Hi all- bought a house with a pool about a year ago. Hayward SWG control box, with a “Blue Works” cell, T-3 equivalent. Worked fine the rest of the season last year. After opening the pool this spring, I was having issues with it, and after doing a bunch of online research came to the conclusion that the blue works cell had gone bad. So I replaced it with a different generic T3 equivalent from the Salt Pool Store online. I did this about five weeks ago and I’ve had intermittent problems with that cell the entire time. I went through and checked all of the diagnostic screens and verified that the voltage and the amperage numbers look right. I Made sure that my Salt content is right. I’m averaging somewhere between 3200-3500 reading on the Salt equipment, and independent testing is right at about the 3400 range. It will work fine but then after 24 to 48 hours, I will come out and open the box to see the “inspect cell” and “low salt” lights either lit up solid or flashing. When I go through the diagnostic screen at that point, the instantaneous assault reading is zero. So I can turn the generator off and then back to auto and everything will work great for 24 to 48 hours. The instantaneous reading will read correctly, The “inspect cell” and “low salt” lights will go away, and my free chlorine levels will rise in the pool. I took the Cell out and inspected it and they didn’t seem to be anything wrong with it at all. It’s had almost no buildup. I cleaned it anyway, and I was sort of optimistic because this last time it worked for a little more than 48 hours, but just checked it again this morning and had the same warning lights. is it more likely that I have a bad Salt cell or something wrong with the actual control box or something else?
SWG randomly stops working
- Thread starter atropine
- Start date
- May 3, 2014
- 62,726
- Pool Size
- 6000
- Surface
- Fiberglass
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
Your signature shows an Intellitouch with IC60 SWCG. I assume that is not correct. Please modify your signature.
Is the Aquarite panel staying powered on when the pump goes off?
Is the Aquarite panel staying powered on when the pump goes off?
- May 3, 2014
- 62,726
- Pool Size
- 6000
- Surface
- Fiberglass
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
The SWCG panel should turn off when the pump is not running. With automation, the power to the SWCG should be run from the Load side of the filter/pump relay.
Also check the flow switch for the Aquarite. Be sure it is showing NO FLOW when the pump is off.
Also check the flow switch for the Aquarite. Be sure it is showing NO FLOW when the pump is off.
When I came down this morning, the power was still on to the panel and the pump was not yet running. The no flow light was not lit up. Just the low salt and inspect cell lights. I didn’t touch anything on the panel and I started the pump and watched it for 10 minutes and that did not trip anything at the panel to change. So I turned the switch on the generator off and then back onto auto and everything went to looking like it was operating properly.
I just left town for a week, but I will start looking into those names when I get back. That really does make me suspicious about a wiring issue related to the flow. When I bought the house, the previous owners had just had the pump running 24 hours a day via the control menu directly on the pump. It has been running at a lower RPM but running 24 hours a day because they were having trouble with the automation, and kept thinking it was some sort of a control cable problem. After researching it, I discovered that the original pool installers had wired up a Jandy control box to a Pentair pump with the wrong colored wires in the wrong location on the cable coming to the control panel. After fixing that I have been able to run the pump via the phone app as it was intended. But I’ll have to inspect the wiring going from the control box to the saltwater generator and verify the no flow light on the panel.
I just left town for a week, but I will start looking into those names when I get back. That really does make me suspicious about a wiring issue related to the flow. When I bought the house, the previous owners had just had the pump running 24 hours a day via the control menu directly on the pump. It has been running at a lower RPM but running 24 hours a day because they were having trouble with the automation, and kept thinking it was some sort of a control cable problem. After researching it, I discovered that the original pool installers had wired up a Jandy control box to a Pentair pump with the wrong colored wires in the wrong location on the cable coming to the control panel. After fixing that I have been able to run the pump via the phone app as it was intended. But I’ll have to inspect the wiring going from the control box to the saltwater generator and verify the no flow light on the panel.
