SWG panel showed "check salt" light green, Check cell blinking red. Now normal.

[Newpoolcrazy]

SWG panel showed "check salt" light green, Check cell blinking red. Now normal.

Went out this morning to do maintenance and panel is reading normal again. We had a slight cold snap overnight night before. Could it be that water got too cold and when it warmed up a bit, I just happened to check on it just after SWG had begun to be able to generate again and it hadn't quite finished coming back online at the panel? We did nothing to it, panel just went back to normal readings on it's own.

FC = 8
CC = 0
CYA = 70
Ph = 7.6
TA 80

Salt is a bit low at 2890 so will be bumping it up to 3200 today. Just curious as to why it might do that. Pool temp is 57 right now and it's due to warm up. I know TFP says umder 60 degrees is too cold, mfg says 50. Seems to be somewhere in between in actual practice. Through testing, it appears that it continues to generate at less than mid 50s. Pool is clear just trying not to miss anything.
Thanks.

 

[JamesW]

Re: SWG panel showed "check salt" light green, Check cell blinking red. Now normal.

Can you post all diagnostics?

 

[peterl1365]

Re: SWG panel showed "check salt" light green, Check cell blinking red. Now normal.

I think your theory about the water temp is correct.

Last weekend I added two bags of salt. For the first few hours, my Pentair SWG was reading 2450 ppm and gave a low salt warning.

This morning, after a slightly warmer week and a tiny amount of rain yesterday, my SWG is reading 2650 and "good" salt. I don't think my water temp changed by a lot, maybe 3-4 deg F.

Wouldn't hurt to add a little more salt, but the salt readings will probably climb on their own as the water temperature gets into the 60's and 70's.

As for the mismatch between the cell and the display, I'm not familiar with your SWG but the Pentair unit only checks salinity every 2 hours or so. It's very likely that the values had simply not been updated yet on the main controller.

 

[JamesW]

Re: SWG panel showed "check salt" light green, Check cell blinking red. Now normal.

The AquaRite will say "Cold" when the water is too cold.

Warmer water won't increase salt readings.

Salinity calculations are temperature compensated for AquaRite, IntelliChlor, Aquapure and AutoPilot.

Most likely, the average salt reading on the box got to 2,700, which will cause the lights.

Probably just need to increase salt by about 300 to 500 ppm.

 

[Newpoolcrazy]

Re: SWG panel showed "check salt" light green, Check cell blinking red. Now normal.

It appears it's currently not generating but we are new to SWG. Panel light is only lit at "Power" and "Generating" (solid green). Will supplement with chlorine if needed:

However diagnostics appear to say it's not actually generating right now according to owner's manual.

Pool Temp 61 (f)
Cell voltage 31
Cell Current 0.0
Desired output 20.
Instant salinity 0

Can you post all diagnostics?

 

[Newpoolcrazy]

Re: SWG panel showed "check salt" light green, Check cell blinking red. Now normal.

That could be it..at least that's part of it. Average salt reading on box is 2700! Even tho Auqua check strip says 2890. At least

The AquaRite say "Cold" when the water is too cold.

Warmer water won't increase salt readings. Salinity calculations are temperature compensated for AquaRite, IntelliChlor, Aquapure and AutoPilot.

Most likely, the average salt reading on the box got to 2,700, which will cause the lights.

Probably just need to increase salt by about 300 to 500 ppm.

 

[JamesW]

Re: SWG panel showed "check salt" light green, Check cell blinking red. Now normal.

You have a 180 minute cycle time. Your percentage is set to 20%. That means that it will produce for 36 minutes and then rest (not produce) for 144 minutes. The "Generating" light will still be on when resting.

After 180 minutes, the unit reverses polarity and begins a new cycle.

At 60 Fahrenheit, output is 20% of setting. If you're set to 20%, the unit will produce at 4% (0.20 x 0.20 = 0.04). That means that it will run for 7 minutes and rest for 173 minutes.

If you set the dial to 100%, it will produce for 180 minutes over 60 f and for 36 minutes at 60 f or below.

The unit stops at 50 f and says "Cold" on the display.

Average salt at 2700 is the problem. Just add salt. Turn off system for 24 hours to allow salt to mix in.

Note that salt readings from different sources are typically considered to be +/- about 400 ppm. So, you could get up to 800 ppm difference from different tests and it is considered to be ok.

 

[Newpoolcrazy]

Re: SWG panel showed "check salt" light green, Check cell blinking red. Now normal.

Thank you James and Peter as I never trust my instincts when I'm new at something. About to add a bag of salt. Thanks so much. I promise to answer questions on SWG as soon as I get it down myself.
This site is a Godsend! Love you guys!