SWG and cold weather

[CanuckPool]

Well the cooler weather is here and my pool temp is around 59 degrees. My SWG Pentair IC20 has turned itself off (under 59) to protect the cells from premature wear. I dont want to turn on the heat unnecessarily just to keep the SWG working. I guess my only option is to manually bleach until I close the pool. Is there anyone that experiences the same situation with their SWG? also, I am in canada, we sometimes experience long cold winters, should I disconnect the SWG and bring it in for the winter, or its it ok to leave outside?

[Poolsean]

You should be able to increase the salt to the highest level of their recommend range to compensate for the colder water temps. This may not work in all cases, but should help out some, before the temps fall way too low.
The reason for shutdown is to protect the cell.

[tphaggerty]

Most SWG's shut off when the water temp falls below a certain level, doesn't matter what the salt level is (my Aquarite manual says 55).

As for what to do for winter, the cell should have unions at both ends. I take everything in for the winter here in NY (fillter housing and pump go in the outside shed; filter grids, SWG cell and filter valve go in the basement). All of the electronics stay outside in there weather proof (I hope) boxes.

[Poolsean]

Think about it...if the system does not have a specific temperature sensor, how does it know what the temperature is? Well, MOST salt systems rely on what the system is putting out as amps and volts. Amps and Volts are largely dependent on the Salt Level, Cell Condition (worn out or scaled), or water temperature. These three parameters determine the conductivity level in the water. If water temperatures fall, increasing salt will compensate. Again, keep within the recommended salt range. You are correct though, most systems do shut off when it gets too cold, or more correctly, when conductivityq reduces.

[mas985]

I know that from my experience last year, once the water dropped to below 60 degrees there is very little chance of algae so I dropped my chlorine level to < 0.5 ppm all winter (no freezing here) without any algae growth. So if you can't use your SWG, then just keep a low residual with liquid chlorine or a floater.

[tphaggerty]

Well, since my Aquarite tells me what the pool temp is when it is running, I would assume that it DOES have a temp sensor. Whether is shuts off because of temp or because of conductivity, I don't know, but I'm just passing on what is in the manual.