Salt cell not creating robust FC

[outdoorsgal]

I thought I've been pretty good this year at doing everything I had to do after changing out my water and tried really hard to not come on here and just do it myself. I tested pretty much at least x 2 days and got my CYA and levels up to where they need to be and I'm having a hard time getting salt cell to create enough FC. It's still under warranty and I'd have to look to see if it's a year or 2 old. I got a Hayward good cell this time around. Since it hasn't been too hot for Phoenix yet and often times cloudy I didn't think I'd have to have the cell turned up too high but I find I keep turning it up higher and longer throughout the day. I've added chlorine to the pool when it's getting close to 2 FC but I want to keep it high right now since we're not swimming anyway-I've learned the hard way enough. Here's what I have it running and if I'm seeing correctly the Chlorine and pump are on at the same times as with the Omnilogic you have to set them separately so I could see how someone could think they have the salt cell running when it's not if the pump isn't also programmed at the same time. One thing I did change was that I had one of the times out of order and I thought that could've waited until a PM and skipped the following AM times just because I had PM programmed 1st.

Here's what I have RN:

Chlorinator 80% 6AM-9AM 3001 RPM
90% 9:01 AM - 3PM 1656 RPM
93% 6pm-9pm 2070 RPM
84% 10pm-6am 1587 RPM

FC 2.0 (then added a gallon of chlorine)
CC .5
pH 7.5
TA 90
CYA 70
Temp 79
CSI -0.36

No signs of algae. Crystal clear water. Thanks!

 

[Jimrahbe]

Gal,

In general, salt cell either fully work or they don't work at all..

The very first thing you should do is run an Overnight Chlorine Loss Test or OCLT.. This will tell you if you have algae or not. The fact that water is clear, does not mean you don't have algae.

Overnight Chlorine Loss Test

Make sure you use liquid chlorine to get you FC up to 6 or more and then turn off the SWCG and turn the OCLT.

Tell us how that turns out.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[outdoorsgal]

Gal,

In general, salt cell either fully work or they don't work at all..

The very first thing you should do is run an Overnight Chlorine Loss Test or OCLT.. This will tell you if you have algae or not. The fact that water is clear, does not mean you don't have algae.

Overnight Chlorine Loss Test

Make sure you use liquid chlorine to get you FC up to 6 or more and then turn off the SWCG and turn the OCLT.

Tell us how that turns out.

Thanks,

Jim R.

Thanks. That's good to know and unfortunate to hear that I could have algae. I may need to do this test on Monday and in the meantime I'll make sure there's chlorine in the pool. I may throw in some pucks to keep it above 2

 

[TinFoilHat]

Don't use the pucks. You need a defined amount of chlorine to be in the pool at all times. It's sunny and warm so you will use 3-5 ppm of chorine per day. If you have one of our recommended test kits then use it to verify that you have quickly got up to the 6 ppm recommended and then add LC every day until you get to Monday's OCLT test. It's key to test at the same time of day if possible. I test every morning before the sun hits the pool, for example.

 

[PoolStored]

I may throw in some pucks to keep it above 2

I'd avoid the pucks at this point, your CYA is already high, and if you have algae, higher CYA is harder to SLAM. Use liquid chlorine. Keep your FC >8, so that when you test, you are still between 8 and 10. If you have to dose higher, so you are in range when you test, then dose higher.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

What I would do is use liquid chlorine to take your FC up to the desired level based on your CYA level, then turn the SWG on and allow it to maintain the desired level. The reason to do it this way is because SWGs work slowly, but steadily. It takes time to build up to that desired level when the sun is trying to burn some of it off at the same time. Test daily to find what the best percentage is for your pool. It will need occasional adjustments as the season progresses, swimmers and weather changes etc.

At no time do you want the FC to be so low you risk algae moving in for a party.