Is there any advantage of high salt?

[Auburn02]

Obviously it goes without saying that higher salt concentration lends to a higher likelihood for corrosion, but likely still very little risk when in the "acceptable range" - but with that said, is there any advantage to being at the upper end of said range? Understanding that the ideal range is 2700-3400, my Aquarite will work all the way down to 2300 from what I understand. But is it less efficient or otherwise causing harm to run it that low? Or on the contrary, is there any discernible benefit of keeping the salt at the higher end of the range? More chlorine output for the same run %age maybe?

Just curious.

 

[ajw22]

With your Aquarite system the current your board draws is proportional to the salt level. Higher salt means higher board current. Higher board current causes greater heat on the circuit board. Heat on the circuit board burns out the thermisitor and some solder traces causing board failures.

It is best to run your Aqarite at the low end of the salt range - 2800-3000 - to prevent board problems.

Read about the problems at Hayward Aquarite SWG - Further Reading

 

[JamesW]

The unit cuts off at 8 amps. So, that’s the upper limit and it depends on the salinity and water temperature.

If the water gets to 90 degrees, the amps can hit 8.0 at 3,000 ppm.

They make a “Low Salt” model, which works with a lower salinity. So, you can use a lower salinity, but it takes longer to produce the total amount of chlorine that you need.

You can go down to 2,400 ppm and the cell will still work. Below 2,700, the check salt light will flash, but the cell is still generating. Below 2,400 ppm, the check salt light will be on steady and chlorine production is stopped.

You can go even lower if you change the cell type.

For example, if the salinity reads 2,300 ppm on the display and you change the cell type to T-9, the salinity reading will go to about 3,450 ppm.

The low salt model takes 1200 - 1800 ppm salinity. If you had 1,500 ppm salinity and changed the cell type to T-5, the salinity reading would change to about 3,000 ppm.

If the salinity reading was 1,200 ppm and you changed the Cell type to T-3, the new salinity reading would be about 3,330 ppm.

I think that the lowest you could operate at is 900 ppm with a t-15 cell and a T-3 setting, which should give a salinity reading of about 2,500 ppm.

Any time that you operate equipment outside the recommended parameters, you void the warranty and you do it at your own risk.

If you have a T-15 cell, you can operate down to about 1,200 ppm if you change the cell type to T-3, but the amount of chlorine generated is only about 1/3 and it’s at your own risk.

The cell will still probably generate the same total amount of lifetime chlorine, but it might fail early due to unapproved operations.

https://www.hayward-pool.ca/assets/documents/pools/pdf/manuals/aqr-low-salt-manual.pdf

 

[Auburn02]

Good input guys, thanks to you both. It's easy enough to manage the salt at the low end of the range, I aim for 2700-3000 as my target, and like James mentioned I know the unit will work as low as 2400 so I just always wondered if there was any added benefit of going higher. Doesn't sound like it.

 

[mknauss]

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