Aqua Rite low salt reading when salt has been tested high

[DirtRider67]

Hi, i just had my turbo cell tested at my local pool store and it passed so the cell is in working order.
Whe i turn the SWG on, the green power light comes on and the generating light comes on for about 30 seconds then shuts off and the low salt light comes on. The salt was tested at 4000 ppm so i know it's not low. Anyone have an ideas?
also, my cya is only 50. do you think this could be the problem?
thanks

[kelemvor]

When I bought my house the control panel on my aqua rite system was bad. The lights on the panel flashed check cell and low salt if memory serves. The cause in this case was that a component on the control panel had been burned up (cap or something, I can't remember).

To check for that, turn off the breaker supplying power to the system, remove the metal cover on the front of the control panel and look for black burned marks near the top right of the board. It was very obvious when I saw it. If that's the problem you can order a replacement control board, or if you're handy with electronics (soldering and the like) you can repair it for probably less than 10 bucks.

Also, if you dig up Hayward's telephone number they'll run you through taking some diagnostic readings from the display. In my case they correctly identified it as "bad control board" based on these readings - although I didn't believe them until I popped the panel open and saw the burned parts myself.


On a side note, I think the upper limit for my aquarite system is like 3400ppm. It's possible your salt level is just too high. Did you test that salt level with strips or did you have the store test it with an electronic meter. Believe it or not, strips are the way to go with this particular test.

[DirtRider67]

Thanks for the input kelemvor. I did read an article about the circuit board having problems with a varisitor. I checked mine and it doesn't appear to be burnt up but i ordered one anyway and will replace it as soon as i can.

I had the salt checked at a pool store with the electronic salt checker so not sure how accurate it is. I ordered some test stripes and should be here next week. My digital display is damaged from the sun so i can't read anything on it. I will be ordering one of those soon as well.

thanks