Salt System Repair & Installation
Salt system repair and installation
A salt system that has stopped producing chlorine is usually a cell that can't, not a cell that's finished. Those are different problems with very different costs.
$120 diagnostic, credited toward your repair · set pricing on many common repairs and installations
What we handle
Salt systems that have stopped producing, that show a code or warning, that read low salt when the pool isn't, and cells that need inspection or cleaning. Plus salt system replacement and installation, and chlorine feeder installation where a salt system isn't the right answer.
What a salt system is doing
It passes water between electrically charged plates and converts dissolved salt into chlorine, then that chlorine reverts to salt and the cycle repeats. Two things follow from that, and they explain most faults:
- The plates have a finite life. They wear out. That is the expected end of a cell, not a failure.
- The plates scale up. Calcium builds on them, insulating them from the water. A scaled cell produces little or nothing while reporting that it is running normally.
The second is far more common than the first, and it is recoverable. That is why "no chlorine" is not the same as "new cell needed", and why we check before quoting one.
Problems we see
- No chlorine production with the system apparently running. Usually scale; sometimes flow; sometimes a cell at end of life.
- Low-salt warnings with adequate salt in the water. Often a cell reading poorly rather than a genuine salt shortage.
- Codes and warning lights — flow, salt, temperature, cell. Each names a subsystem.
- A cell visibly scaled when you look through it.
- Output that has quietly fallen off over a season, which people often attribute to weather.
Repair or replace
The cell is the consumable and the expensive part, so this is the decision that matters.
Clean it when the plates are scaled but intact. This is ordinary maintenance and it restores a cell with life left.
Replace it when the plates have worn down. There is no repair for that and no cleaning that helps — we would rather tell you the cell is finished than sell you a cleaning that buys three weeks.
The control unit is separate. Boards, transformers, flow switches and displays fail on their own and are ordinary repairs on a system whose cell is still good.
Where a system is old enough that both are near the end, replacing the pair is usually more honest than doing them six months apart, and we will say so.
Equipment we work on
Salt chlorinators from the manufacturers common on pads here, including Pentair, Jandy and Hayward, and the flow switches, sensors and control boards that go with them.
What you can safely check
- Look through the cell if it is the transparent type. Visible white build-up on the plates is your answer, or at least most of it.
- Confirm the pump is running long enough. A salt system only produces while water moves through it. A shortened pump schedule is a common and entirely non-mechanical cause.
- Have the salt level tested independently rather than trusting the panel — the two disagreeing is itself diagnostic.
- Note the code exactly as displayed.
- Check whether the system is in a seasonal or reduced-output mode somebody set and forgot.
When to stop
Stop before removing a cell from a system that is powered, and stop before cleaning one with anything stronger than the manufacturer's recommended dilution. Acid strong enough to strip scale quickly also strips the coating that makes the plates work, which turns a cleanable cell into a replacement in a single afternoon.
Stop entirely at the control unit's cover. That is line voltage.
What a visit looks like
We test what the water actually contains rather than starting from what the panel reports, because a disagreement between the two is the fastest route to the answer. Then the cell comes out and gets looked at — scale, plate condition, and whether it has life left.
You get told which of the three situations you are in: clean it, replace the cell, or the problem was never the cell.
Installations
Salt system installation and replacement, and chlorine feeder installation where that suits the pool better.
Sizing is the part that matters and the part most often got wrong. A system undersized for the pool runs at full output constantly and wears out early, so we size to actual pool volume and to how long the pump really runs — not to the number on the box, which assumes a run time most pools here don't use.
Why homeowners call us
You approve the price first
Whether we are diagnosing a fault or doing a job you already know you need, you hear the price before any work starts. Nothing is replaced until you have approved it.
Pool equipment is all we work on
Pumps, motors, filters, salt systems, automation and the plumbing at the pad. The technician who diagnoses it is the one who fixes it.
Upfront pricing
Not sure what's wrong? A $120 diagnostic finds it, and the $120 is credited toward your repair if you go ahead. Many common repairs and installations have a set price instead.
Questions we get asked
My salt system says it's working but there's no chlorine.
The most common cause is scale on the cell plates. The system reports that it is trying, because it is, but a coated cell can't produce. Cleaning restores a cell that still has plate life left and does nothing for one that has reached the end — checking tells you which you have.
It says low salt but I just added salt.
Salt takes time to dissolve and circulate, so a reading taken too soon is meaningless. But a cell reading low salt when the water actually has enough is also a classic sign of a cell nearing the end, or of a temperature sensor problem. The reading is worth confirming independently.
How long does a salt cell last?
There is a usable range but no honest single number — it depends on run hours, water chemistry and how often the cell has been cleaned properly. A cell run in balanced water and cleaned when it needs it lasts substantially longer than one that isn't.
Is a salt pool chlorine-free?
No. A salt system makes chlorine from salt continuously rather than you adding it. It is still a chlorine pool — that surprises people who were sold it as an alternative.
Tell us what it’s doing.
A few questions is usually enough to tell a five-minute fix from a real repair.