Will high salt kiill a SWG ? If so how fast ?

[Silver_2000]

PB put in over 4500 ppm salt when balancing after a refurb

I noticed it within a couple hours ...turned it off till the salt level was lower after drain and fill.

Its now about 3700 and the cell isnt complaining of high salt.

how long does it take to kill a cell ?

Ive had the cell running at 80% a few hours a day and the FC is barely 2

last year I ran it for the same time per day and had to turn the SWG down to 40%

I tested some water coming out of the return and it definately had more FC than the pool but not much
3.5 or 4 vs 2.5

 

[Jimrahbe]

S,

I really doubt that high salt will kill your cell

As an example, the cell I have will tell you it has high salt, but it does not shut off.

In general they all operate on the same principle, so if high salt was bad for your cell it should also be bad for my cell..

Since your FC value is somewhat of a moving target you really can't use one test to see how well the cell is working. And since the pool uses 2-4 ppm each day, it is hard to get an accurate reading during the day.

If you really want to determine how much chlorine your cell generates per hour, you will need to run two tests.

1. Just to make sure nothing is in your pool you need to run the OCLT with the SWCG off.. Here are the specific instruction... Pool School - Perform the Overnight FC Loss Test (OCLT)

2. Assuming you passed the OCLT... then you can do a "reverse" OCLT... After sunset, test your FC and record the results. Immediately start your SWCG running at say 50%... run for 12 hours (or more) and re-measure your FC before sunup. The increase in your FC level tells you how much FC your cell produced at 50% for x hours... you can use pool math to determine if the cell is producing the amount of chlorine that it was designed to produce. Not a perfect test but it should be close enough..

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[pooldv]

I doubt it too. My first fall with my SWG I didn't know that low temps caused false low salt warnings. So, Everytime the low salt light came on I add more until the light went off. Then suddenly the high salt light was on. High salt warning lights at 4500 ppm on my SWG and it was iron for a long time. I didn't have to add salt to my pool for a year or more. I am starting season 6 with the SWG now so I think it was fine.

 

[Silver_2000]

Well they replaced the flow / salt sensor on the SWG since it was dead...
I never approved that expense but thats another story / rant
The cell doesnt appear to be working. Its on more that 2x the duration it was last year at more than 2x the % and it cant even keep 1.5ppm in the pool.
And thats WITH a floating cholinator with 3 pucks in it. Im using the pucks since the CYA has gone down after they drained 30% of the water.

Last year I ran the SWG about 40-50% for about 4 hours a day
this year im running at 80% or 100% and for 10 hours a day ...

I also tested the water coming straight out of the fountain and compared it to the pool water and the FC was identical
That would mean to me that the cell isnt generating anything

Im thinking the cell is dead

 

[pooldv]

I would do an Overnight Chlorine Loss Test to make sure there isn't some algae growing first. Then you can run the SWG all night to see if it raises the FC overnight.

 

[FRR17]

Great question. I don't know the answer but does higher salt mean higher amperage output in the control board? I've heard that the salt generator is themselves are only designed for a certain number of operational hours. Perhaps someone knows more detail on higher salt and higher amperage versus impact to the life of the T cell.

 

[ping]

If the SWG is not working there should be some error code listed. If a Jandy cell has problems there will be an error code flashed on the display every so often.