A small amount of natural salt is dissolved into the pool water. The chlorinator's electrolytic cell is plumbed directly in-line with the pool equipment, typically after the heater. The power control unit is wired to the pool timer so it sanitises the water when the pump is running. As the water flows through the electrolytic cell, electrolysis separates the salt water into its basic components, sodium and chloride. Pure chlorine gas is produced by this process and goes to work in the pool to oxidize bacteria and sanitise the pool water. Following this process the chloride and sodium re-bond and become natural salt again.

The primary causes of a pool turning green are a lack of chlorine, and/or a lack of circulation. The correct amount of chlorine stabiliser (cyanuric acid) also must be used. In addition the filtration system must be running for at least 6 hours per day during winter, and 8 hours per day in summer

Causes of low chlorine

• Insufficient salt will prevent the chlorinator from generating enough chlorine
• The chlorinator cell needs to be cleaned on a regular basis
• Insufficient chlorinator running time
• Black spot algae will burn up chlorine very quickly
• Breakdown of the chlorinator

Black spot often grows in areas of poor circulation such as corners, steps and beach entrances

SOLUTION - a SHOCK DOSE OF LIQUID CHLORINE and fix the cause.

Clear, sparkling pool water is a joy to look at. A cloudy swimming pool loses its beauty and becomes uninviting for swimmers.

Cloudy swimming pool water can result from one of several factors:

* the pH is too high;
* the total alkalinity level is too high;
* the stabiliser level is too high;
* the chlorine level is too low;
* the calcium hardness level is too high;
* the level of total dissolved solids is too high;
* there are high levels of metals (discoloured pool water);
* there is a lot of pool algae growth;
* the filter needs cleaning or servicing;
* there is a large quantity of microscopic particles in the pool water.

By testing and correcting the above, the cloudy pool water problem should disappear.

No. Natural evaporation is between 2-5cm per week depending on wind and heat. Salt and stabiliser do not evaporate.

It could be that the pH level is too high or too low, very occasionally if the chlorine is too high. More often than not it is simply that the children have been swimming underwater for long periods with their eyes open. Water is not a natural substance on the eye.

Salt-water chlorination makes your pool much easier to maintain, needing much less attention than a chlorine pool. Because the chlorinator is adding chlorine to your pool automatically, twice every day, there is much less chance of anything going wrong, avoiding costly clean up measures. Salt-water chlorination is less than half the cost of a chlorine pool to run. Saves time, saves money, eliminates problems! In addition, the mild salinity of the water does not have a "drying" effect on the skin (as does more salty sea water) and does not turn blond or grey hair green.

For more detailed information please read the following article: 5 reasons to use AutoChlor salt water chlorinator (chlorine generator)

Salt-water pools cost less than half that of a chlorine pool. Most of the chemical costs with a salt-water pool occur during the wet season when the pool overflows; during the dry season there is very little expenditure on chemicals. The actual amount depends upon the size of the pool, the severity of the wet season, and the location of the pool.

Factors that cause the chlorine to drop include:

• Exposure to UV light (Sunlight)
• Increases in temperature
• Daily pool use

In saltwater pools use only liquid chlorine to super chlorinate. Granular Pool chlorine leaves a residual of calcium behind. That is the white substance that has to be cleaned off the chlorinator cell. It is not helpful to add more calcium to be attracted to the cell. Large doses of calcium chlorine will cause cloudiness.

No. Low levels of salt have relatively insignificant corrosive effects on pool fittings and equipment.

From time to time it may become necessary to add some chlorine to the pool. This may be due to heavy rain or if the chlorine level needs to be shocked back up, for reasons listed in previous questions.

Modular design allows you to retrofit your existing system and/or upgrade your chlorine generator by adding another module at later stage whenever your chlorine demand increases.

Advantages of modular design is the ability to fit into confined spaces, each model is light in weight that can be lifted by 2 – 4 people depending on the size of the module and there is no need for crane or fork-lift as well as modules can pass through narrow doors.

Sizes of modules are as follows: 110 gram/hr of 100% chlorine gas equivalent, 330 gram/hr and 1000 gram/hr. The idea is to be able to combine these modules into a larger system which can be easily assembled on-site.

Up to 5 modules can be assembled in series, for example:

• from 110 g/h modules you can assemble the following in size chlorine generators: 110 g/h, 220 g/h, 330 g/h, 440 g/h, 550 g/h;
• from 330 g/h modules you can assemble the following in size chlorine generators: 330 g/h, 660 g/h, 990 g/h, 1320 g/h, 1650 g/h;
• from 1000 g/h modules you can assemble 1000 g/h, 2000 g/h, 3000 g/h, 4000 g/h and 5000 g/h machines.

When you add chlorine to the water it reacts with ammonia NH3 and/or ammonia-derivatives present in the water (i.e. sweat, grease, urine, etc..) and it will form inorganic chloramines: NH2Cl (monochloramine), NHCl2 (dichloramine), NCl3 (trichloramine) as well as organic chloramines R-NHCl (different compounds).

