Salt cell reading low but cell itself tested fine at the store

Started by tampapoolguy · · 5 replies
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#1
Got a customer's Aqua Rite showing low salt output warning but I pulled the cell, cleaned it, no scale buildup at all, tested clean. Salt level checked out around 3200 on my meter which is in range. Board is maybe five years old. Swapped it to another pad temporarily and it ran fine there so it's not the cell itself.

So now I'm chasing wiring or the board itself and this is where it gets old fast, seen it a hundred times where it ends up being a corroded connector right at the union fitting nobody ever looks at. Anybody dealt with a board reading phantom low salt when everything else checks out clean. Not trying to throw a whole new system at this if it's just a connection somewhere.

5 Replies

#2
Look, salt cells aren't my department but that flow switch or the cell's flow paddle sensor is worth a look before you go chasing the board, low output codes on those Aqua Rites can be a flow issue dressed up as a salt issue.

Since you already swapped the cell and it ran clean somewhere else, I'd be pulling that union at the cell housing and checking the cell cord connector for corrosion, those things sit in a wet environment for years and the pins get green even when everything downstream tests fine.
#3
No salt system here so take it for what it's worth, but dave's connector theory tracks with every other corrosion problem I've ever chased, the pad wiring always looks fine till you actually pull the connector apart and see green fuzz on the pins.
#4
Yeah pull that cell cord connector apart before anything else, dave's right on that, the pins corrode green even when the meter reads fine downstream. Had that exact thing on my own pad two summers ago, cell tested perfect, board tested perfect, turned out to be green fuzz right at the pigtail connector and a quick clean and dielectric grease fixed it for nothing.
#5
no salt cell here so i cant speak to the aqua rite side, but the pigtail corrosion thing rings a bell from when i was chasing a random pump trip a while back, turned out to be corrosion at a connector nobody thinks to check until everything else tests clean. dielectric grease after cleaning it up seems like the move if that ends up being it.
#6
Glad that pigtail theory panned out for you tampapoolguy, that's the kind of five minute fix that saves a customer a few hundred bucks on a board they didn't need.