pentair salt cell

[bradc344]

hi, just wondering why my salt cell keeps building calcium, I just changed my water and the ch is around 250/275 and the water is 5 month old, I have to clean the cell once a week or it wont work.
The pool store sells some stuff that is suppose to keep it clean for 4 to 6 month not sure on that one, I also us beautec once a month . Any ideas suggestions

[waterbear]

how high do you let yor pH rise?
What is your TA?
What is your CYA?
What is the cell output?
A full set of test resutsl would be helpful.

[bradc344]

waterbear

The ph is 7.5
the ta is 120
cya is 80
I put in acid about very 3 days to keep the ph in range target is 7.5/7.6

[waterbear]

waterbear


the ta is 120

Get the TA down to about 70 ppm.
How big is your pool ?
What is your cell output percentage?

[bradc344]

waterbear, my pool is 12,000 gallon, my salt cell output is at 48% right that is were I run it during the summer then I turn it down during the winter months we located south of phoenix az thanks
during the winter it is sit at 10%

[PoolDoc]

[QUOTE=bradc344;87017]The pool store sells some stuff that is suppose to keep it clean for 4 to 6 month not sure on that one, I also us beautec once a month./QUOTE]

Hadn't heard of Beautec or of the company, McGrayel, before. Now I have . . . and I'm not impressed. It seems to me to be more of the same ol chemical rigmarole -- lots of sales, not so much substance.

I can't actually tell about the Beautec. They've worked over the product data and MSDS very carefully to avoid 'leaking' any ingredient info. Maybe it actually works. They claim it does. However, I can find absolutely no supporting evidence or studies or trials that indicated it does ANYTHING except move money from your wallet to your dealers. It's apparently been around for years, and if it worked as well as they claim, I'd expect it to be sold everywhere. They write "Beautec's® synertec technology is the first super-sequesterant product ever to provide total protection against all metal staining and scale forming minerals during the new pool curing period". But unfortunately, neither of the key words in that sentence ("synertec" and "super-sequesterant") appear in any dictionary I can find. As far as Google knows, the only time the phrase, "super-sequestrant", appears anywhere in the entire world, is on McGrayel's website. The other word "synertec" does appear elsewhere . . . as a part of various business names or game player user IDs. This mean those words mean whatever McGrayel want them to mean -- they may mean something, or they may mean nothing -- only McGrayel knows. But, they sure SOUND impressive, don't they?

On the other hand, 3 of their products -- AlgaeTec, PoolTec, & SpaTec -- are all just 30% poly-quat, a material we do recommend on a limited basis. But, they claims they make!!

1. "Pooltec® kills green and yellow algae plus black fungi (also known as black algae), other products are less effective . . . they do not work with chlorine."
2. "Pooltec® synergizes with chlorine to improve effectiveness and reduce usage, other products typically increase chlorine use and create a chlorine demand."
3. "Pooltec Water Treatment is a multitask product that kills / prevents all types of algae growth, ultra clarifies water, and is super chlorine booster for both chlorine and salt pools."
4. "+Increases chlorine effectiveness 300% - 600%."

Starting with #1: This statement, as written, is simply untrue if "other products" means "other algaecides". Many listed 'algeacide' products ARE chlorine . . . and of course, they work with chlorine. (This is another kind of pool company deception, but that has nothing to do with McGrayel.). However, there are basically 3 non-chlorine algaecides commonly used today: copper, linear quats, and polyquat. Polyquat is what McGrayel is selling. BOTH polyquats and linear quats USE UP CHLORINE; neither are fully stable in the presence of chlorine; but BOTH can be used to kill algae in the presence of low chlorine; when added to water with low maintained levels of chlorine BOTH will result in great algae kill-off than the chlorine alone would. Polyquat is better -- but it's similar in its effects. Polyquat does not foam, like linear quats, and is not irritating like linear quats -- but those are different issues. Copper works perfectly well with low levels of chlorine, and copper plus low chlorine WILL kill more algae than low chlorine alone. Of course, copper stains pools and turns hair green, but again, those aren't issues McGrayel addresses.

(Of course, since it's not exactly defined, maybe McGrayel means, by "other products", "other products, like dish soap and motor oil". In that case, it's true, since neither dish soap nor motor oil are effective algaecides, or work with chlorine.)

#2: In general, we've seen no evidence that polyquat improves chlorine "effectiveness". Buckman Labs, who makes polyquat, released some reports years ago, that showed that some bacteria were killed faster with chlorine + polyquat, than with chlorine alone. However, this is probably ALSO true with respect to linear quats. And BOTH polyquat and linear quats DO create a chlorine demand. The polyquat demand is so noticeable that we routinely warn people about it!

#3: Polyquat is a multi-task product: it is ALSO a good clarifier, and Buckman used to sell it for that purpose. But, the chlorine booster part of that statement is, pretty shakey.

#4: We've seen ZERO evidence of this.

So, if I judge the effectiveness of "BeauTec" by the claims I can judge for their polyquat product, then I'd have to say that those claims are either exaggerated, or untrue.

I don't know what OTHER product (is it "StainTec"?) the pool store is selling you, but I'd bet it's just as effective as "Beautec" . . . and considering how effective the Beautec has proved to be in your pool, my recommendation is STOP USING THEM BOTH!

On to the SWCG . . .

What make and model is it? Does it reverse polarity to self-clean the cells? If the self-cleaning function is missing or broken, you will have problems.

Do all these things:

1. Stop using the goop.
2. For now, lower your pH to ~7.2
3. Tell us what test kit you are using. If it is NOT a Taylor K-2005 or a Taylor K-2006, get a Taylor K-2006 (links to Amazon in my sig -- but you can order wherever you like). Test strips are NOT accurate enough to trust.
4. Tell us the make and model of your SWCG.
5. Answer Waterbear's questions.

[bradc344]

thanks for the excellent reply, I will lower the ph to 7.2 , I have taylor k- 2006 the salt cell is a pentair intellichlor ic40 , the cell output is at 48% right now we are getting some high temps lately so I have turned it up and it will stay at 48% for the rest of the summer keeping the chlorine around 3 . It does reverse polarity not sure how to check to see if it is working, Im going to get the manual out and read it tonight thanks again Brad

[PoolDoc]

I will caution that the IC40's aren't lasting as long as they were expected to; Pentair dropped the warranty as a result. (I've got 4 installed on a 200K gallon customer pool).