Maintenance and care of your new salt chlorine generator is essential for the performance and life of your unit. One of the most common problems that cause wear on your system’s cell is calcium scale build up. In this article we will go over what the Reverse Polarity is in a swimming pool salt chlorine generator and how it helps with the prevention of scale build up.

How does it work?

The salt chlorine generator has a cell which contains parallel titanium blades (electrodes) that are covered with ruthenium oxide, which makes the chlorine generation possible through electrolysis. To see what electrolysis is and what role it plays in salt chlorine generation click here.

Electrolysis naturally attracts calcium to the plates excessive calcium build up will reduce the performance and life span of the cell for your unit. Most Chlorine generators have a reverse cycle built into their programming, also known as self-cleaning because they are designed to minimize the amount of calcium build up on the electrodes. As the electricity used in Salt Chlorine Generation is DC (Direct Current), scale will build up on the cell blades. The power supply will reverse the flow of electricity after a programmed amount of time to dissolve the scale off of the blades. The AutoPilot reverse times are programmable to best match your chlorination needs.

The factory setting for reverse times is optimum. This determines the frequency of reverse polarity (Self Cleaning) and should ONLY be adjusted when water chemistry balance (according to the Saturation Index) is beyond the ability of the system to keep the cell clean. AutoPilot cells are designed to automatically keep the electrodes clean, and the simplest way to avoid this problem is to bring pool chemistry to the levels recommended. To see the appropriate levels for chemicals in a swimming pool please click here.

We hope this article has helped you understand more about reverse polarity in a swimming pool chlorinator, please feel free to leave any comments you may have!