Salt pool chlorinator - diagram needed

[val douest]

I have been reading with some interest the problems some of you are having with salt pool chlorinators. I have an Irrijardin salt pool chlorinator, which worked OK for a while then kept on telling me to "add salt". This I did; I was unable to satisfy it, and finally it stopped working altogether. In desperation, I took it out and put it on the bench and ran it there, starting with tap water in the cell, and slowly adding salt to see if it could ever be satisfied. It could not! Finally, since I have some knowledge of electronics, I opened up the control unit to see if I could work out what was going on. That was useless; the manufacturers have even scrubbed off the identifications of the integrated circuits in there, to prevent anyone from repairing it themselves. Rather silly in my view, since the only effect of that on me would be to ensure that I never buy any of their products again.

Anyway, I eventually got the system to work by reversing the connections to the cell, and by grounding a third wire which goes to a little pin in the cell itself. The circuit board actually provides a facility for doing that! On the bench, in plain water it asked for more salt, and by progressively adding this I could satisfy it at all levels of the front panel settings whereby one can increase the chlorine output.

So I put it back in the pool, and it is working fine, AT THE MOMENT!! I have no idea why what I did made it work, and am fully expecting it to resume its uncooperative antics at any time. I am particularly interested in what that little pin in the cell does, and if any of you out there have any experience of these units, or even better an explanation of the details of what the control unit does, I would be very pleased to hear from you.

[chirpy]

IS IT NOT AN EARTH PIN??

[val douest]

Could be; anyway, it certainly is now!