SWG not producing chlorine? Help!

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YippeeSkippy said:
Keep in mind you were starting out with a FC of only 1, so there was no way for the SWG to compete with sun, bathers, and still get you up to the desired level before algae took hold. So yes, you *needed* that jump start of bleach to get you there, and now its time to tweak. Brian is right, raising your CYA to 80 will be the next step. Then we'll get on to the cell itself. I dislike that the PB threw all that salt in and started the cell up right away. I just hope that didn't mess it up some way?

Keep us posted :)
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Agree. A SWG will take forever to bring you from zero to something usable. Liquid chlorine to get to the right level and then let the SWG keep it that level.


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The bubbles are from Hydrogen and chlorine gas that escape usually on the shortest run/ highest return and is perfectly normal. I wouldn't rely on the bubbles as an indicator that the cell is working correctly since it's so dependent on plumbing design. Some may not see any bubbles in their pools.
 
jdomke1 said:
Drives me nuts that as the filter gradually gets dirty the flow decreases and then the SWG stops working. No way to know other than look over fence at lights or go through diagnostics on indoor panel. It'd be nice to get an alert or warning. Usually the way I notice it's not working is that my water starts getting cloudy. Annoying. I've got a VF pump so I'm trying to save money and keeping the pump running just fast enough to produce chlorine. After a clean filter I start at 2050 and right now I'm up to 2900 just two months since last cleaning.


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jdomke1 Best to keep your questions/issues on your threads so that you don't confuse the OP of this thread.

It sounds like you need a filter pressure gauge. You should be checking your filter pressure more often and cloudy water usually means a chemistry problem like too low FC for your CYA level vs solely a filtration problem. You need to backwash when your filter pressure is 25% above the clean pressure.
 
philboyj said:
Hi TM

Sorry to see you are having all these SWG issues.

To answer your question about adding bleach - I have never had to add bleach to supplement chlorine production from SWG. Apart from pump run time, the pump speed is also important. I keep mine at 2000 rpm for atleast 8 hours. More sun and I may increase to 12 hours or increase pump speed to 2400 rpm.

Here is a picture of the bubbles I see from my SWG. It is only visible on the return outlet that's closest to the pump. On my 2nd closest return outlet, I see a few bubbles and no bubbles on the other 4 return outlets. Hope this helps.



The last possibility is that you have a faulty test kit or not doing the testing correctly. If you need to borrow my guess strips let me know - LOL.
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Hi Phil!! Thanks for that. The picture helps too and I'll keep my eyes open in case I can see them.

My VSP is running 11 hours a day at these settings:

And they have my Intellichlor running at . It all feels too high for my 14,000 gallon pool.

bdavis466 said:
Pump speed has no bearing on chlorine production so long as the flow switch is activated.

Raise your CYA to 80. This will make a noticeable difference.
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. I will talk to PB today about adding more stabilizer!

YippeeSkippy said:
Keep in mind you were starting out with a FC of only 1, so there was no way for the SWG to compete with sun, bathers, and still get you up to the desired level before algae took hold. So yes, you *needed* that jump start of bleach to get you there, and now its time to tweak. Brian is right, raising your CYA to 80 will be the next step. Then we'll get on to the cell itself. I dislike that the PB threw all that salt in and started the cell up right away. I just hope that didn't mess it up some way?

Keep us posted :)
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Hmm... I wonder if the manual would say anything about that. If it does then I can make a case for replacement but if it doesn't then whatever they say goes. Of course I don't have a manual. They kept it all and are supposed to give me a flash drive at the end with digital copies of everything. I'll have to search online and see what I can find.


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jdomke1 said:
Drives me nuts that as the filter gradually gets dirty the flow decreases and then the SWG stops working. No way to know other than look over fence at lights or go through diagnostics on indoor panel. It'd be nice to get an alert or warning. Usually the way I notice it's not working is that my water starts getting cloudy. Annoying. I've got a VF pump so I'm trying to save money and keeping the pump running just fast enough to produce chlorine. After a clean filter I start at 2050 and right now I'm up to 2900 just two months since last cleaning.


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Those speeds are awfully high. Are you sure your filter is clean?

With the VF pump, it should automatically compensate for increasing filter restriction and the swg should always run
 
I can't comment on the pump speeds, but you need to backwash went your pressure rises 25% over your clean. So backwash when the pressure is between 10 and 12.5 (based on a clean pressure between 8 and 10).
 
jdomke1 said:
How is my question or issue not related to this thread or helpful to the OP? This is a post about low levels of FC using a SWG and I'm relating issues I've had in keeping my levels high using the same equipment. Let the OP decide if my comments or questions are helpful or not.

