Intellichlor IC 40 SWG

The Intellichlor SWG by Pentair is a piece of garbage. You may have seen my posts regarding the problems I've had with it. Now my pool builder is telling me that the Pentair Rep says the manual is wrong and that the salt level has to be at least 3400 for the unit to even generate chlorine. My problem with that excuse is that the salt levels are also printed by the lights on the unit itself:

GOOD - If this light is lit the salt level is 3900-2900 and is working properly.
ADD - If this light is on the salt level is between 2900-2500 and is working properly but you should add more salt.
LOW - If this light is on the unit has turned itself off, salt is below 2500, no chlorine is being produced.

Well my salt level is testing at 3600 now. It was at about 3100 for the last week. SWG piece of junk still shows LOW red light, meaning it is doing nothing because the salt level is below 2500.

So now I need to wait another week, probably add more salt and bump it to 4000, at which time the SWG may or may not turn on and actually do it's job. How can Pentair sell a product that specifically says on the unit and in the manual that the unit will operate at any salt level above 2500, yet now the rep says it has to be at least 3400?

This is also the second unit I've had. The first one didn't work either. Does anyone have an Intellichlor SWG that actually works???

I just got up and running a few days ago with mine. I have yet to get enough CL to be generated that shows up in my test. I set it to 60% intially per the instructions and only detect a very light pink color in the Taylor CL test. I just bumped it up last night to run at 100% and will test again tonight.

Did you have it calibrated yet? My PB hasn't done this yet but says he will since the factory calibration is usually way off according to him.

The word 'calibrated' has not come up in our discussions so I don't know. I'll ask. What is your salt level? What lights are lit on your unit?

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Originally Posted by Jeffski

The word 'calibrated' has not come up in our discussions so I don't know. I'll ask. What is your salt level? What lights are lit on your unit?

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All lights are on and solid green, not flashing green. I don't have a way to test for salt level yet so I can't tell if the good salt range indicator is accurate or not.

I have the little brother IC20 and am just in the process of starting up my pool this year, so I don't have it on yet. Last year I started out with my salt on the 2900-3100 border and it was green light... at the end of the summer my unit was shifting between ADD and GOOD... I added another bag of salt and it stayed GOOD for a week and went back to ADD and intermittent GOOD which told me I was probably still on the border. I ignored it as the temps went down below 60 which I think is where it turns off.

So to answer your question.. the unit does produce chlorine between the 2500-2900 range. The 3400 is probably the optimum level.

I will let you know how it does this weekend.

what is your pool temp... if it is below 60 I believe, it will give you the red light. If your temp is ok, and you are testing at over 3000ppm salt, and you still get red, then something is wrong with the unit, maybe its not getting enough power, or some connection is faulty.

Pool temp is 84. Heater is has been on for 3 weeks. Looking forward to that bill.:eek:

It has to be hooked up wrong, unless the SWG takes a week to realize the salt has jumped from 3100 to 3600. I don't know why it would take longer than a couple hours.

Nice surprise this morning though... the ADD light is on which means it is actually producing chlorine and working. The ADD light means the unit "thinks" the salt is between 2900-2500. It's testing at 3600.

I'll wait a couple more days, but I'm having the PB look at it before I add more salt. Unfortunately he hooked it up (and the first one) so I'm not sure how he'll be able to service his own mistake if he doesn't understand the problem. Oh well.

We just got the heater up and running and the temp is at 74, the SWG is on and its reading Good @60%. I am going to take some water in tomorrow to get some readings. The PB added 3 bags of salt so i am guessing between last year its at about 3300-3500 ppm. It almost sounds like a sensor is faulty on your unit... or the salt readings are incorrect.

Salt readings are consistent so unit must be faulty (or sensor, or something). PB is sending someone out, I'll report back.

Good news is that unit will occasionally jump to ADD, which means it starts working. Pool water has been great through all of this.

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Originally Posted by Jeffski

Pool temp is 84. Heater is has been on for 3 weeks. Looking forward to that bill.:eek:

It has to be hooked up wrong, unless the SWG takes a week to realize the salt has jumped from 3100 to 3600. I don't know why it would take longer than a couple hours.

Nice surprise this morning though... the ADD light is on which means it is actually producing chlorine and working. The ADD light means the unit "thinks" the salt is between 2900-2500. It's testing at 3600.

I'll wait a couple more days, but I'm having the PB look at it before I add more salt. Unfortunately he hooked it up (and the first one) so I'm not sure how he'll be able to service his own mistake if he doesn't understand the problem. Oh well.

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It's either a faulty unit or as I said before these units have been poorly calibrated.

I have one of these same units and am having the same problem. The thing has never correctly identified the water salinity. (Either this year or last.)

The pool didn't get completed until Augsust, and as it is a gunnite/plaster pool I waited a month to hook up the unit. Added salt to 3250 but the IC never came off of red. Can't rememger where the add started but I was into the 4000's (think around 4200) before the IC finally said I was at the minimum good reading. [And this was adding one back of salt, and then later a half bag, at a time and waiting to see if the unit would turn to green.] At that level you could taste the salt in the water, not as bad as the ocean but definitely reminiscent. Called Pentair and they recommended the PB calibrate the system, since under warranty they would send someone out if needed.

Somewhere last year someone got the directions from Pentair on how to set these units but he didn't post it. If anyone finds this info please pass it on as obviously it is needed. (Note: my PB at the end of last year said he'd just found out how to do it and said it had something to do with holding down both the more and less buttons for a period of time, or something like that.)

Found this on a google search

http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:...lnk&cd=1&gl=ca

Oh my gosh thank you so much!!!!! It worked. I'm so excited that I can quit worrying about this dumb thing.

The information here is unbelievable. Seriously, everything I know about pools I learned here. I bet I know more about pools (and now more about how to fix them!) in less than one year of pool ownership than my pool builder does.

Again, thank you CanuckPool!

PS Would you still have helped me if you knew I was a die-hard Red Wings fan? :D

Hey Jeffski, no problems, I am in my second year of pool ownership and am learning something new every day. All I can say is, thank god for the internet!!!

Hey, at least the Red Wings attempt to put together winning teams every year... unlike our lowly Make-Be-Leafs, 40 years and counting ugh...

Go anahiem!!!!!!!!!!