Salt System Not Working

It’s a real downer when you take on a new account and they have a non-functioning salt system. The whole point of the SWG is to save effort on adding chlorine but many customers just flat out refuse to spend the $600-$1,000 on a new salt cell. The first order of business is to get them to purchase a new salt cell if that is the issue. But it may still have life and there are other reasons why the pool salt system is not producing any chlorine.

The salt level is a critical factor and if the salt level is too low in your pool the SWG will not be able to produce chlorine. Most systems need at least 3000 ppm of salt in the water except for the Hayward Aqua Rite and the Pentair iChlor which can operate with as little as 2600 ppm. They will not produce the full amount of chlorine at the lower salinity level but they will still function at a reduced output.

Another common mistake along these lines is that you are not running the pool long enough for the SWG to produce enough chlorine each day and that is why it is at zero when you test it. So, increase your pool's run time if that is the case. For example, if you have a 20,000-gallon pool and you run your pump for 3 hours a day, I can tell you that is not long enough to produce enough chlorine. Increase the pool run time to at least 12 to 14 hours a day to rule out the run time as the issue.

Next, if you have a Variable Speed pump make sure you are running it at least at 2000 RPM, preferably higher for a good part of the day. At the lower RPM, the SWG will need a longer run time to produce the same amount of chlorine as a standard one-speed pump running at the full 3450 RPM. A pool with a VS pump needs to have the proper RPM as well as the proper run time each day. At 2600 RPM you will need to run the pool a lot longer to produce chlorine each day.
Another issue may be that the salt cell output is set too low for it to generate enough chlorine each day. This is one thing that I often see on my route. Some salt systems will be set at 40% output and the pool will not have chlorine week to week. The manufacturer has an output chart in the manual and this chart is usually for the salt system set at 100% production running 24 hours a day. So, if the manual says your cell will produce 1 lb. of chlorine set at 100% running 24 hours a day if you set the output to 50% and run it 24 hours it will produce ½ lbs. of chlorine. Then set at 50% output and run only for 12 hours per day will give you ¼ lbs. of chlorine each day. So I always suggest starting your cell output at 100% and then dialing it down if the pool has too much chlorine in it week to week.

Check to see if the salt cell has any calcium buildup on it. Calcium build-up will stop chlorine production right away. As the plates in the cell cake up with calcium, you will usually see a warning light on your system indicating that the cell is dirty. Simply take it off and clean it with a mixture of Muriatic Acid and water.

And last it could be as simple as not having the right amount of Conditioner in the water and the Sun is just burning off the chlorine each day. You should have a Conditioner or CYA level of 80 ppm in the water. Too little Conditioner in the pool will cause the chlorine to burn off rapidly and production cannot keep up with the amount being destroyed by the sun.
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