Salt Cell Percentage / "low flow" / pump run settings

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W

whatdidigetmyselfinto

Well-known member
Jun 6, 2019
89
Ottawa, ON
Hi there,

I have a Hayward AquaRite salt cell system.
When the pump is running at low speed, system does not generate any chlorine, and puts out a warning.
What is the "percentage" value set relative to?
Is that % value a percentage of "when it can generate" ?
I guess it has to be...

Then maybe a second question that is related:
We circulate the power for getting the chemicals mixed, surface skimming and in my case, chlorine generation.
After the pool is balanced and in maintenance mode, I set the pump with a lower rpm for skimming, higher rpm to allow the salt system to generate chlorine.
Would it make sense to ONLY have a higher rpm, high % salt generation setting and drop the lower rpm run completely from the schedule ?
 
W,

You have a small pump and a heater.. This means you will have to run faster so that your cell will work. You have a VS pump, so just crank the speed up. :mrgreen:

In my opinion, it does not make much sense to run the pump, it you are not generating chlorine..

The output % is actually how long the cell is on vs. off.. In general, at 50%, with the pump running for say 10 hours, your cell will be on for only 5 hours.. Each brand of cell has their own cycle times, but over a long period of time it all evens out.. At 50%, my Pentair cell is on for about 2.5 minutes and then off for about 2.5 minutes.

In most pools with heaters, skimming and closing the SWCG's flow switch is pretty close to the same speed.

Also keep in mind that all the water that the pump is moving should be going through the cell.. If your plumbing is set up so that some water goes to the cell and some water goes to a water feature, then that is a plumbing issue..

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
@Jimrahbe

I have a relatively simple setup. Everthing connected serial - with no flow control anywhere. so all the water ciculated is going through the cell.
I am not clear how the presence of a heater effects the flow rate and SWCG : can you pls elaborate?

You said :
> In general, at 50%, with the pump running for say 10 hours, your cell will be on for only 5 hours..
OK. so the SWCG does not incorporate into its decision whether it was able to generate any chlorine or not (due to low flow) it only knows about water circulating (pump on/off)

I also read one of your comments to read : if the rpm is too low, i won't get good skimmer action. I guess it makes sense if it is very low.
Do you judge the right speed based on observation?
 
The cell and the heater could care less how fast the water is moving after the minimum flow has been established to satisfy the cell and heater, which means you'd lower the rpm till one or both complain about flow. Then you would raise it 200 rpm and call it done. At that flow you can bring the percent up or down and it isn't dependent on flow speed. Also, 100% for 4 hours is equal to 50% for 8 hours so the math is up to you to figure out. To address your skimming question, a higher flow skims better so you'd want more flow to skim and less for the rest.
 
W,

The SWCG has a flow switch.. To close this switch, you have to have some minimum amount of flow.

The amount of flow depends on several things... one of them being what is between the pump and where the water goes back into the pool.. The more 'stuff' between the pump and the pool, the harder it is to push water through them and the faster you will have to run the pump to get the flow you need.

I have a large VS pump and a larger cartridge filter and a SWCG... I can run at 1200 RPM and turn on my SWCG and have plenty of skimming..

Others, with the same basic set up, but have a heater, find that they have to run at 1500 to 1700 to have the same flow..

You have a smaller pump, a sand filter with multiport valve, a SWCG, and a heater. (Maybe more??) This just means that you will have to run faster to have the same flow.

My point on skimming is that in most cases you don't need to run faster than what turns your SWCG on to skim well. All pools are a little different, so you will just have to experiment and find what works for you. My skimmers do not 'look' like they are working, if you are used to what they looked like with a single speed pump. Looks can be deceiving... My skimmer fill up with whatever falls into my pool and floats, and the surface of my pool stays clear. The key to good skimming is to have an operating weir door between your skimmer's mount and the skimmer basket.. Do your skimmers have weir door?

The cell will not work at all if the flow switch is not closed.. Once the flow switch is closed, it does not matter if there is more flow than needed, the cell will not make more chlorine because there is more flow.

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
To respond to the couple questions :
That's all in my setup : pump, sand filter, swcg, heater.
And yes skimmer has weir doors

Current setting is 1750 : both swcg and heater happy.

Down to 1300 they are happy but skimmer action is very slow

below that they both shut down...
 
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