Salt cell reading low output but cell itself looks clean

Started by tampapoolguy · · 2 replies
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#1
Got a customer's SWG throwing a low salt code even though I tested the water and salt's sitting right at 3200, right where it should be. Pulled the cell, no scale buildup, plates look fine, no calcium crust or anything, cleaned it anyway with the hose just to be safe. Put it back, still throwing the same code an hour later. Board is only two years old. Salt reading on the panel matches my handheld test so it's not a calibration thing as far as I can tell. Never seen a clean cell still throw a low salt code, seen plenty of scaled up ones do it. Anybody run into this before it turning out to be the cell itself dying even though it looks brand new inside, or should I be looking at wiring or the board first.

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#2
Agree with checking the wiring before condemning the cell, that's the part that gets skipped. Plates can look perfect and still have a bad connection right where the cable meets the cell union, that fitting corrodes from the inside where you can't see it and you get voltage drop that reads back as low output even though salt and calibration are dead on. In the trade we'd call that a high resistance connection, same idea as a lug going bad on an AC disconnect, looks fine outside, cooks itself where it's touching. Pull that cable end and check for green crud or a loose crimp before you write off a two year old board. If that's clean then yeah I'd start suspecting the cell's titanium coating is degrading internally even without visible scale, seen that a couple times, they just quietly lose output near end of life.

FN
#3
Frank's right about that union connection, that's exactly where I'd look next before touching the board, but I'd also pull the actual cell cable connector at the power center end too, not just the union side, get corrosion in either spot and you get the same low output code with a perfectly clean cell.