spozz

Hello. I bought a house that has an 8,000 gallon saltwater pool. It has the Sta-Rite Max-E Therm 400 pool heater and the Jandy PLC 1400 salt cell. I noticed that the salt cell is installed BEFORE the heater. The water goes from the pump to the filter to the salt cell to the heater and then to the pool. Looking at the heater manual, the salt cell is supposed to be installed after the heater. There is about 5-6 feet of pipe between the outlet of the salt cell and the inlet of the heater. I understand that high chlorine concentration in the water coming out of the salt cell could corrode the heating elements of the heater, but would the concentration remain high 5-6 feet downstream of the salt cell where the water goes into the heater? Is this a big problem that could corrode the heater elements? (I know the name of the installer, but apparently the installation was about 3 years ago, so they probably would not take responsibility.)

Hello. I was told today that high phosphates in pool water negatively affect the chlorine generation from a SWG? Somehow the phosphates interfere with the electrolysis process. Does that sound right?

Thanks! Stupid question, but what do you mean by "cell wire"? The wire going from the PCB to the cell?

Thanks! Could you please give me specific directions on how to put an amp meter on one of the cell wires? Where would I put the probes?

Thanks very much for the reply, Pool Clown. The reading you describe is what I did for the first reading reported above: Voltage at Cell: 35.8 VDC Clearly, it is high. The cell is clean. Does that mean the cell is definitely bad? Or, since the readings at the PIB were also off, could the problem be originating with the PIB?

Sorry, I realized that I mistyped the result at the 120 mVDC Test Points. It was 95, not 120.

Hi, everyone, I have the Jandy APUREM Power Center and the 3-port PLC1400 cylindrical salt cell. The Power center is intermittently saying Service with error code 120. I found the troubleshooting guide but have been unable to definitively diagnose the problem. Here are the details: 1) PIB board was replaced in October 2014 (about 1.75 years ago and problem really started about 6 months ago when PIB was 1.25 years old). 2) The cell is from 2011 (before I owned the house). Pool is only 8,000 gallons so typically runs at 30-40% for 10 hours/day year-around. 3) I measured the voltage at all of the test points and they are within spec, except the ones below: Voltage at Cell: 35.8 VDC PIB ------------ Cell Connection Points: 36.2 VDC *** 120 mVDC Test Points: 120 mVDC I put *** next to the Cell Connection Points readings because I was not able to figure out where the "test points" are on the PIB for the cell connection points, so I tested by shoving the probes into the top of the plugs that, in turn, are plugged into the PIB (so that the probes were touching the wire inside the plug). Here are my questions: A) Does anyone know where the actual "test points" are on the PIB for the cell connection points? On the "green" side, there seems to be a little opening on the bottom left of the plug that also allows me to shove in the probe and get a reading (the same one I get when I shove the probe into the top of the plug). Is that the test point? I was not able to find a similar point on the "black & white" side, but it is difficult to move a probe around in there because space is tight. I also tried to pull on the plugs a little, so I could shove the probes under them, but I was not able to get them to move. Given the above results, I would think the problem is the PIB since the out of spec readings trace all the way back to the PIB; however, I recognize that the PIB is relatively new and the cell is relatively old. What do you all think? Is there any way for a bad cell to be causing bad readings at the PIB? Or is it definitely the PIB? Thanks, spozz