Low salt reading

[browerjs]

I have a fresh water salt system in my 2019 Flair.  The other day the indicator light started flashing yellow and the salt reading was in the low red.  I tested the salt and it was low (not sure how this would happen).  I had been using it about 6 total body hours a week for the last two weeks (and that might be a high estimate).  I called my dealer and they said my salt cell may need to be replaced, but it's not even two months old.  They told me to try putting 1/2 cup of salt in, which I did.  After testing again it was slightly higher in the red.

Is my salt cell really bad already?

[Hottubguy]

What setting is salt system set for and how often do you use boost function?

[castletonia]

Either use your salt test strips to test the salt or bring a sample in to your dealer before blindly adding salt.  If your cartridge is only 2 months old and has failed, Hot Spring should compensate your dealer and they would provide you a replacement assuming your water chemistry is decent.

[browerjs]

What setting is salt system set for and how often do you use boost function?

I had it set to 7 for the most part.  Would hit boost whenever it was used for an hour+ of person time.

Either use your salt test strips to test the salt or bring a sample in to your dealer before blindly adding salt.  If your cartridge is only 2 months old and has failed, Hot Spring should compensate your dealer and they would provide you a replacement assuming your water chemistry is decent.

After adding the 1/2 cup of salt and cleaning the filters didn't work, I added some bleach, waited about 24 hours, retested and the salt level was back to the green.  I'm still not sure how the salt started reading low.  How do you know when you actually need to replace the salt cartridge?

[castletonia]

Usually when a salt cartridge fails the display will give you that low salt / inactive reading.  When that happens though, adding salt or anything else doesn't make it work again.  That is why if you are not at or around that 4 month mark you need an additional way to verify the salt, like the salt test strips that came with the system or your dealer.

[browerjs]

Usually when a salt cartridge fails the display will give you that low salt / inactive reading.  When that happens though, adding salt or anything else doesn't make it work again.  That is why if you are not at or around that 4 month mark you need an additional way to verify the salt, like the salt test strips that came with the system or your dealer.

So after I got it reading correctly again, 24 hours later it was in the red again.  I hit test and it came back to the green.  A day later it was in the red again.  Hitting test did nothing, Free chlorine was at 0 again.  I dumped some bleach in, and got clean.  Immediately after the clean cycle, I hit test again and I was back to normal.

Not sure what’s going on.

[castletonia]

Could be a bad salt cartridge, could be low salt, no one will know until you verify the salt level either with your test strips or have your dealer test the salt.  If the salt is in the ok range, probably a bad salt cartridge which I'm sure your dealer will replace at no cost if it's only 2 months old. 

[Jag8]

You may have burned your salt cell out. Based on usage and gallon size you could easily bump your cell level down to 6 or even 5. Length of soak shouldn't dictate use of boost button.

The boost button cranks the cell up to level up to the maximum (level 10) for 24 hours. I suggest most people use this setting the morning or the day of a big event/ get together / lots of kids in the hot tub. Might be hitting that boost button a bit too often. I would suspect that is why your cell needs replacing.