What Does Flow Switch Do?

[thomearl]

Can someone clarify what the flow switch does exactly? In addition to letting the system know that water is flowing thru the pipes, does it also sense how much salt is in the water? I believe I've read that in some other threads. If this is not the case, what part of a Hayward system measures the salt in the water? Thanks!

 

[ping]

Flow switches determine if there is enough water flowing through the cell to prevent gas building up inside the cell.

For the salinity each system uses their own design to measure the salinity. JamesW has written about this here, How salt systems determine salinity..

 

[ajw22]

Flow switch in the Aquarite only uses water flow through cell to turn cell on or off.

Salinity is calculated by the control box based on the cells power usage.

 

[thomearl]

Ok great, thanks for the replies. Looks like I don't need to replace the flow switch then. Need to look for some other reason why my system is telling me the salt is extremely low.

 

[ajw22]

Post the diagnostic readings from your cell.

What cell do you have and how old is it?

Have you checked the cell for scale?

Low salt reading is often an indicator of the cell failing.

 

[thomearl]

Sorry, got busy with other stuff for a moment. Here are my cell readings:

+27.07V, +3.82A, 1800 PPM
-27.39V, -3.41A, 1600 PPM

The cell is less than 8 months old, it's a Hayward T-15.
I checked it for scale yesterday. There was some, so ended up cleaning with Muriatic.
Nothing changed after, still not producing chlorine and system is saying salt is extremely low. It's not, I have about 3100 PPM using the drop test.
Cell worked for about 4 months, and I've been putting in chlorine manually over the winter.
Time to make use of my warranty?

 

[JamesW]

If you're sure about the actual salinity, then I would recommend a warranty claim.