Is my cell dying?

I just dumped the acid solution back into a small bucket, then added baking soda slowly until there was no more noticeable reaction. Then I added a good bit more, and later dumped it and washed it away. It foams up a good bit when you start adding the soda.

After cleaning up an accidental muriatic spill a month or two before I did the cell cleaning I was significantly less timid about things.

Maybe someone else will have some more scientific details to share on the calculation to neutralize muriatic with baking soda.

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Originally Posted by kelemvor

I just dumped the acid solution back into a small bucket, then added baking soda slowly until there was no more noticeable reaction. Then I added a good bit more, and later dumped it and washed it away. It foams up a good bit when you start adding the soda.

After cleaning up an accidental muriatic spill a month or two before I did the cell cleaning I was significantly less timid about things.

Maybe someone else will have some more scientific details to share on the calculation to neutralize muriatic with baking soda.

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Do you have a general idea of how much baking soda you use? A few cups? Many cups?

Memory's a little fuzzy since it was last fall, but I think it was about 2 lbs (1/2 of one of the "large" boxes of arm and hammer). Since I had that acid spill I keep several boxes on hand at home "just in case".

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Originally Posted by kelemvor

Memory's a little fuzzy since it was last fall, but I think it was about 2 lbs (1/2 of one of the "large" boxes of arm and hammer). Since I had that acid spill I keep several boxes on hand at home "just in case".

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Thanks. I might give that a try the first time and see how it goes.

Like you, I don't want to put the calcium back into the pool, but like was mentioned, it's probably an very insignificant amount. At least I know my options now.

Forgive me but that seems like a lot of trouble for so little CH compared to what is in the pool. 400 ppm CH in a 20 k pool is over 66 lbs. The amount on the cell is probably less than a couple of grams. Close to a 15000:1 ratio. Fill water probably adds more than that in a day.

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Originally Posted by mas985

Forgive me but that seems like a lot of trouble for so little CH compared to what is in the pool. 400 ppm CH in a 20 k pool is over 66 lbs. The amount on the cell is probably less than a couple of grams. Close to a 15000:1 ratio. Fill water probably adds more than that in a day.

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A couple grams is all? Put that way it does seem that putting it in the pool is the easiest thing to do without any real consequence.

I greatly appreciate y'all sharing your experience using both methods. :)

Agreed. I guess I didn't consider how little would be on the cell. Thanks for the tip, mas985.

UPDATE

I cleaned the cell today with the acid solution as recommended (4 parts water, 1 part muriatic acid: 4 cups water and 1 cup acid turned out to be just about the right amount to fill the T 15 cell). There didn't seem to be much bubbling, so I'm guessing there really wasn't much calcium on the cell plates. I checked the controller readings after reinstalling the cell and didn't notice anything different. I'll keep any eye on CL level to see if the cell is working more effectively or not (based on the unchanged controller readings, I suspect not).

I'll post an update once I see if the cell's efficiency has changed or not.

Thanks for all the feedback and help.

PS - Btw, I just dumped the used acid solution back into the pool. ;)

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Originally Posted by JimK

Update...

As I mentioned yesterday, I increased the SWCG to 65%. I tested again this evening and the CL level increased by .5 ppm. So the cell is working, although I'm having to set it at a higher level than when it was new. I turned it down slightly to 63% to see if CL levels off.....

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At 63%, CL was still increasing, so yesterday I dropped it to 55%. It's apparent the cell is still working. Hopefully it won't give out any time soon.

One other thought. There are many "events" which can create excess chlorine demand such as pollen or even not killing all the algae after opening. So that could have accounted for the lower FC levels.