Excellent manual. It really works. I had to set correct voltage - maybe on 100 trials, but now it really works without any problem. Thank you.

Excellent coverage of the issue and a Real solution to get these things working. I'm a retired Mechanic/Technician/ Business owner and I've seen enough B.S. Bypass/Modifications people were calling Fixes to make me sick. The - Don't know what Broke but this makes it go again Crowd. If it will make enough Chlorine by Bypassing the system then it is clear the problem in in the circuitry, not the plates. You are absolutely the only person I have found that took the time to Deep Dive and find the culprit, then resolve the issue with a viable replacement circuit. I'll dig out my my old unit over the winter and see if I can replicate this to get it working again. Never hurts to have a backup unit. Thank You Jered!

Many thanks! I've just bring back to life my ECO 6220. The card is quite similar, and i've sent 1v directely to the second camparator (pin7) with à 10K multi round pot 👍

I run two of these at a time on my in ground 28k gallon pool. I always have trouble with these at about year 2 and so at any given time I have an old broken one and a new working one and then a parts one that is broken. When my newest one (2 years old) went to low salt error, I went to wire the pot but must have shorted it out - it has a different board with smaller chips and all on top as now I’m getting all high salt code. I kept the old unit (from 6 years ago with low salt error too) to try to wire a pot to the board like this but its layout is too is different and didn’t have the 5v available in the same way. I decided to replace the new unit with an old board and then go research where to get the 1 -1.4v …but now the new unit with the old pcb just works with zero issues. I watch for open box ones on Amazon and count on just buying one every other year.

The biggest issue and the failure point with any of these chlorine generators are the electrodes. The chlorine generating electrodes are not just metal electrodes. They are coated with a MMO, mixed metal oxides. The MMO coating is a mixture of metal oxides. Oxygen rather than chlorine generation is favored with common metal electrodes. Ruthenium oxide with other conductive oxides like manganese oxides are coated are coated on titanium metal creating an electrode that favors chlorine production. The ruthenium is a catalyst that lower the voltage necessary to produce chlorine from dilute salt water. If you look at the pool chlorine generators that are out there the price varies from the Intex at $200 to generators that run from $400 to $2500. There may be some cost difference having to do with the power supply but the majority of the cost difference has to do with how long the MMO cell last. Hayward finally published an estimate on how much chlorine their cell will produce in their life time. If you plug in the number, for the cost of their new units, purchasing chemical chlorine at the best price is about the same. If their cell fails after 3 years you would save money of the second cell. None these calculation take into account the power needed to generate the chlorine. I don’t think that is a huge factor but it is there. A new MMO electrode for an Intex is ~$135 last time I checked. A totally new unit is about $200. I know I put more chlorine in my pool than that every year. I called Intex and they said their units last about 8 months. That means nothing because how long they last depends on how many hours the unit runs. I a little different in that I have my Intex hooked up to a 233,000 gallon pool. Not there 15,000 pool. I did this because it was the least expensive way to go. We don’t have a lot of usage so I expect our chlorine needs are relatively low. I am logging the hours of chlorine generation so I can see how long their cell will last. What I am building up to has to do with any fix to correct high or low chlorine error messages. Based on your work the unit will give and error if the current draw is to high (high salt) or the resistance of the water is low (high resistance, low current). Aside from the high salt or high cell temperature the current will go up if the MMO coating loss reached the point where you getting close to the titanium metal. That would decrease the resistance across the electrodes and pull more current. Giving a high salt error. When it is an indication of the MMO thickness is low. A low salt error, as you have shown, may just be something like a buildup of calcium on the titanium electrode or titanium can build up an oxide layer which increases its resistance. AKA low salt. This is the problem with any fix including just hooking the electrodes up to a 12vdc power supply. Without the MMO coating chances are you are producing more oxygen than chlorine at the electrode. I would strongly suggest with any fix the chlorine production be checked over time. Just because bubbles are being produced there is no reason to believe it is all chlorine. I do have some question for you but it is in another comment.

You know, it’s awesome you spent a day figuring this POS out. I had a 1K pot lying around, so I decided to give this a go. My board looks different than yours, but it is most likely the same functional schematic. The big difference was that my comparitor wanted .05V for pin 1. Same 5V source though. I’m no engineer, so I could have hit the wrong chip, but varying the voltage at that spot could cause low or high salt errors, so I’m guessing I was in the right spot. Long story longer, thanks for posting this. Running error free, and no “hot wire” mod required.

I think I'll spend the 163.00 and just buy new! These things are obviously not meant to last very long. If I get 2 years out of it I still feel ok about it because it is still cheaper than buying chlorine!

I do honor the work you did in understanding the Circuit. However like everybody else you are fighting symptoms rather than the root cause, which imho is the degradation of the electrode over time. I have been using the same electrode in the 12gr Version of the Chlorinator for almost 3 years until Error 91 popped up some weeks ago. At first I tried reviving it by changing polarization as everybody else did, which helped for some hours. Ultimately I solved the problem by changing both electrodes. Since then I can see and measure that more Chlorine is produced and the Error disappeared. Things to consider: Intex is charing a freaking amount on spare parts and the electrode is no exception. But I think it actually really degrades and therefore must be replaced from time to time. When fixing the Error it will continue to work. In the best case it will just produce less Chlorine in the worst no chlorine at all or just some other Gases (H + O?).

