pentair ic40 having issues

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tltmom

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Aug 5, 2011
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Urbana, IL
I have had issues off and on this summer with my swg, but seemed to have them all resolved for the past few weeks. However, just noticed now that the swg seems to be having trouble again.

On the cell:
salt level light=flasing green (indicates high salt level)
pwr status light=solid green
cell light=nothing. light not on at all
flow=solid green
sanitizer=3 lights=50% output

diagnostic says salt level=5150. said 3600 this am

test results:
water clear, 86 degrees
fc 6.5 cc <.5
pH 7.6
TA 100
cya 45 (planning on raising)
salt 3400
ch 240-250

questions:
#1 Would an acid wash be a good idea? I did one the last time I had issues with the swg, saw minimal scaling on the cell. Have not looked at it since, but I've kept all the chems in line, PH never over 7.8, so I'd be surprised if it had much new scaling on it.

#2 How do I interpret the cell light being completely off? I'm not sure if the swg is working or
not. The fc is as high as it is because I had it up at 10.0 yesterday after a pool party, I let it drift down today. We had a very brief power outage today. Could the swg have blown a fuse?

I'm extremely un-handy when it comes to my pool equipment so please keep that in mind if you have any answers for me :hammer:
 
Cell light off just means it isn't producing chlorine at the moment. Unless it is set to 100% it is normal for the light to be out some of the time.

The real question is the high salt indication. Is it plausible that the salt level could actually be high? Calcium scale will cause a low salt condition, and will not cause a high salt condition. High salt usually means the salt actually is high, though now and then that happens when the unit is broken. You can also get a high salt indication for a while (which then clears on it's own) if you add certain chemicals through the skimmer.
 
Jason Lion,
Glad to know that the cell light is probably off because the cell is in the "off" part of its cycle. I should have thought of that.

Concerning the high salt indicator: my Taylor salt kit (fresh reagents) measures 3400. The diagnostic on the ic40 said 3600 just this morning. I did have the swg off at that point. The only 2 variables that have changed since then are: we had that brief power outage this morning (had to reset the clocks in the house, etc) and I turned the swg back on (this afternoon). No chems added through skimmer, just LC and muriatic added in front of pool return.

So I'm at a loss to explain why the unit thinks the salt is high. The last time the swg did this same thing a few weeks ago, the salt level really was too high, since i had accidentally overadded salt to the pool. I have drained about 2' of water since then, and started testing with the taylor kit. salt always tested 4000 or less.

I think the cell is a bit undersized for the pool anyway, and was planning on replacing it with an
ic60 next season. Just trying to lump along with the ic40 for now.

Aside from keeping a close eye on the Cl level, is there anything else I should do?

edit: elwood58 - thank you, good to know unit should still make Cl.
 
I left out a few details, maybe they are important (?)
I just did a 6" drain and refill on 7/16. The swg was fine before that, measured 4000 on diagnostic, Taylor drop test also =3800. After drain & refill, Taylor test said 3400, about what I would expect.
I have a water softener, and the garden hoses are piped in to get soft water.
Could that have anything to do with my swg issue? I'm wondering if I overwhelmed the softener running about 2700-3000 gallons all at once. I don't know enough about how water softeners work to know if this would cause any problems or not.
 
The water softener is not likely to be the issue. Salt pick up is small, as you only get a small residual of salt from brine residue left in the beads in the tank. The salt isn't actually used to soften, but to recharge. If the softner was at the point of recharging, you may not have gotten as much soft water as you think though.
 
Went to the pool store just to see what their testing would show for salt. They use an electronic salinity meter. I have no idea if they ever calibrate it, and the kid doing the testing slopped through the tests. So may not be very reliable.
Anyway, the pool store measured the salt at 2700.

I'm still not quite sure what, if anything, I should do at this point. I think I will just leave things alone at this point, since the swg is making chlorine.

Btw, the pool store results showed I have a cc=.8. I did an oclt 2 nights ago and got 0 loss. I am just going to assume the pool store is wrong, or is that cc likely to be a real result?

Thanks.
 
The Pentair IC salt system is calibrated to calculate salt at like 77 degree water. If the water is higher or lower this will make the cell believe the salt is higher or lower. I like the test strips for salt, but you should be safe to do a 30% muratic wash on the cell. I do not believe the newer cells can be calibrated.

