Pentair IC-40 Mass Confusion

MillennialFinance19

Active member
Aug 21, 2021
26
Southeast Georgia
Hello - I'd like to thank everyone in advance for the answers I'm sure they're going to provide.

I have a 32,000 gallon concrete pool with full Pentair setup. For the first 2 months of ownership, the pool was perfect. Never had an issue. In the end of May, out of nowhere, my chlorine suddenly dropped to .5 without warning. I increased the SWG from 60% to 100% for a few days and it made no difference. All other chemicals were in balance and my CYA was 76 at the time.

PB gets a warranty replacement from Pentair. For three weeks after the replacement, I have chlorine levels of 6.1, 4.3, and 5.2, with the SWG set at 60%. The entire time my CYA was around 60. All of a sudden, chlorine levels drop to ZERO and PB comes out again. Does a ton of troubleshooting with Pentair and then replaces the SWG again.

Yesterday it was replaced. Upon replacement I checked my chlorine (manually dosed) which was at 3. This morning, my chlorine had dropped to 2 despite running the pump for 24 hours with the SWG at 80%. My CYA is a tad low at 56, so I'm bringing that up. The SWG is still producing bubbles into the pool so it appears there is some function.

I am so lost at this point. Part of me says something in my panel is sending incorrect voltage to the SWG which is causing issues, but I have no clue. We've checked metals and they are almost non-existent, phosphates are less than 200, etc. The pool is screened in and faces East, so it has some sun protection. I've checked the chlorine level coming out of the cell and it's only 1-3 at any given time, and I've read it should be 8+, but have no idea if that's true. I'm lost - completely.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
 
SWG are very bad at raising FC levels.. once the level has dropped it must be raised by using liquid chlorine...

You really want to do an Overnight Chlorine Loss Test to see if you have algae in your pool..

What level are you taking FC to daily... Also, once you know there in no algae in the pool I would take CYA to 80, it works better for SWG :)

You should be taking FC to 5 or 7 daily, we will get to that after you do the OCLT
 
Thanks for the reply.

I put 2.5 gallons of liquid chlorine in this morning so I'm ready to conduct the OCLT tonight. So I'll have info to post on that tomorrow morning.

My target FC is 5, which I've been staying at easily since I have been manually dosing my pool on and off since May. I've been using about 6 gallons of liquid chlorine a week with no tabs to maintain the FC of 5.

The part that still gets me - is why am I not getting a high reading at the SWG? I would expect higher than 1-3 ppm at the cell, honestly, but maybe I'm mistaken.
 
No. ColorQ is OK for low FC levels and pH. Not much else. And just because it give 'exact' values, doe not mean it is accurate.

You need a proper test kit.
 
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No. ColorQ is OK for low FC levels and pH. Not much else. And just because it give 'exact' values, doe not mean it is accurate.

You need a proper test kit.
So I guess this is my plan: I'm going to do the OCLT tonight to the best of my ability while ordering the K-2006 asap (none of my local pool stores have it). Hopefully I can get it within 7 days. Is this a good plan?

Note that if I notice any huge loss in Chlorine I'm going to start raising my levels to 20+ immediately.
 

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1. While you are waiting on your test kit, add 5 ppm FC worth of liquid chlorine / plain bleach to your pool each evening with the pump running. This will replenish the FC lost each day to the sun and also inhibit any algae in the water from growing further.

2. yes.
 
Do realize the chlorine generated by your SWCG counts in the 5 ppm FC worth. Your SWCG will add 0.2 ppm FC per hour if at 100% generation.
 
I assume the auto fill basin is tied to the pool water? I would put some chlorine in the auto fill basin and clean it out.

If you do not need it, turn it off and plug the outlet to the pool.

Mine runs continuously, 365 days a year. Except for the 1 or 2 days a year we get some rain.
 

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