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Hi jdomke1! I understand why you posted and asked here. We have different equipment though in that I don't have the same kind of filter so it's kind of gotten off track of being completely relevant for me. I keep checking back on the replies to my thread but finding the conversation is this one about the filters and how they effect the levels. At this point I think it would be good if one of the moderators could split it to a separate thread as this is certainly of relevance but is a bit different than what I'm posting about. I did/do find some of it helpful though! [emoji5]


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Doing some research in the manual, I do have a few concerns but I'm not sure if they're a big deal. They did not use a dummy cell.
They did not super chlorinate but I think doing that now will help fix the problem.
How do I test the nitrates, phosphates, and TDS? . The manual definitely says to add salt and turn on cell 24 hours later. I don't think they did it that way but I'm trying to verify. Can real damage be done by adding salt and turning it on at the same time?

---UPDATE--- Just got a text back from PB. Cell was already on and enabled before he added the salt. How much can that hurt the life of my cell that it's been running since start-up - and without any salt...



What is the ideal setting I should start with on my SWG to start seeing how much I will need to maintain? 70% for 11 hours a day just seems like a lot.

Also, it says that we shouldn't add chemicals while the intellichlor is on but it's on whenever my pumps are running - which I was told by PB to switch on high for 30 minutes when I add chems. Is that really bad that we've been adding chemicals with the SWG running??

I think I figured out what PB was talking about with shocking the pool with a salt boost. The cell has a Boost setting. "BOOST cycle sets the unit to maximum chlorine output for 24 hours."


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The dummy units are placed more to protect the internals from damage from PVC fragments, glue, plaster, pebbles and dirt in the pipes from new builds. Yours being installed shouldn't have been an issue. It is VERY typical to have the cells installed with the rest of the equipment.

Nitrates and phosphates are irrelevant and have nothing to do with what you are experiencing. You actually are testing for TDS by checking each level. TA +CH + CYA+ salt = TDS
 
With your testing you are checking the individual levels that comprise TDS. The actual TDS level is meaningless.

As stated before, the swg is for maintaining FC that is consumed on a daily basis. To figure out your run percentage, raise the FC to 5ppm and set the swg to run for the normal scheduled time at 70%. If at the end of the day the FC dropped, either raise the % or add an hour to the schedule. If the FC went up, bump the % down.

The SWG % is not a set and forget kind of thing. It requires frequent tweaking based off very regularly testing. My cell settings vary from 0-80% based on the time of year and what I have going on.

Do not use the boost mode or superchlor on your cell. A gallon of chlorine will be much cheaper, faster and more effective than relying on the cell to produce large amounts of chlorine in a short timeframe.
 

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My FC was 9.8 this morning and when I tested everything this evening it was 10.8 without my adding anything so I'm going to take that as a sign that the SWG is working. I'm going to lower to 30% from its current 70% since we've had some rainy days and see what my levels look like after all day tomorrow. I need to let them drift down a bit anyway.

I notice the spa has it's own setting for the SWG. What should I start that at or what kind of difference should their be? At 70% for the pool the PB had the spa set at 3%.


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I would turn it down to 60%. The Fc level of 10.8 is not bad or dangerous. Test tomorrow evening and see what you get. Swg slowly adds Fc and you don't want to have to chase an unobtainable static valve. Your fc levels will fluctuate some based on water temp, sunny, cloudy, bather load etc.


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kcindc said:
I would turn it down to 60%. The Fc level of 10.8 is not bad or dangerous. Test tomorrow evening and see what you get. Swg slowly adds Fc and you don't want to have to chase an unobtainable static valve. Your fc levels will fluctuate some based on water temp, sunny, cloudy, bather load etc.


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What does "unobtainable static valve" mean?


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I mean that you don't want to have to constantly adjust your swg in order for your Fc level to stay at one particular value. Your Fc will fluctuate and that is okay. The key is to never let it get to the minimum valve for your cya.


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I also have an IC40 and just installed in February. I added the 40 or so bags of salt and just figured I'd be good to go. I then realized, as others have posted, that the SWG maintains the level but would take forever to raise your FC level from zero. Once I got all the liquid chlorine added and had the FC high enough, I set the SWG to around 80 and just keep my eye on the levels. It's never going to be exact and certainly not fully automated. It would be nice if the easytouch system measured FC and adjusted the SWG accordingly. Asking too much I know.


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Maybe it was 20 bags of 40#. Whatever it was it was the amount recommended based on my pool size. Thankfully Lowes had them on sale for 1/2 off because they were changing the logo on the bags. Silly excuse but it saved me a ton.
 

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