The chloramines are just intermediate products. Further oxidation of inorganic chloramines (by chlorine or by UV/ozone or by other oxidants) will turn them into nitrogen gas (N2) + hydrochloric acid (HCl) + water (H2O). Further oxidation of organic chloramines will turn them into organic acids. Most of chloramines after oxidation will escape in a form of Nitrogen gas.

For example, the electrolyser/chlorine-generator system for swimming pool (e.g. either fresh water Ecoline or salt water Autochlor) is not only substitutes/replaces the chemical chlorine & chlorine dosing equipment (because it is making its own chlorine and dose it to water to the right amount), but also destroys chloramines! The Hydrochloric Acid HCl from chloramines oxidation will immediately react with Sodium Hydroxide NaOH (an intermediate byproduct in the chlorine generation reactions) and will form Water H2O and Sodium Chloride NaCl (edible salt). Therefore there is no harmful compounds left. So, oxidation of chloramines helps to bring pH down because it produces acid (HCl), and also it converts part of the chloramines back to salt (NaCl).

So, the chlorine which is generated by the process of electrolysis from salt eventually neutralizes ammonia/nitrogen derivates (i.e. chloramines) and converts them into non-toxic Nitrogen gas (which is part of the atmosphere) and itself is converted back to salt. Electrolysis basically recycles salts by temporarily activating it into chlorine form, and chlorine reacting with impurities goes back to salt.

Complete oxidation of inorganic/organic chloramines by the chlorine is not always possible in the swimming pool, because you need to have special conditions/environment for all these reactions to take place. The beauty of chlorine generator (elecrolyser) is because it provides this environment!

The conversion/oxidation of chloramines is relatively slow process which is taking few hours. One way to reduce chloramines is to achieve ratio of 10:1 of free chlorine to chloramines in order for oxidation to take place.

For example, in swimming pools, during the day time with lots of contamination from bathers (sweat, grease, urine, etc.) most of chlorine is in combined form and there is almost no free chlorine available. So, with the constant chlorine dosing it will be possible to oxidise some chloramines only during the night time when there will be more free chlorine available in the water. Night period is usually not enough to remove all chloramines in the swimming pools which maintain constant chlorine residual.

Another way to oxidise chloramines & convert them back to salt is to create shock treatment of 10 or more PPM of free chlorine in the water. This is not possible in reality in the swimming pools because such concentration is too strong for people.

Third way to oxidise chloramines & convert them back to salt is to use ozone and/or UV system.

Finally, chloramines content can be controlled mechanically by regular dilutions of pool with fresh water (if you have this water available!?).

So, there are four (4) ways to remove chloramines in the swimming pool dosed with chemical chlorine (without chlorine generator):

• EITHER remove people from the pool for few days and keep dosing and maintaining normal free chlorine residual in the water (e.g. 2 ppm), so after a while there will be more free chlorine rather than combined chlorine and ratio of free chlorine to chloramines will reach 10:1;
• OR remove people from the pool for at least one day and create shock treatment of 10+ ppm of free chlorine. People will be allowed back to pool after free chlorine residual will drop down to the acceptable level (e.g. 2 ppm).
• OR apart from routine backwashes dilute pool with 35 liters of fresh water per person per day (better system because you do not need to remove people from pool, but it requires water).
• OR install additional in-line ozone and/or UV system (better system because you do not need to remove people from pool).

THEORY OF OPERATION.

Sodium Chloride to Sodium Hypochlorite reactions:

Disassociation to Brine:

2NACL(s) + xH2O (l) ? 2NA+2CL – (aq) + H2O (l)

Current is applied to the electrolytic reactor cell and electrolysis begins

Electrolysis:

2Na+ (aq) +2CL – (aq) + 2H2O(l) ? CL2(g) +H2(g) + 2Na + (aq) = 2OH – (aq).2

During electrolysis, chlorine is formed at the anode, and hydrogen and hydroxyl ions are formed at the cathode.

Anode reaction:

2CL- ?CL2+2e-

Cathode reaction:

4H2?O + 4e- ? 2H + 4OH-

Cathode secondary reaction:

Na+ (aq) + OH- (aq) ? NAOH(aq)

This reaction is short lived as any chlorine generated at the anode is quickly consumed to form sodium hypochlorite.

Target sodium hypochlorite reaction:

Cl2 (g) + 2NAOH (aq) ? H2 (g) + 2NaOCL (aq)

Chemically we produce exactly the same chlorine as supplied from any chemical supplier. But we produce it in very low concentration which is just enough for the treatment. Therefore we do not need to handle/store/purchase concentrated and dangerous chemicals.

