Salt Generator / CYA and usage

[CStehlin]

The Pentair Intellichlor manual tells me to keep CYA at 30-50, but Pool Math tells me 70-80 with salt water generator. Which do I keep it at?

Additionally, Pentair tells us the min and max Salt ppm in pool, but state the 'best level' is 3,400ppm. I've been told that 3,800-3,900ppm is the perfect level. I increased mine to 3,900ppm because it ran fantastic at that last year. Thoughts?

Thanks

 

[jblizzle]

Is this a vote? I vote at the TFP recommended levels

I recall that having the salt on the high end is no issue ... allows it to drift down over the season due to rain, splashout, etc.

 

[CStehlin]

I agree on the salt levels. The pool company had me down at a larger pool last year when salt was added (I changed from a diving pool to a different one). So, they accidentally added salt to 4,200ppm. I was a bit worried at the time, but Intellichlor ran great, and pool chemistry was great, easily, all season. Now, I will probably always run it a little high. In my head, 3,900ppm seems perfect.

Now, to determine CYA. Yes, it's a vote!!! I try to go with TFP on all topics, but this one is stumping me. I don't want to hurt the SWG. I need to spend more time and try to find a different forum on the topic... unless I get several great answers here. Thanks!!!

 

[jblizzle]

You will not hurt the SWG.

Here is their flawed logic ... They will NEVER recommend a FC level higher than 5ppm (industry blinders on, follow drinking water recommendations, etc). They are sort of acknowledging the FC/CYA relationship. But with the limit of never going higher than 5ppm for the FC, they are suggesting lower CYA levels to hopefully prevent algae.

We recommend the higher levels to better protect the FC from the sun, since the SWG adds the chlorine slowly. The higher CYA should actually allow the SWG to run less to maintain adequate FC, even if that level is higher than 5ppm.

 

[pooldv]

Is this a vote? I vote at the TFP recommended levels

I recall that having the salt on the high end is no issue ... allows it to drift down over the season due to rain, splashout, etc.

Im with him ^^^^^^

I had my salt level well above 5000 ppm back in 2013 and it still made chlorine and I didn't have to add salt for a long time. :-D

PS; I keep CYA at 80, minimum, and FC at 8-9. This has worked great for me since we filled the pool in 2012, same SWG cell.

 

[Philo]

Ask Pentair how they came up with CYA of 30-50 and let us know.

 

[Steve Bee]

Im with him ^^^^^^

I had my salt level well above 5000 ppm back in 2013 and it still made chlorine and I didn't have to add salt for a long time. :-D

PS; I keep CYA at 80, minimum, and FC at 8-9. This has worked great for me since we filled the pool in 2012, same SWG cell.

Interesting, my pool seems to be producing FC with little effort. My salt is 2200 (700 over Hayward recommendation)

I am trying to slow it down.

 

[jblizzle]

Interesting, my pool seems to be producing FC with little effort. My salt is 2200 (700 over Hayward recommendation)

I am trying to slow it down.

You likely have an swg that is designed to work at lower salinity levels. Most in the US seem to operate around 3200 PPM. There are some in Australia that tend to operate in the 5 to 6000 PPM range

 

[riley00dog]

My SWG was set up with 6700ppm of salt [emoji35] Instructions ask for around 4000 I think. I called the manufacturer who said it would be fine. It runs as it should and I guess it will be a very long time before I have to add salt.

 

[Steve Bee]

You likely have an swg that is designed to work at lower salinity levels. Most in the US seem to operate around 3200 PPM. There are some in Australia that tend to operate in the 5 to 6000 PPM range

Yes, I have a Low Salt model. Ideal manufacturer is 1500, minimum 1200. It rang low salt a day after startup, which I now know is probably because I was an idiot in a hurry and didn't double check the pool store calculation of 37kg, where it needed at least 40kg for minimum... and I told the dummy at the pool store it needed 1500ppm as ideal.

I only had test strips as my 1766 hadn't arrived, and it tested 1180, so I went with that figure and added 11 kg more salt (as per pool math) to get to 1500. Well, somehow I managed to get to around 2100-2200. Nowhere in my manual does it state a high salt threshold (Hayward manuals are terrible... omissions and mistakes everywhere), so who knows. The control box reads 2000ppm in the cell, and it took about 2.5 days to go up to that reading, and seems to be holding there.