Pentair IC40 Salt Cell / Chlorine Generator Replacement

[Alcyone]

I bought a replacement IC40 Salt Cell and it won't screw in on one side. Did Pentair change the threads? I haven't actually looked at this myself yet, but the pool guy trying to install it ran into difficulties. Is there any recommended course of action at this point? Do I just need some teflon tape or should I glue a new fitting onto the pipe? The old unit was an IC40 as well, so I would have thought this would be a simple, direct replacement.

Also, the same pool guy charged me $250 to replace unions and do an acid cleaning on the old unit, which was 5 years old and has an operating life of approximately 10,000 hours. Several days later, he got back to me and told me it needed replacement. Hence, $250 down the drain. Was this the correct procedure someone in this profession would normally take or should it have been known the unit was due for replacement prior to being worked on?

Thank you

 

[Jimrahbe]

Al,

Why would you change the unions? As far as I know, the IC40 units have been the same forever..

If the IC40 had a flashing cell light, then your pool guy should have had a clue that it was end of life.

There are many good pool guys, and there are just as many pool guys who take advantage of customers who do not really understand how things work. This applies to many other professionals other than just pools..

Why did he think your cell was not working?

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[Alcyone]

Hi Jim,

The original unions were cracked. His recommendation was to replace them. The old unit, acid washed, screwed into the new unions just fine without issue, but still didn't work after the $250 service.

Then, he tried to sell me a marked up IC40 (after giving me a bogus model number to make sure I didn't go buy it myself). He marked it up $50 and said that it would cover installation. This wouldn't have been unreasonable, but having wasted $250 I wasn't in the mood to pay anymore than I had to. Also, I imagine he would have ran into the same problem screwing in the replacement and would have charged more to mitigate that.

So I bought a replacement unit on Amazon. I didn't know they came with unions until I went looking for one. I'm pretty good with my hands, but still learning about pool equipment. I kindly asked if he'd drop the new one in for me, free of charge, since his prior $250 service didn't work. He agreed, but ran into difficulty. I actually saw him on my security camera getting belligerent, cussing up a storm and banging around. I only hope he didn't cross-thread anything or damage the new unit.

I would normally take care of these issues myself, but I'm gone for work most of the time.

Is it likely I'll just neeed to get some PVC glue to attach a new fitting to the pipe or should this be a straight forward process? I will tackle it this weekend when I'm finally home.

 

[Alcyone]

Also wanted to add that the old cell stopped generating chlorine.

 

[Jimrahbe]

Al,

Try screwing the fitting that won't work first and then the other side and see of that works..

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[Alcyone]

Thanks Jim. Will try and post back later this week.

 

[Alcyone]

The new IC40 salt cell went in just fine. The only issue was the union nuts needed to be tightened down pretty far as to prevent leaking. Once properly tightened, the new unit operated perfectly.

 

[Jimrahbe]

A,

Did you lubricate the union's O-Rings with pool lube??? That often helps prevent leaks.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[Alcyone]

A,

Did you lubricate the union's O-Rings with pool lube??? That often helps prevent leaks.

Thanks,

Jim R.

Jim,

I did make sure to lubricate the O-rings

Is it advisable to seek a new pool maintenance company at this point? The manual for the IC40 states to hold down the "More" button for 3 seconds to get an approximate service life reading. I did this on the old unit and it surprisingly read 80%. Considering it's 5 year age, could this have been reset at some point? It's my belief the pool guy should have known the age of the unit before advising a $250 service. Also, this same pool guy piled up old filters on the side of my house after I paid him to replace them.