Pool Pilot SWG Electrical Contact Issue

[smallpooldad]

Firstly let me state that I am very happy with my Pool Pilot Total Digital SC-60. It is a great time saver and when I get busy I do not have to worry about whether or not I put WalMart’s Ultra Bleach in the pool or having to add acid. It works as promised. The larger SC-60 unit runs for 3 ½ hours in a 10,000 gal pool (energy is $0.305 a kilowatt here in Hawaii) and maintains a FC of 5 to 5.5 and pH of 7.4.

When I purchased the unit from the net I had it installed by a knowledgeable pool person whom I had never met- a friend of an electrician I know, they are few and far between in Honolulu. He did an excellent job and charged me very little for it, also very rare in Honolulu. Fortunately he had some but not a lot of experience with this unit calling it the “Cadillac” of SWGs. He really liked the units stating they did a good job at the pools he maintained.

He also stated that it is a little complicated, after using it I disagree, but I would agree the manual is poorly written with some poorly illustrated instructions on where to attach items and how often to service the ORP and PH sensors which I am now told is to clean them twice a week. He, as a pool person servicing pools, thought twice a week a little disturbing as he only visits them once a week. With a well maintained pool that is kept clean - once a week seems fine to me, although I do them twice a week and rethread the tape with new tape.

I digress, the main complaint I have with the unit is with the electrical contacts to the Tri-Sensor (not the unit itself), the tiny little one with the small pins they keep telling you to be careful with and not to bend or you will be some dollars out of luck replacing it, and the big plug electrical sensor to the salt generator tube with the three prongs. These two contact areas he warned me are prone to creating deposits and sure enough he was right, more so with the Tri-Sensor contact. They develop a blue-ish deposit which needs to be cleaned off with electrical contact spray cleaner, the quick drying type “QD”. I use the one from CRC available in most NAPA auto stores. ONLY DO THIS WITH THE POWER OFF.

If he had not warned me of this issue I might have spent a frustrating hour with their tech support. Especially with level one as I did when I first bought the unit until I sounded irritated enough to be reluctantly put through to their highest level, from where I may or may not have gotten the answer. I got the answers about the questions I had when I first bought it after 30 minutes of fighting through the “Guardians of Pool Pilot Knowledge” at level one. This has got to be some sort of psychological test of mental endurance designed and devised by the “Tech Support Politzei”. I know I’m being a little hard but not far from the mark.

Every four weeks or so the unit suddenly tells me that I need to add 83lbs or so of salt when two minutes ago it said everything was fine. Clean the contacts and all goes back to normal.

So I now add this cleaning routine every 3 weeks.

There is nothing about this in the manual.

Admittedly I live in Hawaii where the air is salty but this is true for many areas of the mainland United States of America, such as parts of Florida, I lived there as well. These contacts do not seem to be “Marine Grade” these seem to be design flaws, that need to be rectified when the unit is redesigned; as does the flimsy Tri-Sensor contact so that tiny pins are not an issue and one does not have to hang upside down to view exactly where they go. There should also be key guides on the side so they do not get bent and much larger gold-plated pins.

Let me be clear for this kind of money one expects to have contacts better made than an inexpensive import stereo player. Other electrical items at the pool have no such issue.

The other concerns are:

1) Is this deposit a corrosion of the contact itself? Such as one sees in alkaline battery lamps.

2) If so, am I expected to pay for the failure if the Tri-Sensor contact that erodes to the point where it will not work? As stated earlier the pool person noted this problem in other units. Or will Pool Pilot send out new better made replacement contacts, or at least a replacement upon failure without days or weeks of squabbling?

So Sean what do you think?

I do not know if anyone else has had this issue on the forum but for those of us in salty climates look out for it, and maybe in non-salty climates as well. My pool is located 1000 ft up and about 1 1/2 miles in from the ocean so it is not too salty; below 700 ft the air is far saltier. I know I lived below 12 years ago.

I would still recommend and re-buy the Pool Pilot despite these issues for what it does well, produce chlorine and maintain the acid level pH. No unit is perfect, however the reason I drive BMW and not Mercedes is that every problem was my problem at Mercedes (even under warranty) and that any tiny issue was always theirs at BMW. So guess who I went back to. Let us see where Pool Pilot sits on the issue.

If companies that sold outdoor products tested them in Hawaii, such as window fastners, they might have far less issues. Just a thought as our climate is really hard on metal, plastics and paint.

Finally if Pool Pilot deems this not their problem there might be a nice little market for those of you who are electrically inclined to produce better designed replacement parts. I am not electrically inclined to that degree.

