Have you checked for used units on Craigslist? Intex are typically common, get a used pump and new swg or a use swg if it's cheap enough. Just be careful on connections
I sure did. Nothing in my local vicinity, unfortunately. But now I have a new question:
I didn't fully explain in my first post, but my pump was doing the thing where it runs for about a minute or so and then shuts off with red service light on. I removed the circuit board and found corrosion on one of the salt cell terminals and also in the bottom left corner the 100 ohm resistor was corroded and actually one end rotted off. I picked up a new resistor, cleaned the board, and soldered it on.....the same result was happening.
I watched some youtube videos and read a bunch of info about hacking the wiring to get the salt cell and pump to work, but I'm curious if what I did was ok as it doesn't seem to be exactly like everyone else's result.
I took the +/- wires coming from the salt cell and connected them with the screw terminals that also hold the red/black wires coming from the bridge rectifier. Doing this caused the salt cell to start producing chlorine, which it was not doing before. However, the pump would shut off after about a minute with red service light. Here is the link to the video I used for this part:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42RkAUlaxSw
The next step I did was follow a youtube video of how to jump the pump. This one didn't wind up so well because I could not get the stand-alone first black wire easily off the fin and it actually pulled the whole fin out of the board, like the soldering was horribly done from the factory. Anyway, I moved that wire and put it on the first male fin in the line and it wouldn't work like the video, once I connected the first wire with the second and connected to the fin on the board everything started working. Eventually the timer screen would go black and the red service light would come on, but the pump and salt cell are still working. Here's what I attempted to mimic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOIXK8oN7-w
While this isn't ideal, I'd like to just get through this season if I can, but I understand I'm going to have to pay more attention to the levels since the salt cell is working full time with the pump. I'm going to run it for about 4-6 hours a day. The first video the guy put a switch on the salt cell which I'm wondering if I should do also. What y'all think?
EDIT: I forgot to mention that when this first happened, I removed all the salt pieces and soaked in distilled vinegar for an hour and clean them all up with a toothbrush and baby bottle pipe cleaners (between the salt fins). This didn't help it so I moved onto the wiring hack.
