Normal SWG wear and tear?

[Pat_]

Is this normal wear and tear for a SWG cell after 3.5 years of service? The electrodes are heavily etched.

Typically runs 10-12hrs a day, pump on low speed. Generally around 20% output (cell is oversized for my pool).

PH is automated with acid dosing at 7.6 and the rest of balance is kept in check.

Typically:
FC 3
PH 7.6
Alkalinity 80
CYA 10
CH 400
Salt 4000

 

[PoolGate]

Your plates look fairly typical and I don't see a lot of buildup on them. But, your water is not proper for saltwater pool. Check out this for water chemical levels. Your CYA in particular is way too low.

What Are My Ideal Pool Levels?

Use our tool to find ideal chemical levels for any swimming pool. Check TFP recommended levels on pH, free chlorine, cyanuric acid, and more.

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[Pat_]

Your plates look fairly typical and I don't see a lot of buildup on them. But, your water is not proper for saltwater pool. Check out this for water chemical levels. Your CYA in particular is way too low.

What Are My Ideal Pool Levels?

Use our tool to find ideal chemical levels for any swimming pool. Check TFP recommended levels on pH, free chlorine, cyanuric acid, and more.

www.troublefreepool.com

Thanks for your reply.

As for CYA, I understand that the recommended range is to help protect FC and ensure you don’t need to run your SWG harder than required.

However in my case with my cell been oversized, with CYA at 10 I still only run my SWG at 20%.

I’m not aware of any other reason / benefit to have CYA higher apart from protecting FC?

 

[mguzzy]

I’m not aware of any other reason / benefit to have CYA higher apart from protecting FC?

Here is the best response I have see on this.. I have it book marked.

Why high CYA is a good thing with a SWG

I know it's a bit late since you removed the SWG but I know why you had so many problems with it if your last water test is typical. Your stabilizer level is 30 ppm and that alone is enough to cause early cell failure and major pH problems leading to scaling and short cell life! This is why...

www.troublefreepool.com

So in essence you are wasting the life of your SWG by forcing it to run at a higher output than it needs to be. I did my own little experiment and found I get the best FC retention at a CYA of 70ppm. I would hazard to guess if you bump your CYA up to 60+ you can drop your SWG down to 5 or 10% if you are running it 10-12 hrs a day. I think this can actually be calculated,.. but I did it by some empirical methodology.

 

[mknauss]

One caveat -- if you are using ORP to control your SWCG output, you must have very little CYA in the water. And you cannot test 10 ppm CYA.