Unable to maintain salt level in pool.

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npcat13

Unable to maintain salt level in pool.

Postby npcat13 » Sat 05 May, 2018 18:18

I have a 15,000 gal fiberglass pool with a Jandy filter and aqua pure salt cell. Everything worked perfectly until last summer when we started having trouble maintaining an adequate salt level in the pool. We had to add about 40 lbs of salt every week or two whereas in previous years we had to add salt once or twice a season. We have the pool supply store stumped. The other parameters are fine including pH, total chlorine, alkalinity, conditioner, phosphates, metals etc. The water is clear and beautiful- just won’t hold the salt. Any ideas? Should I drain half of the water and try again?


Teapot
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Re: Unable to maintain salt level in pool.

Postby Teapot » Sun 06 May, 2018 11:44

Sorry npcat13, there is no chance of the salt disappearing. If there were you will be rich beyond your wildest dreams as you have found a way to desalinate water without a reverse osmosis unit.

Back to reality, how are you testing the salinity level, either you or your pool shop are not testing correctly?
Npcat13

Re: Unable to maintain salt level in pool.

Postby Npcat13 » Sun 06 May, 2018 12:14

The salt reads low on our PDA unit and at the store. In fact we did not trust the PDA reading so had it tested at two different pool stores. When we add salt we usually test a week or two later as the number drifts down by 100-200 every day. We add salt to get the number over 3000 then just watch as it drops. We are at a loss and our very experienced pool store owner has never seen this happen. If I knew why I could become rich as you say, but since I have no idea why this is happening, I’m out of luck. We are about to drain half the water since we can’t remedy the situation.
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Re: Unable to maintain salt level in pool.

Postby Denniswiseman » Sun 06 May, 2018 14:57

I agree with Teapot. If your salt level drifts down by 200/300 a day you must have a leak or excessive splashout
If you drain half the water you are reducing your salt content by 50% so it would be a complete waste of time
I would go for a completly different testing (Taylor K-1766) and see how that pans out
Teapot
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Location: UK

Re: Unable to maintain salt level in pool.

Postby Teapot » Sun 06 May, 2018 16:45

Sorry my computer glitched an I lost my last reply.
You need to have another test done on a different system, possibly a proper lab test that will also test for magnesium, iron, copper etc as this is very unusual I can only think something in the water is combining to make a different compound and that is affecting the test.
I.E. iron chloride, magnesium chloride, copper chloride, calcium chloride etc. In short I don't know exactly what the salinity test looks for without speaking to a test manufacturer but it could be being masked by a reaction with something in your water.

Maybe over loading a bucket of pool water with salt and testing that rather than possibly overloading your pool.
Certainly a strange one, please come back with any results as i haven't come across this before either.
npcat
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My Pool: 15,000 gal fiberglass pool with jandy filter and aqua pure salt cell.

Re: Unable to maintain salt level in pool.

Postby npcat » Wed 09 May, 2018 09:59

We have no leaks or excessive splash out. I was thinking the same thing about some sort of chemical reaction going on in the water which is the reason I was going to drain the water and start over. Thanks for your suggestions.
Teapot
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Re: Unable to maintain salt level in pool.

Postby Teapot » Wed 09 May, 2018 15:27

I forgot to ask, is your pool filled from municipal water or via a well?
npcat
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My Pool: 15,000 gal fiberglass pool with jandy filter and aqua pure salt cell.

Re: Unable to maintain salt level in pool.

Postby npcat » Thu 10 May, 2018 16:04

Municipal water.
Javanb
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Re: Unable to maintain salt level in pool.

Postby Javanb » Thu 24 Feb, 2022 14:26

I'm having a similar issue, I work as a pool service tech and I have one that is losing on avg 60 to 80lbs of salt a week. We have tested for leaks, replaced the cell, new filter, new multiple port. We can not figure it out at all. All other chems are perfect excluding phosphates that are high. We are in the midst of winter so definitely no splash out. Its frustrating because we have people that have been doing this for 20 years completely stumped.
Denniswiseman
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My Pool: 10k inground fibreglass, Telescopic Cover, Hayward Powerline pump, Quality filter with glass media, 27kw output heat pump, K-2006C test kit
Location: United Kingdom

Re: Unable to maintain salt level in pool.

Postby Denniswiseman » Fri 25 Feb, 2022 03:22

As previously stated something must be affecting your testing as salt doesn't disappear and if you are replacing 60-80lbs a week then it's definately overloaded with salt

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