Pentair IC60 creates chlorine when first turned on and then flashes "inspect cell"

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fabsroman

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Apr 10, 2020
21
Winfield, Maryland
I have a Pentair IC60 that generates chlorine when initially turned on, and then a couple minutes later flashes "inspect cell". I've had it for about 3 seasons. It was doing the same thing toward the end of the season last year, but the water was pretty cold and I dismissed the issue due to cold water. It seems somewhat insane that it will produce chlorine when initially turned on, but then go to "inspect cell" after a couple minutes and stop generating chlorine.

Any way to fix this problem, or does this mean I need a new SWG?
 
PoolStored said:
See section on "inspect cell" here:

Pentair Intellichlor ICXX SWG - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com

To clean, see cleaning here:

SWG How It Works - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com
Click to expand...
Yep, I did both of them back in the fall when it was giving me this issue. Just dismissed it as a cold water issue. Think I might have to bite the bullet and buy a new SWG.

Just frustrating that it will generate chlorine upon startup and then do a "diagnostic" and shut down. Insane to think that it can generate chlorine and then be bad.
 
I don't know what is "insane" about an electrolysis system starting up and monitoring the voltage and amperage as the chemical process stabilizes to see if it is within expected performance. If not, the control unit shuts it down and notifies you.
 
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ajw22 said:
I don't know what is "insane" about an electrolysis system starting up and monitoring the voltage and amperage as the chemical process stabilizes to see if it is within expected performance. If not, the control unit shuts it down and notifies you.
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What is "insane" is that it generates chlorine for 2 minutes, meaning it is capable of generating chlorine, but after an analysis it decides that it no longer wants to produce chlorine.
 
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fabsroman said:
What is "insane" is that it generates chlorine for 2 minutes, meaning it is capable of generating chlorine, but after an analysis it decides that it no longer wants to produce chlorine.
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It's probably a valid point that if it can generate chlorine, it probably should continue to generate chlorine even if the output is not at the level that is expected.
 
fabsroman said:
What is "insane" is that it generates chlorine for 2 minutes, meaning it is capable of generating chlorine, but after an analysis it decides that it no longer wants to produce chlorine.
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Why is it insane that the controls determine the cell performance is unacceptable? Would you like it to keep running when it is not producing the expected levels?
 

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JamesW said:
It's probably a valid point that if it can generate chlorine, it probably should continue to generate chlorine even if the output is not at the level that is expected.
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The customer should let Pentair know of his/her dissatisfaction with the control system.
 
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In my opinion, all SWGs should report the chlorine output.

Even if the cell is not generating at full power, some generation is better than no generation.

Even if the cell produces only half of the expected chlorine, that is still useful.

Of course, it helps if the customer knows that the production is reduced so that they can adjust the percentage accordingly.
 
I just checked the salt content of the pool water and it came back at 3,150 even though the SWG says there is enough salt. So, I dumped in my last bag and am headed to Walmart to buy another 80 pounds.

I did a manual check of the SWG and it reports 60% used life (i.e., 3 green dots lit up on the bottom) and none of the other lights were red. Hoping that a salt level on the edge of decent is what is causing the salt level light to be green and the cell light to flash green.

When the cell was producing chlorine on startup, I took a sample of water from the return closest to the pump and it was 2.5ppm chlorine.

Back in about an hour with some more salt.
 
fabsroman said:
the SWG says there is enough salt.
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The EasyTouch reports actual salinity.

What is the salinity reported?
fabsroman said:
I just checked the salt content of the pool water and it came back at 3,150
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What test kit?
fabsroman said:
I did a manual check of the SWG and it reports 60% used life (i.e., 3 green dots lit up on the bottom) and none of the other lights were red.
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What is the cell temperature?

Show the sticker on the back of the cell.

Check the cell for scale and clean it if necessary.

Check the amperage (DC).
 
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