A few weeks ago the "Cell" light on my IC20 began to blink slowly, and the diagnostics screen on the EasyTouch says "Clean Cell!!!". Pulled the cell, and saw no visible calcium scaling, but went ahead and added diluted acid as instructed, and saw no fizzing.
So, it seems that the cell has failed. It was installed in 2012, so I got about 4 years use out of it, which sounds like it's at the low side of life expectancy but not alarmingly so. However, checking the usage of the cell, it indicates only approximately 4000 hours (out of an expected 10,000). I'm going to use other chlorination for right now, and will probably replace the cell in the Spring. But in the meantime, any ideas as to what could have caused the premature failure, especially given that there is no evidence of calcium scaling? Of course maybe it simply "failed". But I do have a few purely speculative ideas.
For instance, will occasional very high chlorine levels affect the cell? Usually once or twice a year I have to go through a mustard algae shock if I inadvertently let my FC drift a little too low, which means elevating FC with bleach and/or cal hypo in the neighborhood of 30-40 for several days.
Another concern is chlorine generation in cold weather. I keep it active until it hits the point of going into cold water cutoff mode (which I think is 50 degrees), at which time I use other chlorination sources. But now I'm wondering if perhaps water that is not quite cold enough to trigger cutoff is still not good for the cell... is it possible that salt generation in, say, 60 degree water also is not great for the cell (even though it's above the cutoff threshold)?
Lastly, a related question about the replacement cell. I know the common suggestion is to go with a higher capacity cell (IC40 in my case), as it will run half the time that the IC20 would need to for the same level of chlorine, and hypothetically last twice as long, making it a financially sensible choice. However, the failure of my IC20 with only 40% of its estimated lifespan used up has me questioning this. I guess the best way to put this is, if I'd had an IC40 installed originally instead of an IC20, would the IC40 now be failed after 4 years (with only 20% of its lifespan used), or would I have gotten another 4 years (or longer) out of it?
I know there's no way to answer that, but what I'm wondering is how much of a cell's eventual failure results from the amount of time spent actually generating chlorine, compared to "idle" time when water is simply passing through it?
So, it seems that the cell has failed. It was installed in 2012, so I got about 4 years use out of it, which sounds like it's at the low side of life expectancy but not alarmingly so. However, checking the usage of the cell, it indicates only approximately 4000 hours (out of an expected 10,000). I'm going to use other chlorination for right now, and will probably replace the cell in the Spring. But in the meantime, any ideas as to what could have caused the premature failure, especially given that there is no evidence of calcium scaling? Of course maybe it simply "failed". But I do have a few purely speculative ideas.
For instance, will occasional very high chlorine levels affect the cell? Usually once or twice a year I have to go through a mustard algae shock if I inadvertently let my FC drift a little too low, which means elevating FC with bleach and/or cal hypo in the neighborhood of 30-40 for several days.
Another concern is chlorine generation in cold weather. I keep it active until it hits the point of going into cold water cutoff mode (which I think is 50 degrees), at which time I use other chlorination sources. But now I'm wondering if perhaps water that is not quite cold enough to trigger cutoff is still not good for the cell... is it possible that salt generation in, say, 60 degree water also is not great for the cell (even though it's above the cutoff threshold)?
Lastly, a related question about the replacement cell. I know the common suggestion is to go with a higher capacity cell (IC40 in my case), as it will run half the time that the IC20 would need to for the same level of chlorine, and hypothetically last twice as long, making it a financially sensible choice. However, the failure of my IC20 with only 40% of its estimated lifespan used up has me questioning this. I guess the best way to put this is, if I'd had an IC40 installed originally instead of an IC20, would the IC40 now be failed after 4 years (with only 20% of its lifespan used), or would I have gotten another 4 years (or longer) out of it?
I know there's no way to answer that, but what I'm wondering is how much of a cell's eventual failure results from the amount of time spent actually generating chlorine, compared to "idle" time when water is simply passing through it?
