On my 7th Pentair Intellichlor in less than a year

[summerchris]

I am having issues with my Pentair intellichlor. The cell light keeps flashing green and it stops working. I had the intellichlor 20 and I upgraded to the intellichlor 40 thinking maybe I needed a bigger one. Now I just turned that on and it is flashing green to inspect the cell. I looked at the cell and it is clean inside. Also, my white fiberglass pool has a yellow stain in it. New to pools and not sure how to fix these issues

 

[Jimrahbe]

Chris,

Until recently I had three saltwater pools that all had IntelliChlor SWCGs.. I had the pools for well over 12 years, so I have been through a few cells.

Not one of them lasted less than 5 years, most died at about 7 years with one lasting for almost 9 years.

I say this because something it wrong... I have no idea what, but 7 cells in less than a year, just make no sense at all..

Tell us how the cell is powered.. Do you have an EasyTouch with an Internal power supply or do you have an External Power Center?

Has the power center been replaced or tested?

Have you been cleaning your cell with full strength Muriatic Acid?

Does you cell quickly fill up with calcium?

Do you have an acid feeder?

What chemicals do you use to maintain your pH?

Tell us more about what is going on?

I can understand how it is possible to have a 'bad' cell.. but it is impossible to have 7 bad cells..

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[summerchris]

Hello Jim!

The cell is powered via an external Pentair power supply via 240v. The first few cells were powered via the original supply but they did swap it for another one a few cells ago to see if that was the problem.

In the past, we have tried cleaning the cell with muriatic acid, however, there has never been much buildup on the plates. We have not tried cleaning the current cell as it was installed towards the end of the season last year and been powered off for the winter.

We do not have an acid feeder.

We’ve been using bio guard and Clorox brands for the past three years.

This our our third year (4th season)of the new pool. The first and second year were great, no issues. Last year the pool company told us way too much salt and they had to pump out the pool and refill it. That’s when the original intellichlor failed. After that, they’ve been replaced every few weeks with a new ic20. The last attempt was to upgrade to an ic40. Our pool is under 16,000 gallons but we needed to try something different. The ic40 worked great the rest of last season and was fine this season, however, it just recently had to start producing chlorine as the temps and salt levels just got into range. We have since changed pool companies for testing and supplies.

We are at the end of our 3 year warranty in a few weeks. Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[Jimrahbe]

Chris,

We recommend that a cell be rated at 2 x the volume of the pool.. So an IC20 is way too small for your pool.. The IC40 should be perfect.

What specific chemicals do you use??

We do not recommend Clorox salt..

For reference... I use a little muriatic acid to control my pH and salt, that is it.. I suspect that you are using other 'magic' pool store potions..

I do not add anything else to my pool all summer..

Do you routinely add pool store 'Shock' to your pool every week or so? You should not have to do this..

Please list, or show us pics, of all the chemicals that you add to your pool..

Sorry for all the questions, but I'm just trying to see what you do differently then most of our members..

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[PoolStored]

What specific chemicals do you use??

Please list and show all the products. Specifically, how do you lower pH?

 

[JamesW]

7 cells in 1 year?

Are you replacing them under warranty?

 

[summerchris]

These are the chemicals I use. I take my water sample to a pool company and they run the water and it tells me how much of each to add.

 

[summerchris]

7 cells in 1 year?

Are you replacing them under warranty?

Yes they have been under warranty but my warranty is up in June or July

 

[PoolStored]

This contains sulfates. If you have been using it regularly, you may have high sulfates...which damages the cell. If you have a plaster pool, it can also damage plaster.

Adding 1 lb of 93.7% sodium bisulfate to a 20,000-gallon pool will raise your sulfates by about 4.5 ppm. Sulfates need to be about 200 to start to do damage.

How often do you use this and how much do you use? How big is your pool?

Suspend the use of this product and use muriatic acid to lower pH

 

[summerchris]

Chris,

We recommend that a cell be rated at 2 x the volume of the pool.. So an IC20 is way too small for your pool.. The IC40 should be perfect.

What specific chemicals do you use??

We do not recommend Clorox salt..

For reference... I use a little muriatic acid to control my pH and salt, that is it.. I suspect that you are using other 'magic' pool store potions..

I do not add anything else to my pool all summer..

Do you routinely add pool store 'Shock' to your pool every week or so? You should not have to do this..

Please list, or show us pics, of all the chemicals that you add to your pool..

Sorry for all the questions, but I'm just trying to see what you do differently then most of our members..

Thanks,

Jim R.

When I take my pool water down to get tested yes it shows I need to add shock

 

[summerchris]

This contains sulfates. If you have been using it regularly, you may have high sulfates...which damages the cell. If you have a plaster pool, it can also damage plaster.

Just my intuition, this is your problem.

View attachment 645322

I have not used this at all this year. This was used for the last intellichlor but we replaced it to now the IC40

 

[Jimrahbe]

Chris,

Dry acid (pH up and Lo/slow) will kill salt cells...

The other stuff is just so the pool store can make money and not needed at all..

Saltwater pools should never need to be shocked...

I've got an appointment, so have to get going, but I'll check back in later..

Others here will take up the slack...

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[PoolStored]

I have not used this at all this year. This was used for the last intellichlor but we replaced it to now the IC40

Sulfates are already in the water.

How often did you use this and how much did you use each time? How big is your pool?

Suspend the use of this product and use muriatic acid to lower pH

 

[summerchris]

Just got my water tested. This was the results.

 

[summerchris]

Sulfates are already in the water.

How often did you use this and how much did you use each time? How big is your pool?

Suspend the use of this product and use muriatic acid to lower pH

I would only use no more than 2 pounds. My pool is 16x32.

 

[summerchris]

I went to two different pool places and they are telling me that there is 0.02 metal in my pool. One guy told me to add a metal magnet to get the metal out and to also add this liquid for the pool stains. When the report prints off at the second pool place it shows 0 for the value.

 

[summerchris]

They told me to add this liquid

 

[summerchris]

This first picture is today
Second picture is when we just got the pool

 

[Jimrahbe]

Chris,

You need to decide what you want to do..

You can continue to go to the Pool Store and buy whatever magic they decide to sell you...

or

You can come over from the Dark Side and start using the TFP pool care process...

We can show you how to properly take care of your saltwater pool without any magic.

Unfortunately, you can't do both, as our process is much different than a pool store process.

Pick one.. Up to you...

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[summerchris]

Chris,

You need to decide what you want to do..

You can continue to go to the Pool Store and buy whatever magic they decide to sell you...

or

You can come over from the Dark Side and start using the TFP pool care process...

We can show you how to properly take care of your saltwater pool without any magic.

Unfortunately, you can't do both, as our process is much different than a pool store process.

Pick one.. Up to you...

Thanks,

Jim R.

I want to pick go to the dark side. I just need to get it all cleared up