Salt water chlorinator not making any chlorine

[sroberts88]

Hi we have bought a house with an I ground pool which has a astral salt water chlorinator. The chlorinator always reads “low salt” even when there’s plenty of salt (by ours and the pool shop levels) and seems to make no chlorine. We have to top up with liquid chlorine regularly and though it’s covered it often reads zero.

we have tried stabaliser-got into a bit of bother with too high and had to partially drain!! Cleaned the cell, ensued the salt levels were right and made sure the pump and chlorinator is running for 12 hours/

the pool shop says replace the whole chlorinator system (without seeing it) for >$1000.Not sure if they are up selling and if there is any way of knowing whether it’s just the cell or the whole thing needs replacement.

many thanks for your help.

 

[Texas Splash]

SWGs do have a limited service life. How long they last depends on various factors such as pool chemistry over the years, amount of use, etc. For some, it's best to change the entire product, while others allow an owner to replace the internal cell itself. Perhaps tell us which SWG make/model you have, and how long you have had it installed. If you're not sure, post a picture of it.

 

[sroberts88]

Thank you so much for your reply, yes not too sure when it was installed as it was here when we moved in (something we should have asked) but moving from the UK to Aus we had no idea re: pools/maintainable etc so are just trying to learn as we go. We do have a maintainance chap once a long who keeps an eye on the chemical balance.
I’ve attached a photo. (This was before we cleaned the cell!)

 

[CRAD_oz]

Hi sroberts
You may already have this? Below is a link to the manual.
You have the e series Salt Chlorinator.
Reading from the manual. If the Low Salt light stays on and your Salt level is ok, Cell is clean then it may be a bad Cell.
That is a discontinued model and you would be best upgrading instead of replacing the cell if it was my choice.
I just purchased a Austral VX9 for my Dad and it was around$1400 (mates Rates).

E25 Salt Chlorinator |Product Support | AstralPool Australia

AstralPool E25 Salt Chlorinator is affordable, low maintenance and automatically disinfects pool water. Download the brochure and manual here to learn more.

www.astralpool.com.au

 

[mgtfp]

The low salt light of the AstralPool SWG's is often rubbish. The light at my very old Hurlcon (which was later taken over by AstralPool) is basically always on, but the chlorine production is absolutely fine.

But in your case it does sound like there's something wrong with your cell or the whole unit. Can you see bubbles in the chlorinator cell? Should look like that:

For the benefit of future reference for others - I'll add on old video of mine to this thread as well.

A popular brand here Downunder (Astralpool) also allows the user to alter the DC drive level to their SWCG which allows you to adjust the chlorine gas output of the cell rather than controlling the overall output by switching a cell on/off at a constant 100% drive level. From my limited understanding... this method of controlling the cell's output does not seem as common in the US.

The video below simply shows the amount of gas being generated at various drive levels:

Have you checked that all the cables have still good contact? Sometimes the connectors do corrode a fair bit.

 

[Youfah Mizzum]

Hi sroberts, as mgtfp says above you should be able to observe the chlorine gas getting generated. In your photo you'd be looking at the right hand side of the clear plastic cell.
Although I don't have an Astral (I have a Henden) it works pretty much the same way.
I can watch the chlorine getting generated by watching the clear plastic cell so I know if it's working or not just by looking at it.

I'd firstly hunt down the user guide and see if the controller is set to actually generate chlorine at all!

Not sure about the Astral, but it seems the video from mgtfp would indicate the the chlorinator cell runs all the time - but the output can be adjusted.

In the case of the Henden, I can set the percentage output, say 30% all the way up to 100% in 5% increments. I have mine set to 40%. But from what I can tell just from pure visual observation is that the chlorine generation comes "on ond off" based on whatever percentage level it's set to. So it'll turn the chlorine generation on at 100% but only for a few seconds, say 30 seconds or so, then there'll be no generation all all for a few minutes then the 30 seconds will start again, then turn off for another cycle. I've yet to have a chat to the Henden customer support staff but that's how it seems to work for me. On & off, On & off. I assume that the on and off intervals are set via the percentage which we set the controller at.

So as a second check, just stare at the clear cell for a while & see if it seems to be making that cloudy water - that is the chlorine gas getting generated. The first check is to see if the control unit is configured correctly i.e. its set to generate chlorine.