jack in oz Posted December 6, 2010 Report Share Posted December 6, 2010 Hi, I recently added quite a lot of salt to my new pool based on the advice of my pool builder. The water tasted quite salty afterwards, so I did a bit of research and I came across The Pool Calculator in one of the threads on this forum. According to the calculator the salt level in my pool is 6200ppm. My salt chlorinator manual says that 3000-4000ppm is ideal. Now I'm worried I'm going to damage the generator cell. I realise that the only way to correct a high salt level is to pump out and replace some of the water. The Pool Calculator says I need to replace 35% of my pool's water to get the salt back to 4000ppm. That's nearly 5000gal! Should I be worried or will it be OK to reduce the salt over time with backwashing? Regards, Jack Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quantumchromodynamics Posted December 6, 2010 Report Share Posted December 6, 2010 01) How are you using the pool calculator to determine your salt level? 02) What does your chlorinator show for salt level? 03) What are you using to test the salt level? 04) What type of pool do you have? (Plaster, fiberglass or vinyl)? 05) What are the make and model of your chlorinator? 06) What is the water temperature? 07) What is the volume of the pool? 08) How much total salt have you added? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waterbear Posted December 6, 2010 Report Share Posted December 6, 2010 If you SWCG has a high salt cut off function it means that it will not run if the salt is too high. If it does not there is a possibility if could cause damage to you unit since it will draw more current. However, there are units that, while having a recommended salt level, can safely operate at much higher salt levels. There are even units that can operate at seawater levelsv safely (such as the Pool Pilot, which has a recommended level of 3000 ppm). You best course of action would be to contact the manufacturer of your SWCG and ask them. If they say that the high salt is not a problem then you can lower it over time. If your unit has a high salt cutoff or the manufacturer says that the high salt level can damage the unit then you need to drain. Does your unit have a salt readout on it? If so, what does it read. If not have you done a salt test with either a calibrated meter, drop test, or strips and what have the results been? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jack in oz Posted December 6, 2010 Author Report Share Posted December 6, 2010 Hi Guys, It's a 50000L quartz rendered concrete pool. I added 325kg of salt. water temp 30C. My chlorinator doesn't provide a readout of salt and the manual doesn't say if it has a high salt cutout function. It has a low salt warning light, but not a high salt light. I took a water sample to the local pool shop and they measured the salt at 4950ppm. I'm suspicious of that result. I think it should be over 6000ppm based on the quantity of salt I added. According to the calculator it should be 6400ppm. I'll ring the SWCG manufacturer today and ask them for more info. Thanks for the replies so far. Regards, Jack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jack in oz Posted December 7, 2010 Author Report Share Posted December 7, 2010 The chlorine generating cell will handle up to 6000ppm, so i guess there's no need to panic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quantumchromodynamics Posted December 8, 2010 Report Share Posted December 8, 2010 Your fill water should have some salt, so the added salt should probably increase your total salt to over 7,000 ppm. Part of the problem with having such a high salt level is that it will make it harder to maintain an adequate CSI. You should have your salt levels rechecked to verify. You should have your fill water and your pool water tested, preferably with a calibrated meter or drop test kit. Since your builder told you to add too much salt, they should be responsible for fixing the problem. I recommend that you lower the level to less than 4,000 ppm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pool Clown Posted December 8, 2010 Report Share Posted December 8, 2010 I took a water sample to the local pool shop and they measured the salt at 4950ppm. Is it possible to take a water sample to another pool store, have them test it, and compare the results? If the unit can handle 6000, and you get another 5000 test, i would leave it. But you need a second opinion to try and verify your salinity level. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jack in oz Posted December 8, 2010 Author Report Share Posted December 8, 2010 There's another pool store near where I live. I will take a sample to them as you suggest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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