Is my new salt system working right??

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Badbounce

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Jun 29, 2021
3
Palm Bay, FL
New to the forum, but I've had my pool for ~32 years, so I'm used to liquid/solid chlorine and just about every other chemical available for pool water. This year, my local stores are claiming a chlorine shortage due to the burning of a plant in Louisiana. Prices are up to 5.00/2 1/2 gal jugs, used to be 2.59, and with an unscreened pool here in FL, this year I've had the greenest water I've ever seen. Nuff bout that. I bought a Calimar CMARSHA25-3y salt system. Depending on whose formula is used, my pool is somewhere between 19.5 - 21K gal. Based on Calimar's charts, I put 400lb of Morton's pool salt in. Their chart calls for 480lb. For clear. clean water, I've not had to add anything for 3 weeks. Here's my problem - the Clorox salinity test strips (new purchase) start registering at their reading of 3.6 which equals 920ppm salt. My instructions call for 32 - 3400ppm. My strip reading is 2.4... The SWG control box is wired to the pump and when it all starts, it goes through a series of LED readouts, the first being salt ppm. The reading on the SWG control has a small 'up' arrow in the upper left hand corner and reads 6800. It functions fine, 2 green LED's - Power & Generating. After a while two red LED's come on - Hi Salt & Check Salt Cell. I have an email into the company, but they have a disclaimer - due to covid BS, it may take forever to return an answer. The regular test strips are all within normal limits, cept I show 0 chlorine and - 0 free chlorine. I'm going to take a sample to my local Pinch-A-Penny tomorrow and see what they say. What is involved with "Check Salt Cell"? I've read they can be cleaned using a vinegar solution, do I maybe have a bad cell... this whole works is only 3 weeks old.
Pending the outcome of any testing tomorrow, what should I do???
Sorry for being so long winded...
Thanx
Any help greatly apprciated
Ski
 
Welcome to TFP.

You should get a Taylor K-1766 Salt Test kit - K-1766 Taylor Salt Test

The test strips are worthless and inaccurate.

While you are figuring out your SWG pour about 3/4 of a gallon of 10% liquid chlorine into your pool daily to keep it from going green.

What is your CYA?
 
Your pool may have already had a salt level well over 1,000 ppm prior to adding the salt. All forms of chlorine (trichlor, dichlor, cal-hypo, and sodium hypochlorite) add salt to the pool as a byproduct. It's not uncommon for non-SWG pools to have salt levels over 2,000 ppm. As Allen recommended, get the K-1766 for an accurate salt level. I would power down the unit for now.
 
Badbounce said:
The regular test strips are all within normal limits, cept I show 0 chlorine and - 0 free chlorine.
Click to expand...
Welcome to the forum!
You need a proper test kit. I suggest the TF100 or the Taylor K2006C. A proper test kit is needed to get the accurate water chemistry results needed to follow the TFP protocols.
I suggest you read ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry.
 
Sorry it's taken me so long to reply, but between Pinch-A-Penny, the daily rain and a broken piece of expensive household equipment, I've been busy! If I would have had the water professionally tested before I installed the SWG, I would have none of these problems. This is the first time in 32 years I have ever used test strips, and I won't use them ever again. The strip readings and the pro's readings were nothing alike, except for the 0 chlorine. Finally figured out what the salt problem is - I have a water conditioner - nice bath water - spotless glasses and car washes - loads of salt. I have always topped the pool off, and filled it 3 times over the years with softened (salted) water. So... I've been in the process of draining an unknown amount of water into my and the neighbor's yard. About 5 inches the first day and ~9 yesterday, rain today. I hope it doesn't kill what little grass I have this year. Drain and fill with unsoftened city water - therein lies the other problem. I hadn't put the softener into bypass for ~25 years. Needless to say, it literally crumbled in my hands. 2 trips to Lowes and the softener is now out of the game, for now. The filters have come down to a liftable weight after using half a 46.00 bottle of Phosphate remover for 24+ hours, per Penny's recommendation (Lowes has the same product for 14.00). So it's drain and refill for the next couple of days til probably Tuesday. The ph, CYA & chlorine are being corrected. I don't care if I take too much salt out, Wally world has it for 5.97/40lb - Pinch-A-Penny same brand name - Morton's - 15.00

...eventually I WILL get the upper hand on this thing.

Thanx for your help & and thanx for reading...

I'll be back
Ski
 
The salt from a water softener is only used to clean the resin beads in the softener unit. It does not end up in the softened water. It just helps the resin beads stay clean by flushing all the calcium and magnesium ions off of them and to a drain. Then the tank is rinsed to a drain so it's clean and ready to work again.

I agree with Marty. You need your own test kit, plus I'd add the Taylor K1766 salt test kit as well. Your pool may had had quite a bit of salt already in it when you added all your salt. Mine had 3000ppm of salt from 4 years of only using liquid chlorine, so I only need 2 bags of salt when I converted to a SWG.
 
I am fully aware of the construction and internal operation of water treatment equipment having worked for one of the largest, at the time, water treatment companies in my area for some 9 years, until the 80lb bags of salt got too heavy to carry ( I now buy 40's). But, try as you may, when you regenerate with large amounts of salt into one of those contraptions 2 - 3 - 4 times a week (we have terrible water here) you are not going to get it all out. Trace+ amounts will be left, (especially with a 30+ year old unit) and over a period of time... salt build-up. Again, most of my problems stem from me not getting a salt test before I started all this. Now test kits - I will probably get one of the less expensive salinity testers. 75.00 to 100.00+ is out of the question right now. If I can get this system working properly, I'll continue. If I run out of patience, or can't get it to work to my satisfaction, I'll dispose of it and go back to chlorine jugs and pucks.

Thanx for your comments... all are appreciated
Ski
 
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