Why is my Salt Water System Not Producing Any Chlorine? Possible Causes and Solutions

So, you have a Salt Water Pool but you noticed that the water is cloudy and that there is no chlorine in the water after you test it. The whole reason you invested in a Salt Water System or also known as Salt Water Generator (SWG) was to avoid this happening in the first place. I will touch on a few reason here why this might be the case.

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 system need at least 3000 ppm of salt in the water except for the Hayward Aqua Rite which can operate with as little as 2600 ppm. So, the first step is to check the pools Salinity level or salt level of the pool with either test strips or a good digital salinity meter. Once you establish that there is enough salt in the pool you can move on to the next step if the system is still not producing chlorine.

Note that the salt system will only produce chlorine when the pool is running – i.e. the pool pump is on. Sounds like a no brainer but I wanted to get that one out of the way. One 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 pools 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.

If you have a Variable Speed pump make sure you are running it at least at 1800 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. So, the pool run time is a major factor in the SWG chlorine output 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 lbs. 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 dial it down if the pool has too much chlorine in it week to week.

Then of course the salt system might not be producing chlorine because the salt cell is dirty. Calcium build-up will stop the 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. A 6-part water 1-part acid mix is effective. Once the cell is clean it should start to produce chlorine again.

Other causes would be the salt cell is getting old and not producing anymore. If your salt cell is over 4 years old this may be a possibility. Also, if the system is very old the power unit or control board could be bad. As the cell ages it loses the ability to produce chlorine.

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 30-80 ppm in the water.

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