Aquarite displaying 'pcb' in display

Last night, I put 40 lbs of salt in my pool to help bring it up to recommended levels. (I was at 2500 ppm in a 13,500 gal pool).

I had inspected the cell over the weekend, while doing my bi-yearly filter maintenance, and did a spring cleaning on the cell (it had some minor build up).

The generator and display look fine last night. But this morning I go out to get a new salt reading and the LCD display is showing "pcb" and all the LEDs are lit up (Hi Salt, Lo Salt, Inspect Cell.. everything except Generating.)

I can deduce by my Dr. Watson-like acuities that there is something wrong with the PCB.

So, I need a Holmes to tell me where I'm wrong and what is really the problem (the Aquarite manual does not mention this as a possible LCD display readout.)

Maybe why it would have gone south so suddenly? I know that's kinda how hardware is, it just seems odd to me.

That and I'm exactly 2 months past the 3 year limit where they would have paid 100% of the parts, now they will now pro-rate the parts at 60% (I pay 60% of the cost of the part).

Mike, I'm not sure how 'elementary' this would be, but have you tried killing all power to the unit for a minute, maybe it just needs to reset. (I don't have my tech manual here at the house) If this doesn't work, call Goldline and ~MAYBE~ you'll get one of the techs that actually knows what they're doing (in my experience it's a 'crap shoot' :D ). Good luck with it, if you can find out the answer, please post it as I'm sure that others will someday have the same trouble.

Good suggestion. I'll try that tonight when I get home.

Thanks!

Well, the power reset changed the parameters.

The unit appears to be working.

The problem is before the original failure the salt reading was 2500 ppm. I added 40 lbs of salt which should have brought it near 3000 ppm.

After the power reset the salt reading is back down to 1600 ppm.

? ? ?

Tonight I am going to remove the cell and make sure it's not blocked somehow.

Tomorrow I'm going to try to get a water sample to my builder's pool store and get them to test the salt and see if it really is 1600 ppm. If it is, I'll start adding salt again. Maybe the unit was going flakey, giving me erroneous readings before the failure.

If it's not 1600, if it's in the 3000 range, then I guess I'll let them service the unit on Friday.

Get yourself a taylor K-1766 salt test kit. It is a very simple test and you will know exactly what your salt level is. I had to manually calibrate my PoolPilot so it would match my results.

Donnie

mike, have you used the diagnostic button? push #5 should show you instant salinity - the unit has to be generating for a number to show. If you get ~ -3000 on the instant you can slave that number to the main display by turning the switch to SUPER and back to AUTO.

Quote:

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when you push the little black "diagnostic" button next to the display - it will show you (by push #):
1. Water temp
2. Cell voltage
3. Cell current
4. Desired % output
5. Instant salinity (with a "-" sign) (salt ppm)
6. Which unit you have
7. Which software revision yours has.

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The units are supposed (!) to show 2600 as default - but I've seen some that show 1600 (the same reading you're getting... hmmm?). Try the diagnostic tonight, it may save you a $ervice call - we know that something happened to the computer, this may be a little one time side effect :) (another sign that the 1600 isn't a 'true' reading is that you say that the unit 'appears to be working'- if the unit actually thought that the salt was 1600, the low salt light would be on and the unit wouldn't generate)

I'll try to find that Taylor kit for salt.. sounds like a good one to have if you have a SWG.

I'll also try the diag button to see what's what.

Thanks for all the info and help!

Well, the Aquarite seems to be feeling much better.
When I got home this afternoon, I checked the system and the readout was 2800 ppm, which is close to what I assumed it would be.

The diagnostic button revealed the instant salinity to be 2900, pretty close.

I checked Chlorine levels and I was at about 4 to 5 ppm, so I'm at least generating CL.

I checked CYA and I'm out, so I need to up the CYA, bump up the CL and hopefully I'll be set for the season.

Calling the service co tomorrow and canceling the service call, at least until it fails again.

Thanks for all the help!

Mike, glad to hear things have sorted themselves out without a $ervice call! If you have any more problems, ask us and we'll do what we can for you!

Yup. Things look much better. Still running this morning. Holding at 2800 ppm.

Called the service co and canceled the call.

Thanks for all the advice!