- May 3, 2014
- 62,726
- Pool Size
- 6000
- Surface
- Fiberglass
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
The issue with the panel on and not indicating no flow, with the pump off, is that the cell generates chlorine and hydrogen gas until it fails off showing those warning lights. That gas can collect and cause an explosion. So please get this fixed, soon.
Ok- I’m back home now. I had the pump running 24/7 while I was gone and the SWG doesn’t seem to have randomly stopped again. So I removed the panels faceplates from both units. It appears the power to the SWG is coming directly from the breaker box. In this first photo, the blue and white wires coming into the SWG on the lower left side are what I believe to be the hot/neutral wires to the SWG. Those wires route thru the AquaRite control box but only combine with the input wires to the AquaRite transformer. They then continue out of that box and over to the power breaker box.
Attachments
So if I need to power the SWG from the load side of the filter pump relay, I’m guessing it is the black relay box furthest to the right in this photo? this is the relay that also has the small black/red wires running to the filter pump-labeled connection on the controller board. Is it just as simple and moving the blue power wire to the SWG to the connector below the red wire on that relay, and the neutral SWG power wire to the connector under the black wire on the relay?
Attachments
That last relay has nothing connected to it. Follow the wire from the pump and see which relay controls that and double it up there in that relay if the pump is hooked up correctly.
Ok- I think I got it figured out. The pump was wired directly to the 220V breaker, and the control wire from the AquaLink to the pump was controlled by the red/black wires from the farthest right relay.
I removed the blue 120v power wire from the SWG, hooked it to the load side of that relay, and hooked the line side of the wire that was previously connected to that blue wire to the line side of the relay. Now my SWG is only receiving 120v power when the filter pump is on. This of course means the display panels goes empty when the pump is off. When the pump kicks on it makes kind of a loud “pop” noise at the SWG as the SWG powers up- I’m assuming that is normal? When it powers up, the “no flow” light is lit up for about 30-60 seconds as the pump is starting up. The. It goes off and the SWG appears to be working properly.
I removed the blue 120v power wire from the SWG, hooked it to the load side of that relay, and hooked the line side of the wire that was previously connected to that blue wire to the line side of the relay. Now my SWG is only receiving 120v power when the filter pump is on. This of course means the display panels goes empty when the pump is off. When the pump kicks on it makes kind of a loud “pop” noise at the SWG as the SWG powers up- I’m assuming that is normal? When it powers up, the “no flow” light is lit up for about 30-60 seconds as the pump is starting up. The. It goes off and the SWG appears to be working properly.
So…. Next question is this: is there a way to have an automated remote controller for my SWG so I can adjust the percentage generation from my phone? I am out of town a lot and can test my chlorine levels via a remote app (water guru). Would be nice to be able to make remote adjustments to the SWG.
I travel out of town a lot and would like to add the ability to control my SWG percentage output from my phone. I have tried searching on Hayward’s website but I’m still unsure if this is possible without completely replacing my control box. I have a Hayward AquaLink controller with a Hayward AquaRite SWG and an iAquaLink remote interface/app for phone control. I just bought this house a year ago and am trying to get everything completely figured out…
Attachments
- May 3, 2014
- 62,726
- Pool Size
- 6000
- Surface
- Fiberglass
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
Which Hayward automation do you have? Pro Logic, Omni Logic, etc. Most of those I thought came with the Aquarite transformer and control preinstalled. Let's ask someone with more Hayward automation knowledge @1poolman1
- May 3, 2014
- 62,726
- Pool Size
- 6000
- Surface
- Fiberglass
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
- Jul 21, 2013
- 65,484
- Pool Size
- 35000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
It will. Read Jandy Aqualink RS - Further Reading
You need to use the Chlorinator Translator in the communication cable between the Jandy Aqualink® RS and the Hayward®/GoldLine chlorinator to enable them to communicate with each other and prevent the lockout. Do not hook up the AquaRite to your iAqualink until the translator is in place for if you do, the iAqualink will lock out all SWCG even with the translator.
This allows the SWG generation % to be adjusted through the iAqualink app and separate SWG % set for the pool and spa modes.
