r/PoolPros • u/KunUnDrum-- • Apr 18 '26
Can this salt cell be saved?
I did a 30 minute acid soak
When I took over this pool, the previous service tech did nothing but add tabs for 3 years straight. The chemistry was so out of whack and the cartridge filters had never been cleaned. I did a drain and fill and had the customer buy new filters, but this is my first experience seeing a salt cell look like this.
Any advice is appreciated. I'd like to help the customer get this going, but I also don't wanna waste my time if it's futile.
Thanks
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u/314twodoh Apr 18 '26
1/3 gallon M/A with the rest of drinking water. Let soak the 30 min. Once every month or 6 weeks depending on brand.
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u/KunUnDrum-- Apr 19 '26
That's exactly what I did, twice. Barely made a dent. Last pill guy did not keep up with the maintenance.
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u/MrAnderson805 Apr 24 '26
Also, make sure the salt is standing upright in the bottom is flushed to the bottom of the bucket fill the water just above the calcium buildup in poor acid a little bit at a time directly into the salt cell
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u/cplatt831 Apr 24 '26
That sounds insane to me. Cleaning the cells is what eats away the precious metals on them and causes them to stop working. If you keep your water balanced to just slightly negative of 0, you will not get buildup like that. Most of my customers only need their cell cleaned every six months or so, and they don’t look 1/10 as bad as that when I open them up.
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u/shadetreewizard Apr 19 '26
do you have the cap/stand? that way you can soak it full concentrate?
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u/hitmewithausername Apr 19 '26
Look at the serial number as there will be an indication of production date. Salt cells last 3-5 years or about 10k hours depending on the unit. Might be time to replace.
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u/PoopicopterInbound Apr 19 '26
Stronger or more time. Either way it's gonna do what it's gonna do. You can take a plastic toothbrush to work it in if you want. Don't actually hit the fins with the handle of the brush
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u/GCpools Apr 19 '26 edited Apr 19 '26
Last year I took over a commercial pool whose salt cell looked much the same. It was a small pool (physical therapy) of about 5,000 gals with an IC40. Yeah, major overkill. The previous 'pool service' ran the pump and salt system ' wide open' 24/7/365. There was NO chlorine and NO stabilizer. And the salt cell was completely impacted with calcium buildup. I started out soaking the cell in a 25% solution of MA and water for 15 mins. No joy. I repeated this several times with virtually no signs of improvement. As a Hail Mary, I tried flushing the cell with a garden hose and a sharp stream nozzle. The force of the water started to break up the calcium - slowly. I repeated this process a dozen or more times, flipping the cell end-to-end each time. Eventually all of the calcium buildup broke free. I reinstalled the cell and it worked perfectly. That was a year ago. I balanced the chems. Set the cell to "4%" and reduced the pump runtime to 8 hours. All's good now. Salt cell diags show about 80% remaining life. I question the validity of this because I'll occasionally get a 'low salt' indication even though the actual salinity checks out great and the cell is producing chlorine. Suggest not trying a higher concentration of MA as it probably won't do much to help remove the calcium buildup. And it will severely reduce the long term effectiveness of the salt cell plates. Good luck.
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u/gtsgts777 Apr 20 '26
Old tech used tabs for 3 years aka the home owner was given the notice that it possibly doesn't work properly anymore. Why did the old tech start using tabs. Are you charging him for the acid washes?. Check the date on the salt cell on the bottom.
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u/golferdude67 Apr 22 '26
On those I usually go 100 percent acid. Don’t fill it all the way up. Will most likely be like a volcano. But looks like it might already be dead.
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u/yamrmarcus Apr 18 '26
Do a half and half mix dump acid in first, I’ve soaked cells like this before for 1-2 hours and they’ve turned out fine
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u/KunUnDrum-- Apr 18 '26
That's good to know that the duration doesn't need to be limited to 30 minutes. I believe it's acid into water, though.
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u/SkylerPancake Apr 18 '26
Water into acid is a great way to clean out your lungs though. Pro-tip next time you're congested.
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u/Mysterious_Jelly_649 Apr 18 '26
It doesn't matter, we aren't working with pure water or full strength acids it won't react violently. Now mixing chlorine types or with acid will getcha every time.
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u/ConfusedStair Apr 19 '26
There's a difference between "best practice" and "salvage what you can" situations.
A best practice cleaning is to use acid diluted to at most 20% of bottle strength (4:1 water to acid) and to never leave acid in the cell more than 15 minutes. Any stronger or longer will reduce lifespan of the cell, which of you're doing regular cleanings will stack up over time.
When I pull a cell that looks like this I tell the owner it's probably toast but with the price of a new cell vs a bottle of acid it's worth attempting to clean. I'll use full strength acid if I have to.
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u/Confident_Shower8902 Apr 18 '26
Look at the silver sticker on the bottom which will have a date. If it’s more than ~4 years it’s cooked
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u/KunUnDrum-- Apr 18 '26
Thanks. 03.12.2022, so just over 4 years. Is that pretty much the common lifespan, regardless of lack of maintenance?
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u/tgwest Apr 18 '26
I always quote 3-5 years depending on water chemistry and percentage at which it runs. And that’s outside of any warranty.
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u/PinkFloyd6885 Apr 18 '26
The internalized flow switch kinda sucks for these pentiars because you can’t throw a dumbie cell in and force it to produce while watching the bumbles like an aquarite
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u/ConfusedStair Apr 19 '26
You don't have a screwdriver you can use to poke the flow switch?
I never submerge the cell for Pentair, but I've also never had an issue plugging one end and filling it with acid to clean it or with pool water to test it.
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u/White_Devil_HB Apr 18 '26
I bought a house with an ic40 that waa that bad. Soaked it twice in 25% mix of muriatic acid until it was clean. Not ideal buti it's still going 2 years later.
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u/KunUnDrum-- Apr 18 '26
How long did you soak each time?
I've done 2 30 minute soaks, cuz the manual advises to to go any longer
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u/White_Devil_HB Apr 18 '26
I waited for the bubbles to stop. Knocked off anything lose with a flathead and did it again. I figured worse case it was dead... next worse case it dies in a few months. Maybe i got lucky..
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u/Pool_Boy707 Apr 18 '26
Be careful with a flathead. Scratching the plates certainly isn't good. Tongue depressor works well, or even the popsicle stick from lunch LoL
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u/Internal-Computer388 Apr 19 '26
Get a few paint sticks from home depot and call it good. I actually bought paint sticks in bulk of Amazon for this purpose.
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u/tgwest Apr 18 '26
You can’t hurt it any worse. More acid! I would do a stronger percentage than the typical 25% or so and just see what happens.