Bumping salt cell percentage vs just running it longer each day

Started by Marcus Reed · · 2 replies
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#1
Been going back and forth on this one. My AquaRite's been holding FC fine at 60 percent output for a 5 hour run, but with the heat lately I'm chasing FC loss and have two options, bump the cell to say 80 percent for the same runtime, or leave it at 60 and add another hour or two on the VS pump schedule. Higher percentage output supposedly wears the plates faster since it's basically running harder, but longer runtime costs more kWh even at low gpm. Cell replacement isn't cheap so I'd rather eat a little electric cost if it actually extends plate life. Anyone tracked amp draw or plate wear across both approaches, or is this splitting hairs and it evens out either way.

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#2
no salt system here so cant speak to the plate wear side of it, but the "longer runtime vs harder push" thing reminds me of when i was fighting FC loss in the heat with liquid chlorine, i tried dumping more in at once instead of just dosing twice a day and it burned off just as fast, spreading it out actually held better than going harder in one shot. might be worth asking if extending the runtime even by an hour keeps the cell in a gentler zone longer instead of maxing it out, since heat's already doing half the work burning your FC off regardless of how it's generated.
#3
No salt cell here so I can't speak to plate wear directly, but before anyone can really answer this — what's your CYA sitting at right now. If it's crept up over the season that heat-driven FC loss might be a CYA problem wearing a salt cell costume, and neither bumping percentage nor adding runtime fixes that, you'd just be burning more electric or more plates chasing the same leak. Mine's parked at 45 and I can tell you a jump from there to say 70 changes how much FC actually needs to be in the water to do the same job. Worth testing that before you touch the AquaRite settings at all.