Salt cell and scale

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Slm3rob

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Mar 16, 2016
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Conroe, TX
I opened my salt cell for the first time (13 month old pool), and it looked clean to me but I went ahead and gave it a bath with 1 part acid and 5 parts water. It did not fizz at all after a minute.

my question is, can there be scale all over the pool plaster and none in the salt cell? I just need some verification of this as we are having an ongoing issue with the plaster company and the plasterer on what the issues are in our pool.

Wet edge says scale. Plasterer says loss of color and "salt" deposits in the pool. I've been in contact with Onbalance and they believe, as I do that it's calcium deposits and white spots, loss of pigment from faulty materials and workmanship. Builder seems like he is going to bat for us.

Anyway...trying to firmly rule out scale. My csi numbers have stayed consistently within the .0- +0.3 range except during startup and for a couple of days this past June. Issues have been noticeable since last March. Lots of calcium drips all over the pool.

Here is a pic of the salt cell. The greyish area is metal, there was no deposit on that band. Other side of the cell looked clean too.


IMG_1273.jpg
 
The IC series of SWCG switch polarity to shed calcium. That really helps to keep your salt cell free of scale.

If you are creating scale in your cell, but it is being shed by the reversing of polarity, you will see flakes of calcium coming out of your returns. They will pile up below the return. They can be very fragile.

I look at the SWCG as a 'canary in the coal mine' indicator of scale potential. You will get the flakes out of the return way before you get scale plating out on your pool surfaces.

FYI -- do not acid wash your cell unless there is scale that you cannot remove by spraying water into the cell. The acid dramatically reduces the life of the cell.

Hope that helps -- take care.
 
With no visible scaling in the SWG and no flakes coming out of the returns ... I highly doubt your CSI could have been high enough, long enough for scaling to develop on the pool surface itself.
 
jblizzle said:
With no visible scaling in the SWG and no flakes coming out of the returns ... I highly doubt your CSI could have been high enough, long enough for scaling to develop on the pool surface itself.
Click to expand...

Jason, how long would it have to be out of range for scale to form over the entire pool? I'm convinced it's not scale but it's been a battle ... because I don't have "professional" numbers from Leslie's, the plasterer wants to do a no drain acid wash. The pool is only 13 months old. I noticed The white spots, whitish film discoloration around March. There are also lots of calcium nodules all over the pool. Like hundreds of little drips and a few bigger ones. Plasterer is saying they are salt deposits. I basically told him ..no way. OnBalance has been very helpful in trying to help me negotiate with the pool
builder. We are confident it's a bad batch of plaster and bad application but no one wants to take responsibility.
 
I think it would take months to get scale all over the entire pool. Although it would show up sooner in side of the salt water cell. I was going to refer to onbalance so it sounds like you've gotten some good information already
 
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