Hope this helps fellow salty persons.

[Poolsean]

Firstly let me state that I am very happy with my Pool Pilot Total Digital SC-60. It is a great time saver and when I get busy I do not have to worry about whether or not I put WalMart’s Ultra Bleach in the pool or having to add acid. It works as promised. The larger SC-60 unit runs for 3 ½ hours in a 10,000 gal pool (energy is $0.305 a kilowatt here in Hawaii) and maintains a FC of 5 to 5.5 and pH of 7.4.

When I purchased the unit from the net I had it installed by a knowledgeable pool person whom I had never met- a friend of an electrician I know, they are few and far between in Honolulu. He did an excellent job and charged me very little for it, also very rare in Honolulu. Fortunately he had some but not a lot of experience with this unit calling it the “Cadillac” of SWGs. He really liked the units stating they did a good job at the pools he maintained.

He also stated that it is a little complicated, after using it I disagree, but I would agree the manual is poorly written with some poorly illustrated instructions on where to attach items and how often to service the ORP and PH sensors which I am now told is to clean them twice a week. He, as a pool person servicing pools, thought twice a week a little disturbing as he only visits them once a week. With a well maintained pool that is kept clean - once a week seems fine to me, although I do them twice a week and rethread the tape with new tape.

Poolsean - Service to the ORP or pH sensors are not a typical maintenance item. They usually remain functional and may only need cleaning if they start to stray off accuracy. Then they should be removed and cleaned.

I digress, the main complaint I have with the unit is with the electrical contacts to the Tri-Sensor (not the unit itself), the tiny little one with the small pins they keep telling you to be careful with and not to bend or you will be some dollars out of luck replacing it, and the big plug electrical sensor to the salt generator tube with the three prongs. These two contact areas he warned me are prone to creating deposits and sure enough he was right, more so with the Tri-Sensor contact. They develop a blue-ish deposit which needs to be cleaned off with electrical contact spray cleaner, the quick drying type “QD”. I use the one from CRC available in most NAPA auto stores. ONLY DO THIS WITH THE POWER OFF.

Poolsean - This contact comes from the factory with a protective coating called Nyogel. You should not need to provide any additional coatings. Once the tri-sensor is connected to the cord, the cord should be tucked safely out of hazardous traffic, such as foot traffic, weed eaters, pets, lawn equipment, etc. The tri-sensor rarely requires service so the connection should also not need to be disconnected for any periodic reasons.
The Cell cord (big plug electrical sensor) should also not need to be disconnected, except of servicing of the cell. There shouldn't be any moisture at this contact point either, so, if for any reason, this connection is separated, ensure that the cell prongs are dried off completely before reconnecting the cell cord.

If he had not warned me of this issue I might have spent a frustrating hour with their tech support. Especially with level one as I did when I first bought the unit until I sounded irritated enough to be reluctantly put through to their highest level, from where I may or may not have gotten the answer. I got the answers about the questions I had when I first bought it after 30 minutes of fighting through the “Guardians of Pool Pilot Knowledge” at level one. This has got to be some sort of psychological test of mental endurance designed and devised by the “Tech Support Politzei”. I know I’m being a little hard but not far from the mark.

Every four weeks or so the unit suddenly tells me that I need to add 83lbs or so of salt when two minutes ago it said everything was fine. Clean the contacts and all goes back to normal.

Poolsean - this may occur as a result of a lack of waterflow on the tri-sensor. If this is occuring as a result of a loose connection between the tri-sensor and the tri-sensor cord, this is a warranty issue and should be called in to the factory.

So I now add this cleaning routine every 3 weeks.

There is nothing about this in the manual.

Admittedly I live in Hawaii where the air is salty but this is true for many areas of the mainland United States of America, such as parts of Florida, I lived there as well. These contacts do not seem to be “Marine Grade” these seem to be design flaws, that need to be rectified when the unit is redesigned; as does the flimsy Tri-Sensor contact so that tiny pins are not an issue and one does not have to hang upside down to view exactly where they go. There should also be key guides on the side so they do not get bent and much larger gold-plated pins.

Let me be clear for this kind of money one expects to have contacts better made than an inexpensive import stereo player. Other electrical items at the pool have no such issue.

The other concerns are:

1) Is this deposit a corrosion of the contact itself? Such as one sees in alkaline battery lamps.