An Ic 40 should be able to produce enough chlorine for your pool, you may just need to extend the pump run time when demand is greater.
 
I did the acid was yesterday, the cell now reads 3900. Salt level light is solid green now.
As long as the ic40 is producing chlorine, then I will leave it alone.

Thank you for everyone's input.
 
I'm back...
cell is producing chlorine just fine, but high salt light (=5150 on diagnostic) flashing again this morning.
so I acid washed the cell again, even though it looked good to me. The acid caused a little bit of bubbling off the plates, but not much. Green salt light quit flashing after wash, all seemed fine until tonight, when it was flashing again (=4900 on diagnostic).
tests:
Cl 9.0 cc 0 (had the percent dialed up a bit too high). I usually shoot for between 5-6ppm
cya 60
pH 7.6
TA 90
CH 250-260
salt (taylor) 3800. pool store said 2700 last week. (probably not that accurate)

Any thoughts as to why the cell is doing this? I have read a lot of posts (like waaaay too many) and I have not seen this same situation.
Can I just let the ic40 continue to think the salt is too high (as long as it's producing Cl) or is that going to cause problems?
Also, do I need to try to test the salt some other way to be sure what the level really is? I thought the Taylor test was a good one +-400ppm.
Thank you for your help with this frustrating problem.
 

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Hello,
I'm having trouble with my Pentair IC40 SWG. I've been searching the topics, but can't quite find solutions to my problem.

Here goes....
My SWG cell has a mfg date of 5/2011. I just cleaned it with acid solution, and had barely any buildup (almost no bubbles).

My chemistry is as follows:
FC 1.5 (adding bleach a couple times a week)
TA 80
pH 76
CYA 50
Salt 3600 (measure by pool store)
CH 700+ (I live in So Cal with hard water, plus hard to discern the change from violet to blue)

On my IC40, I see the following:
Salt level LED green
Power LED green
Cell LED green
Flow LED green
I have it cranked up to 100% (for about a month), but it's not producing any chlorine.

Do I have a bad cell? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

I have a pebble tek pool, about 28K gallons.

Thanks
 
Hi bildpool! I am not a mod, but one will probably be along shortly.
In the meantime:
1. How are you getting those numbers for your pool? If they are pool store #s, they may not be accurate. People here prefer the tf-100 or Taylor k2006 for testing
2. Assuming your results are accurate, the cya level is too low for a swg. It may be having a hard time keeping up with Cl demand.
3. Your Cl level is too low, so your ic40 may be producing Cl but it's getting consumed by algae. A cc level or an overnight Cl loss test would shed light on the possibility of algae. Testing the water that comes out of a return jet will let you know if the ic40 is producing Cl. A pool store can check cells also. They tend to have a lifespan of 3-5 years.
4. With a CH level that high, keeping pH in tight control will be important for your pool to prevent scaling.

Good luck with your chlorinator they are great when they work and frustrating when they don't!
 
Hi tltmom,
Thanks for the reply.
1) I'm using the tf-100 kit for the numbers. I've been a member here for 5 years and use the pool school recommendations.
2) What is a good CYA number to shoot for?
3) I know the CL is low, this was just before dumping in more bleach. I try to keep it at about 4 (when my SWG is working). I've measured CL right at the pool input, and it's not much different than the other end of the pool, so It's my belief that the SWG is not generating anything. I ran the cell life diagnostic last night, and it showed 60%, for whatever that's worth.

In general, my pool is nice and clear. I think I've got the pH under control as I'm not seeing much build up in the SWG every time I clean it.

Thanks for your input. I'll try boosting the CYA and see if that helps.
 
You've been a tfp'er longer than I have, so you know a lot more than I do, I'm sure!
I inadvertently gave you some bad advice! Raising your cya would be a good thing to do AFTER you are sure there is nothing growing in your pool. Since you've been here a while, you know that there are 3 things you need to know to be aure your pool is clean of algae: clear water (which you have), a good oclt, and no visible algae. Right now, since your ic40 may not be working, I think you would want to shoot for not dropping below the Cl minimum listed in the Cl/CYA chart in pool school for a non-swg pool, since that is what you may have right now if the chlorinator is not working.
As much as I wish I could help you further, I think you would get MUCH better advice if you started a new thread.

Good luck!
 
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