Pool Controls XLS 900 Salt Chlorinator Questions & Answers
We have an Xls900 about 5 years old. First issue was those horrible coated buttons that fade and then get holes in them after a year. Recently I'm getting the low salt check cell and 72% production and only bubbling on a few plates. To get it out to Acid dip.. Undo the cap and stand back and turn it on.. Only way to remove it But the cleaning did nothing. Salt is around 1800. Probably have to swap for a Cheapie. Much more simple than the Hype connected to Minerals and Low salt. It came with the Crappy Narellan pool that is turning white..
Have been running this system for over a year & been fine. This week we installed a heater and moved the water temp from 20c to 26c. All of a sudden, my pool is filling up with calcium flakes. Wouldn’t have thought that temp would make that much diff. Any clues?
We had it installed earlier this year in the summer. No problems at all. It’s been perfect. We had the add acid option installed as well. A small motor/pump kicks in to add the acid, the audible pump can be a surprise at first, don’t turn it off midway during the pumping of acid, let it do its job.
Have had my fibreglass pool and XLS 900 mineral salt system installed and running for just over a year now. Also finding this summer that the chlorinator is struggling to maintain chlorine levels and have added shock treatment to get the chlorine levels up a couple of times now. Also have the auto acid system installed but have switched it off automatic dosing. I just do a manual dose from the controller when pH (from testing) starts to creep up, which is very rare. Also get the flakes which are formed in the chlorinator cell and do not dissolve. These seem to increase significantly just after adding stabiliser then reduce. I also went for the UV sanitiser for the initial install and my water has so far always been crystal clear, despite struggling to maintain CL in hot summer months. Be careful with leaving the auto acid doser on auto all the time if you have a fibreglass pool. Recommend test your water yourself regularly then periodically through your pool shop. If you have a pool cover - use it!
Our system has just been installed and the acid dosing system is very loud. Is this normal?
I have set both my timer to turn on at 1800 and off at 0300. The time on the unit is set correctly however it keeps turning on at 1300hrs. I cannot figure out why
My control panel keeps shutting off. Usually means the filter needs changing, which I've done, but it's still doing it. Giving error codes 170, 168, 285. When turned back on it works for an hour or so then switches off again. Chlorinator doesn't appear full of water when on low so assuming this is why the cell keeps turning off?
We've an xls900 sg18, it's always run (4-5yrs) at 100% output showing all the time the pumps going, till around Christmas this year. Now the CELL readout takes an hour to start showing a % during which it sometimes flicks to 45% or 71% or something but just instantaneously then reads 01 not a % for a while, then flicks again. Sometime during the day it starts being steady, but never above 79%. Showing and the bubbles are only coming off on 79% of the plate too. The pools stats are fine, ph runs a bit high, so I have to use ph decreases every third day, before it always ran a bit ph low.
PC told me that's normal. Our pool shop said the cell is faulty. Any ideas? Pls
Only had the pump for three months in a brand new pool, but the timer often doesn't run the full cycle? Currently the pump doesn't even start at the designated time? Outside of cleaning the cartridge I've barely touched the control panel outside of basic maintenance.
Our unit keeps coming up saying cell gas or sometimes no flow pump. We have cleaned the cartridge filter daily and had it running on high seems ok, but when we flick it to low it shuts off. Our cartridge filter is only a year old Now and our pool is coming up 4 years old. Help!
I have this unit been working fine until recently… now comes up with “ no flow Gas” in the display and then turn off pump safety reasons I know Spoke to to tech suggested running without cartridge ??? To fix . Did that as suggested and ran fine but not filtering without cartridge obviously. Clean and return filter cartridge and same problem occurs Pool is three months old.
GAS in the display means it's detecting too much chlorine gas in the water around the cell, so yes, it will switch off to save itself. My guess is either a faulty gas sensor, or more likely (since it worked ok without the filter cartridge) that there's not enough water flow. Maybe the pool pump is undersized? Or there's a restriction in the system that blocking flow?
thanks Grant .... I have blown the absolute you know what out of the filter and replaced it .... all seems to be going fine at the moment , not shutting off , will get a tech to look at it in the new year when they all return to work ..... thanks for reply.
Did this ever get resolved? Our XLS 900 started showing cell gas last week and shut everything off. The pump still works as we've had it running in a separate GPO since to get the pool circulated. The cartridge we have is brand new, we put this in after the original cell gas display.
Thanks
What type of minerals you use (or can use)? And how often you need to add them?
You CAN use mineral salts (like magnesium @ $60 per bag), but you don't NEED to add them, you only need normal pool salt, which is $10 per bag. How much depends on the pool size and how much rain you get, but I've only added about one bag per year, after the initial 2 bags when the pool was built.