My motherboard was completely different but luckily because you said pin 1 was 4 pins over from the ground I was able to identify the correct pin even though my boards layout was different. The circuit where you picked up the voltage was also outputing 14v not 5v but that wasn't an issue, I did find 1v was too much on mine and made it set off the high salt alarm so I had to reduce it to 0.25mv. After finding the right voltage it has been working fine for hours, thanks for the help.

Thanks very much my friend for the video! I perform the same repair on my Intex 5110 this evening with a similar potentiometer and had great results. The soldering on the board is not too bad so long as you have a soldering pen with a nice point on it. However after I was done, mine was a little different from yours in results. Instead of around 1 volt I had to set a very precise .78 volts and that was while running although I don't know why that would make a difference. But nonetheless everything is looking promising and it wouldn't have been possible without your help. Thanks ever so much!

thx for showing all trick abd tips, thx for spending your time to fix that expensive gizmo

Thank you very much for this tutorial. I bought used unit which suppose to have error 91, but it works good. I've added voltage meter to know exact reading of build in sensor .

There should be some mention about how touchy the pot is at the desired set point, ~1.4V (I have the newer board as in the pinned comment). A bit difficult to set properly. I think I will figure out a circuit to replace the lone potentiometer, something to provide a range of 0.8V to 1.8V across the potentiometer dial, so that its not so sensitivity to adjustment, and reduce drift issues (I am also an EE). But, this mod is working for me to get through the season with . I use mine mainly to keep my salt levels under control (above ground pool), as I was surprised at how quickly they can get too high just from chemicals, sweat, etc. I originally started with a floating solar salt chlorinator that was terrific. Kept my salt levels under control and provided me about 1/3 of my chlorine requirements. It lasted for 3 years until it broke and unfortunately, the manufacturer of it stopped making it. Hence, now, using the Intex unit. I like to keep my salt levels as low as possible because salt is not good for an above ground pool. The unit was working all the way down to 1600ppm.

🎉thank you so much! Now with new post is ok! Top!

Thank you so much for doing the work on this and breaking it down for us. I'm an AV electrical tech, so I know just enough to know that the other "fixes" were wrong, but not enough to know why or how to do the job properly. This looks easily doable for anyone with a decent soldering iron and a basic voltmeter. Would you be able to show us how you go about sanding the plates? I don't know much about the whole chlorine/electrode generation stuff, and have been worried about damaging the coating on the plates, so sanding sounds scary.

From my research on these Intex SWG, the salt sensing is just current flow to the primary electrodes (close spacing) and the other is the “E.C.O.” system only. Wear of the electrodes precious metal coating, failure of power supply capacitors, failure of bridge rectifier diode, or reduction in output from the transformer can all cause a reduction in sensed current and efficiency of the cell. Your bypass just gives a false current sensing to the MCU but doesn’t fix the efficiency issue. A real solution is to feed the primary electrodes with a constant current source.

Just had a Low Salt Alarm on ours in the last week but we were at ~2600ppm. We added salt and it cleared! Will keep this fix for future reference. From your looking at this circuit in detail can you tell if there is a way to keep the internal clock from loosing it's memory on a power loss? We have ours connected to our Off-Peak Cycled AC power and it gets cycled frequently. Was thinking something like a rechargeable 6Volt battery connected through a diode to auctioneer it with the onboard supply. Normally only needs to survive a power outage of a few hours.

i have a question that perhaps you can help me with on my same system. as we know when the power is on the system runs for the amount of time selected and shuts off, comes back on again 24hr later, great. if the power goes out then the system shuts off and you have to physically push the power button again to turn it back on which then starts the system running at that moment. i am wanting to put the salt system on a timer like i have the pump however when i do that the salt system again does not turn on and i have to push the power button. is there a bypass for the power button so when power is sent to the system it will turn on atomically and run for its time then shut off?

Hi there. I contacted you on your email about more details about this setup. I have a different model and my pcb looks a little different. I explained a lot in thr email. Thanks.

Nice job... very well done. As you were explaining that the generator senses the voltage that passes through the water and moving them closer would solve the problem. If I were to wrap a copper wire on the smaller electrode and extend it towards the bigger electrode following the sense of the water flow.... wouldn't this trick the system registering a higher voltage without having to modify the electronics?

I am just wondering, why did the board stop working, can you replace the chip on the board instead of adding the pot-meter?

How am I supposed to do all the stuff you did? Not very helpful for average person

I completed the setup like you instructed. Thank you for this! When I try to set the voltage on the potentiometer, the current is jumping around. The chlorinator starts and then throws a high salt code. I bought the cheapest POT I could find on amazon. Could it be the pot? Verified that I"m getting 5 volts in . THanks in advance.

hello was wondering what exact potentiometer you used most i have seen are in ohms I am not an electrical person so just wanted to get it right thank you for the video and the help thats cool !!

