CompuPool CPSC36 salt cell melted or burned

[Jodester]

I have a CompuPool CPSC36 operating with my 25,000 inground vinyl pool. It was installed about August 30 of last summer, and we closed the pool in early October. We reopened around June 1 this year. Since installation, we've been getting wacky temperature readings (like 32 degrees Fahrenheit), and our digital salt readings on the Power Pack have been widely erratic (3100 ppm one day, 4200 ppm the next), but at least the unit seems to be producing chlorine, and our water chemistry this year has been very balanced (about 3800 ppm salt according to AquaChek strips; 2.5 free chlorine; 7.6 ph; 110 TA; 280 CH; 55 CYA while running the unit at 40%). Until now, all I was worried about was having too much salt in the pool due to me adding salt based on an inaccurate "add salt" indicator light, thus causing undue wear on my salt cell and perhaps damage to my gas heater.

A couple of weeks ago, we started noticing an odd burning smell near our pool equipment, but couldn't pinpoint it. About four days ago, the LCD screen on the Power Pack read "OVER CURRENT," which was not addressed anywhere in my manual. When I saw this message, I leaned over to get a closer look at my cell to see if anything revealed itself to me, and what do you know! That's where the burning smell was coming from! The rubber plug/cap was showing signs of melting, and there was brown discoloration all throughout the plastic housing. I'm posting links to photos of what the cell looks like when removed from the housing. I think you'll be shocked (no pun intended). What could be causing this? What kind of concern does this warrant? I have since turned off the unit and have been manually chlorinating the pool with liquid chlorine as a precaution.

Here are links to the photos:




-- Jody