Salt Cell Pass Through

[bpdunlv]

I do not winterize or close my pool since I live in the desert but it does get cold and I know the salt cell does not produce chlorine during the winter when water temps are lower. My question is this, does anyone replace their salt cell with a pass through (or dummy) cell in the winter? I have heard of people doing this to save on wear and tear to the salt cell hoping it would extend the life of the cell, but the dummy cells are overpriced for a piece of PVC pipe so I was wondering if it was worth it to do so.

I have a Pentair IC40 cell.

 

[Jimrahbe]

bp,

I'm not sure what extra wear there would be if the cell is off. I doubt much, if any.

I live it Texas and have similar winter weather and don't remove my cell..

Thanks for posting,

Jim R.

 

[bpdunlv]

We have higher calcium levels in the water here so it's tough to keep the levels low in the pool. I guess the logic would be removing the cell for the winter would be less pool water running through the cell and the blades wouldn't need to be acid washed all winter, in turn giving you a longer life for the cell.

 

[mknauss]

With properly balanced water your SWCG should never need to be acid washed. I live in S Nevada using Colorado River water, as you do, and have never acid washed my SWCG.

This is one area that CSI is very important to manage. Maintain it between -0.3 and 0.0 and your SWCG will never scale.

Take care.

 

[PoolGate]

I wanted to remove mine but could not find the "spool" piece specified by Jandy as I think they do not sell it anymore. The threads are proprietary so it isn't possible to just get a union and use the half I need (I tried). So the best way to remove the cell without paying for overpriced PVC from the manufacturer is to buy 4 (or 3) unions and a small length of PVC that is longer than your cell. Cut out your cell with enough room to install the unions before and after it. This allows you to remove your cell without removing the manufacturer's unions. Then make a piece to install when the cell is out. Use 1/2 of both the other unions for your bypass piece. Cumbersome and overkill yes but it would work. You could do this with 3 unions if you reverse the direction of the union on one end. This is all great if you have the room to do this. I do not sadly!

 

[cfherrman]

Use two or three valves for a bypass line.

Both of these options are more expensive than the spool