Hello Tell me, is it difficult in 26668 to solder wires to the on (start) button of the chlorine generator? The purpose is to turn on the chlorine generator remotely, through a relay with a dry contact and a pulse push. thank you

Hello @JeredAdams, Thank you very much for this contribution. I am facing the same issue, and I would also like to address it in the way you presented. However, when I looked at my printed circuit board, it is slightly different from yours. To avoid making any mistakes, I would like to know if you would be willing to help me decipher my "puzzle" with the circuit. Best regards, Domen

Do you know how long the polarity is reversed?

Great video and you EE incite is a great help. I purchased an Intex chlorinator and it gave me a high salt error after about two weeks of usage. After cleaning the electrodes with citric acid (works much better that vinegar) nothing changed. I sent it back and the new one works fine (high salt, I don’t think so). I wanted to take the unit apart to see what was inside but did not because of the warrantee. You video really was a help. Do you have any information on the voltage delivered to the electrodes? For 12 grams/hr chlorine production I think the current needed is around 5-6 amp/hours. It would be nice to know what voltage they are using to get that much current through the electrodes and water. I would be very simple to use just a timer and cheap power supply if the voltage and current output of the unit where known. The safest way to power one if these units if have an isolating transformer in the circuit. Otherwise, everything depends on the ground default working. Does Intex have a transformer? Any idea what they are using for a power supply to bring the voltage down? I tried to build my own unit using graphite electrodes and a constant current power supply. I was able to generate some chlorine at the 3000 ppm salt lever but most of it was oxygen. In the end very little chlorine was produced when there was a flow of water. The graphite also stated to flake off, a known problem but I thought I would give it a try. Have you noticed a decrease in chlorine production when you sanded the electrodes, removed the MMO coating?

Off the subject, but do you know how to bypass the low flow system? Great video!

Per cortesia puoi mettere il link al corretto potenziometro da acquistare, grazie.

If you don't mind, I haven't disassembled the unit, yet, but testing voltage at the terminals before the plates; I get right at 15 for the smaller plate and only 13.5 ish at the larger plate. What would be the expected voltage at each end? Would this indicate a circuitry problem more so than an electrode problem? Should I test voltage directly on the plates itself? My unit doesn't make a lot of bubbles when I get it to run for the short time before the error code.

grazie per il video, molto interessante. Come ho capito la misurazione avviene tra le due unità e se provo a saldare semplicemente due fili di ferro verso il centro all'interno del cilindro trasparente, verso il sensore di flusso per capirci, in modo da diminuire la resistenza, potrebbe funzionare???

Hi, have you actually measured the voltage at both the cells while it is operational. My ECO5230 has been displaying the low salt code. I measured the voltages and got about 11v on the large cell and around 4v on the smaller if the two. The 11v cell was only pulling about 1A even when i disconnected the system connection and tried a direct 12v DC supply. Any thoughts on this? Thanks in advance.👍

I happen to have the ECO6110, and you have the ECO5110. Pins and things on the back are very different. I am having the Low Salt warning also, tried all the things that, of course, you said if they work, it will not last long. I have all the things to do the job but now, because of the differences, not sure what to solder where. Pete

hi, can I have the reference of your pot 10k please? thanks

Will 1.1v be a big difference?

do you know what material used is for plates?

Hi Jered I sent you a couple of pictures of a 5110 board I have that is throwing the 91 code. It is different than the ones posted here. Do you think you could find the places to solder the wires to. Thanks, John

Thaks Jered for the video! I'm in the same boat nearing the end of the second season with the ECO6110. The Low Salt error kicked up over the weekend. Did the vinegar clean, and a green scrub pad clean of the plates. That didn't help. What I did find was that inverting the power cable going into the to titanium plate fixed things-- for about 10 hours. Coincidenally, 10 hours is the auto-reverse polarization time for the unit. Today, I had error 91 again, so I flipped the cable back and we're back running for the past 90 minutes and counting. Just a supposition, but might it be possible that the plate is fine, and the auto-reverse polarization circuit isn't doing it's job causing the comparitor to see a Low Salt situation because it's reading backwards? I have no clue what the device logic is looking for or how it works, but this seems to jive at least on the timeline.

Does anyone know the voltage for the 5220 model?

Hello, what is the value of the potentiometer

Also, can you share a plan?

eco5220, need it into french to complicate without good english ^^ thanks anyway

What ohm potentiometer

Do you still sell your hydrogen generators?

Ho fatto come spiegato ora con 1 volt sul piedino mi da sempre high salt !!! Help

Soooo….. What is someone who don’t have a electrical engineering degree do to fix this issue?!!!

Can I send you my Blueworks chlorinator and get you to fix it? I would pay!

You just wasted a lot of time and effort and in the process, you're leading people down a road to nowhere! Learn how the cells are made! Voltage means nothing!