Can i ask why have a mineral pool if not adding mineral salt? I am asking because this is the system i have and im genuinely needing to know, i notice the difference on my skin.
We have the XLS 900 for our salt water mineral pool and we have added 2 bags of mineral salt as we have had alot of rain and haven't added salt for a long time the cell was saying " check cell before adding salt" we have added the salt but the cell is still saying the same. We don't know how to open the cell to clean it, is there any helpful hints or videos to show how to do this. The pool is only 2 years old.
Theres a lot of variables, mainly how big the pool is for how much salt you need to add. But for 40-50,000L, 2 bags (40kg) should be enough. You say "mineral salts"- if you have put in magnesium/potassium mineral salts, thats not what you need, you just need standard (cheap) pool salt (sodium chloride). The cell is self-cleaning, so unless it's broken, no need to do anything. Add some normal salt and if that doesn't fix it, take a sample to a pool shop and find out what the TDS (total dissolved salts) level is. If it's more than 1000ppm (after adding normal salt), then your cell might be dead.
How do you clean out the salt cell?
It's self cleaning by reversing the polarity so you don't need to clean it.
Has anyone used this chlorinator for a pool they heat (29degrees at times)? I've read that "freshwater" pool chlorinators are not that effective when the pool is heated. It looks like it is a mineral pool, like magna pool so you would need to buy mineral salts rather than the cheaper pool salt. I like that this is a Perth based company but after having a lot of issues with an expensive Astral chlorinator I am wondering whether a simpler system (and cheaper) might be better. There just isn't enough reviews for Pool Controls products.
Our pool is heated to 29-30 degrees all year round and have never had a problem (its now 20 months old). When the pool was new, I put enough (cheap) salt in to bring it to 1500ppm and havn't added any since. Over time the salt level has dropped (from backwashing)to about 1100ppm and still running like clockwork.
Thanks Grant. Are you in WA? The info says it runs at 900ppm. Do you have the PH dosing option? It does look to be about the same price as the Astral. We had the motherboard for the Astral replaced 9 months ago, it lasted 12 months and it has gone again. Still under warranty but getting a technician out at the moment is very slow. I'm just sick of it and thinking to scrap it, lose my money on it and start afresh. I've also been reading about Kchlor which is QLD based and half the price of Astral but it concerns me that they have no distributers in Perth.
Our XLS 900 chlorinator keeps losing water somehow which then brings up an error code on our heater, as it says nit enough flow.
Recently purchased this unit and was working treat, after some power outages in succession it seems to not be producing chlorine anymore? any ideas? I have turned control up to 100%
No idea sorry, havn't had any issues with ours. How do you know it's not producing chlorine? Not making bubbles/fuzzy water around the electrode? Could be the chlorinator controller, or it could be the electrodes themselves. Get a specialist to visit and check it out.
i have had a few issues with this myself..looks like in summer its fairly normal to mantain the output at 100% in winter probably 70% only if the chlorine is at 0.9 or 1 even at 100% it wont get it up you need to add chlorine then mantain it Also the stabiliser is important for mantaining chlorine level ensure its at 60 also 900 for the salt is low end ensure its at least 1500 on paper its a nice system although im not sure i can recommend it..it needs a lot of effort in summer to ensure chlorine levels in the pool compared to our previous pool
We have had the XLS900 system for 3rd summer now in Perth. Always have problems trying to keep the chlorine production up and have to add chlorine manually every couple of days. Pool testing shop said all customers have the same issue and would recommend any other system. Don’t buy it is my advice.
Yeah I have the same problem every summer. I can never keep up with the chlorine demand and have to keep adding chlorine manually. I wouldn't recommend this system.
Check you haven’t got it switched to cover mode. It thinks the cover is on and will stop chlorine production
Omg finding the same! For a new pool it’s a nightmare compared to the old pool we pulled out that had an awesome zodiac chlorinator. The pool is constantly going green, yet levels are supposedly ok (pool shop tested) despite having to constantly add chlorine. Ludicrous. Really not impressed with this set up at all in comparison and wouldn’t recommend. Hoping to find the money one day to replace it.
I had the same issues for 3 years. Never able to produce enough chlorine even at 100% and 12 hrs run time per day. 900ppm haha. What a joke. PCS tech even suggested 2000ppm. Don't even think about a pool cover with this system. Turn green in two days if I left the pool cover on. Last year I added a $1000 ozone system to take the sanitising load off the constantly low chlorine. Best thing I ever did. So much cleaner and better to swim in. Don't care about chlorine again. Don't have to constantly dose with liq chlorine.
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