Poolsean - moisture and electricity are not a good combination. Especially salty moist air. It's possible for the corrosion to be as a result of this, but cleaning off the original protective coating doesn't help either. If you're seeing this type of corrosion, there should also be similar signs on any other metallic connections around your house.

2) If so, am I expected to pay for the failure if the Tri-Sensor contact that erodes to the point where it will not work? As stated earlier the pool person noted this problem in other units. Or will Pool Pilot send out new better made replacement contacts, or at least a replacement upon failure without days or weeks of squabbling?

Poolsean - we are looking at providing the tri-sensor with the cord permanently attached, rather than the quick disconnect. I don't think we will be changing this out, unless there's a warranty issue first.

So Sean what do you think?

I do not know if anyone else has had this issue on the forum but for those of us in salty climates look out for it, and maybe in non-salty climates as well. My pool is located 1000 ft up and about 1 1/2 miles in from the ocean so it is not too salty; below 700 ft the air is far saltier. I know I lived below 12 years ago.

I would still recommend and re-buy the Pool Pilot despite these issues for what it does well, produce chlorine and maintain the acid level pH. No unit is perfect, however the reason I drive BMW and not Mercedes is that every problem was my problem at Mercedes (even under warranty) and that any tiny issue was always theirs at BMW. So guess who I went back to. Let us see where Pool Pilot sits on the issue.

If companies that sold outdoor products tested them in Hawaii, such as window fastners, they might have far less issues. Just a thought as our climate is really hard on metal, plastics and paint.

Finally if Pool Pilot deems this not their problem there might be a nice little market for those of you who are electrically inclined to produce better designed replacement parts. I am not electrically inclined to that degree.

Hope this helps fellow salty persons.

Again, I/we appreciate your input. I think we are pretty fair with our warranty claims. The blame will always fall as a result of the nature of the problem. We will take responsibility for any product failures as a result of our defect. However, bad water chemistry, improper operation and/or maintenance, or abusive conditions cannot be categorized as a factory defect.

[smallpooldad]

Sean,

Thank you for your reply.

I spoke again with the pool person who did the install and he stated that the deposit build up is NOT exclusive to your company but occurs on other companies units. So it seems a sealing issue.

The water chemistry is maintained as follows:

Measured pH 7.5
Total Alkalinity (ppm CaCO3) 80
Free Chlorine (ppm Cl2) 5
Cyanuric Acid (ppm CYA) 30-35 (who knows as this I am told can never be accurately measured)
Calcium Hardness (ppm CaCO3) 375
Total Borate (ppm Boron) 50
U.S. Gallons 10000 10000
Temperature (F) 86 86
Total Chloride (ppm NaCl) 3000

Your operation and maintenance schedules are followed to a "T".

I hope that salty air in Hawaii is not considered an abusive condition.

I am sure based on your reply that if warranty issue is necessitated that your company would honor its word.

The Tri-sensor unit should be redisigned in future models for reasons previously stated.

I bought this unit primarily because of your very helpful participation on this site and to a degree on the recommendation of others and I am very glad I did and will recommend it to others; it does a great job. These issues that I bring up are minor, your units are still the best in my book. In a few weeks I will post a picture of deposit issue on the Tri-sensor, cleaning every three weeks is no big deal and hopefully a deposit is all that it is and not corrosion.

[smallpooldad]

Sean,

Well it happened again although differently this time.

Unit came on this morning, all was well, then I left for and hour and came home and the unit which normally reports 3600 ppm was reading 1600, and showed a fault something like "Bad Temp Sensor," so it was not reading the temperature. Shut down the unit, turned off the fuses and pulled the little Tri-Sensor pin out. Did not see any corrosion just a tiny purple dot on the sensor, cleaned both the plug and the sensor pin with electrical contact cleaner as before, then re-installed.

Unit came on showed correct salt but the "Bad Temp Sensor" alert was still there. Oh no, I thought I will have to wait to tomorrow to call tech support. But my tiny little brain then realized there are two connections one to the Tri-Sensor plug and the other into the digital unit itself so unplugged the one to the unit and cleaned both male and female part of the plug with electrical contact cleaner, first time since it was installed 4 months ago.

You guessed it everything came on fine.

I'm am nearly positive as I stated before that they are not well insulated enough from the atmosphere. It would not be good if I were away for a few days or a few weeks. Although, obviously, I would treat them just prior to leaving.

Could I wrap them in Teflon tape to protect them so I do not have to go through on an ongoing basis.? Do you think this is ok, it seems no heat builds up in these areas?

Otherwise it still works like a champ and is dead on accurate, so apart from this minor annoyance, I love this unit.