Salt water generator

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lisaishere

Salt water generator

Postby lisaishere » Sat 26 Jul, 2014 13:17

Having a very hard time keeping chlorine levels up in pool. Could the swg be bad or is it most likely chemical issues??


TSH Tech

Salt water generator

Postby TSH Tech » Sun 27 Jul, 2014 21:11

Regarding salt water chlorine generators, there could be several items out of alignment if you are having difficulties maintaining chlorine levels.

When troubleshooting salt gens, it's best to start with the simplest, least expensive first, then work your way up to the most difficult, pricey items.

1) Check ALL of your chemical levels to ensure they are at the right balance. Take a clean container to a pool store and have them test for everything. Let them know you have a salt generator, as salt gens are finicky about perfect balanced pool water.
Cl, Ph, Cyn. , Total Alkalinity, Acid, Water Hardness/Calcium, Phosphates, etc..

2) How's your salt level? Need to add a few more bags? Test the salt level.

3) Salt generators have a life span of a halogen light bulb, check the life time frame, ensure they are cleaned prior to each pool season. One of their biggest problems is they develop calcium on the plates and that reduces their ability to produce chlorine. The quote-unquote "self cleaning" salt gen feature is nothing more than reversing the polarity on the metal plates, nonetheless, in my experience, I've seen salt gens with a light film of calcium on the plates. They need to be acid cleaned.

4) Did the salt gen fail completely? Depending on the model, as there are many out there on the market, an error message on the display typically indicates that a component has failed and needs to be replaced.

These are four basic items to check that will help you get pointed in the right direction to get to the core of the problem so you can solve it and enjoy your pool.

Hope this helps!
DIYpool
I'm new here
I'm new here
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat 05 Mar, 2016 17:48
My Pool: Inground, 25,0000 gallons, Saltwater Chlorine Generation, Hayward, Pebbletec

Re: Salt water generator

Postby DIYpool » Sat 05 Mar, 2016 18:03

I discovered today that sulfuric acid didn't do much of anything to clean the calcium off my chlorine generator plates. Hydrochloric acid however really worked great!

For both solutions I used 2 parts water and 1 part acid - but you may want to use 3 parts water and 1 part acid first to see if that cleans off the calcium scale. I used the cleaning stand that basically plugs up one end of the chlorine generator so overall it only holds about 40 ounces of liquid. Let is sit and bubble for 10 minutes, rinse and repeat if you have thick scale.

This saved me $300+ since my cell wasn't generating any chlorine. Do this cleaning once every 90 days and you should be fine.

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