt error, and fix...

[kwfiggatt]

I have an Intex 8110 (IIRC) that was giving me low salt errors after confirming that the salt level is at 3200 ppm and that the plates are clean. I opened it up and started poking around with a meter and found that the DC voltage coming out of the rectifier and going into the board was low., ~9.3Vdc. The board has "12Vdc in" marked on it, so I assume that its supposed to be 12v +/-. I also measured the AC voltage coming going into the rectifier, and it was low, so it appears to be a bad transformer.

The control board has its own separate AC input from the Intex transformer for power (10.5Vac per the markings on the board), so I left the Intex transformer hooked up to supply the board - voltage from the Intex transformer measured 11V, so that winding appears to be good.

I have a variac - adjustable AC transformer - that I hooked up to the rectifier to supply voltage to the electrolysis cell. I adjusted the input AC going into the rectifier so that I got exactly 12V going into the board and I still get the low salt error. If I crank up the voltage (19~20V) so that I get ~4.5 amps of current going into the rectifier, the "low salt" error goes away and the control board acts normally. I've been running it this way for a couple of days and it appears that I need to bump up the "on" time, as my chlorine is low. Right now, I'm running it 9 hours per day

My question is this - is the higher cell voltage going to cause issues and will it generate chlorine correctly? I'm guessing that the precious metal coatings (MMO) on the Ti plates are wearing off and causing the lower currents and low salt error when I apply only 12V. Anybody know what cell voltages are used on other similar units?

I'll post some pics this evening.

Thanks,

Kevin

 

[cowboycasey]

Welcome to TFP

I would have no idea and I have never heard of anyone taking one apart and getting it to work again.. Great job on that..

 

[CT-Steven]

There are various video's noting how to jumper the Intex SWG. Mine has started throwing the dreaded 91 error even though my salt levels are well within the set limits and my plates have been properly cleaned. It's only on it's second season and was stored in the garage over the winter. I think this is the last year for it and I am going to move up to a Hayward or Circupool.

 

[kwfiggatt]

Welcome to TFP

I would have no idea and I have never heard of anyone taking one apart and getting it to work again.. Great job on that..

Last night I cranked up the voltage so that I got ~7.5 amps going into the rectifier. I'm measuring the amps with a clamp on meter, so I have to measure the AC going into the rectifier, as my clamp on meter only measures AC. The Cu cell uses ~0.5 amp - you can hear the relay click on first when the control board starts up - so the salt cell is using ~7 amps. The on board fuse is 10 amps, so I want to keep it below that...

I took my chlorine test kit out to the pool and filled it with water coming out of the jet and I was getting 1~2 ppm chlorine going into the pool. I also bumped up my on time to 12 hours, so I will see what the pool looks like this evening...

One additional thing I want to clarify... If you try this yourself, make sure you have everything on a GFCI. My pool shed is on a separate, GFCI protected breaker.

Maybe I'll try to post a video of how I fixed mine - that'd be better than a bunch of pics...

CT-Steven, this is only the 2nd year on this system, too. I purchased it a few years ago at Walmart, but it sat on my shelf for a year or two before I decided to put it in... I've seen the videos on how to jumper the cell to the DC and tried that, but noticed I was only pulling ~1.5 amps DC and I started measuring the voltage going to the cell and found that it was low. That's when I got to dinking around with the external transformer and cranking up the voltage...

Its really amazing how the prices have increased on these systems. I believe I bought this one for something like $129.

Kevin

 

[kwfiggatt]

OK, here are some pics. You can see the yellow spade terminals on the rectifier coming from.the variac in the background. The meter shows the current.

 

[kwfiggatt]

OK, here are some pics. You can see the yellow spade terminals on the coming from.the variac in the background. The meter shows the current. View attachment 350888View attachment 350889

The 27.7 meter reading is the cell voltage