We manufacture three (3) main products lines:

1) AUTOCHLOR - for direct in-line or on-line salt water chlorination (e.g. salt water pools, ship ballast water, water features, etc...). Please review AutochlorTM brochure here: http://www.aiswater.com.au/brochures/AIS_Autochlor_Brochure.pdf (please allow few minutes to download the file)

2) CHLOROGEN - for production of Sodium Hypochlorite off-line (Hypochlorite then can be dosed to disinfect any water source; but ChlorogenTM system required constant supply of salt [or constant supply of seawater] to generate chlorine) Please review ChlorogenTM Brochure here: http://www.aiswater.com.au/brochures/AIS_Chlorogen_Brochure.pdf (please allow few minutes to download the file)

3) ECOLINE - for direct in-line or on-line fresh water chlorination (e.g. fresh water pool, cooling towers, waste water, drinking water, sewerage, etc..). EcolineTM does not require any salt. EcolineTM uses small amount of minerals naturally present in the fresh water and converts them to chlorine. Please review EcolineTM Brochure here: http://www.aiswater.com.au/brochures/AIS_Ecoline_Brochure.pdf (please allow few minutes to download the file).

All our chlorine generators (AutochlorTM, ChlorogenTM and EcolineTM) are sized in terms of Grams per Hour of pure 100% chlorine gas equivalent. Capacities under 18,000 g/h fall into our standard range of products. Anything above 18 kg/h can be purpose build specifically to the project.

One possible cause of only partial lights being displayed is insufficient salt in the pool. Please check your manual for the recommended salt level. If the salt level is lower than this, the chlorinator is unable to draw full power.

The older bayonet cells are not compatible with current housing types, however a cell upgrade kit is available.

• Cell
• Housing
• Lead Conversion kit

This new housing can be plumbed in place of the old cell housing.

The most important time to check your pool water is as soon as practical after heavy rain. Saltwater pools should be chemically balanced fortnightly during summer, monthly during winter.

Run everything as normal, and test the pool after the rain has stopped. A common fallacy is that because salt water is heavier than fresh water, if you turn everything off, the fresh water will float on top, leaving only the rainwater to be drained off. This is not the case and we strongly recommend that you don't try this.

Rinse the cell electrodes in a combination of HCL (Pool acid available at your pool shop) and water. For detailed instructions please consult the relevant AutoChlor user manual

A possible reason is a lack of chlorine stabiliser (cyanuric acid). In very rare instances it could be chloramines. SOLUTION - Take a water sample to your local pool shop for testing, and follow their advise.

The running times will vary depending on issues such as pool size, temperature and pool usage. Assuming your chlorinator is correctly sized for the pool, it should be run for approximately:

• 8 hours during Summer
• 6 hours during Autumn and Spring
• 4 hours during Winter

It's a good idea to oversize your chlorinator, in order to reduce pump running time and save on electricity costs.

Yes. Please visit our manuals page to download the relevant user manual for your salt water chlorinator.

The reverse polarity range of chlorinators, greatly increase the time between cell cleaning. By changing the polarity the cell cleans itself. Given the right water conditions the cell may only need to be cleaned every six months. This will vary depending on water chemistry.

Hydrochloric acid (HCl) is the preferred acid to clean electrolytic cell, but any other commercially available acid can be also used, e.g. citric acid, vinegar, sulphuric acid, etc.

There are labels on the clear acid tank or clear tube, i.e. acid level label & water level label. If chlorine generator is positioned in such a way so you cannot read the level marks, then dilute acid/water to 1/5 ratio, i.e. if HCl comes as 32%, then we need around 5 - 8% strength.

There is button called "Cell cleaning” on key pad on the right side from the blue LCD screen. This button starts green acid cleaning pump. It’s programmed for 20 minutes cleaning cycle. The countdown should be seen on the screen. In case the pump needed to be stopped earlier, in could be done by pressing "Cell cleaning" button again.

If not all calcium dissolved after first cycle of 20 minutes cleaning, then additional 1 or 2 cycles (20 or 40 minutes) is OK to run to make sure it is all removed!

The acid cleaning solution can be reused, but we recommend discarding, and also rinsing the clear acid-tank with fresh water to avoid evaporation of remaining acid which may cause corrosion for the nearby equipment.

It is not necessarily to wash out remaining old solution from the bottom of the clear acid-tank. Just add some water and acid to it.

Chlorine, which we use as a sanitiser in our pools, is very unstable. Sun's UV rays and high temperatures reduce chlorine's effectiveness and break it down into inactive components.

Stabiliser, or Cyanuric acid, is a compound which protects the chlorine from the negative effects of UV and heat. It not only ensures that our pool remains clean and safe for the swimmers throughout the day, but it also reduces the amount of chlorine we need to add in order to maintain these levels of disinfection.

"According to research results, pools without stabiliser lose about 90% of their total chlorine residual on a sunny day in two or three hours. Pools treated with 25 to 50 milligrams per litre of cyanuric acid, however, under the same conditions, lose only 10 to 15 percent of their total chlorine."

Ideally, the stabiliser should be maintained at a level of about 50 ppm, the acceptable limits being 40-80 ppm.

AutoChlor is manufactured by Australian Innovative Systems Pty Ltd(AIS). AIS is a successful Australian-owned company, with more than 30 years of experience in the research and development of state-of-the-art saltwater chlorinators. They specialize in manufacturing chlorinators, chlorine generators and spare parts for the chlor-alkali industry.

Your first point of contact should be a place where you bought the chlorinator.

If they are unable to solve your problem, please contact our service department at service@aiswater.com.au Please have detailed description of a problem ready, preferably with relevant photos.