Cleaning fixes scale. It does not fix worn plates.
Cleaning removes calcium off the plates and costs almost nothing. It cannot put the coating back, because the coating is what wears out. Here is how to tell which one you are looking at before you spend anything.
Checked 63 manufacturer manuals on file Spot an error?
Read this before you open anything
Muriatic acid burns skin, eyes and lungs. Every step below assumes you have the protection on before the bottle is opened, not after.
- Add acid to water. Never add water to acid. The reverse can boil and spit acid back at you.
- Chemical splash goggles and acid-resistant gloves. Safety glasses are not splash goggles.
- Rinse the cell of chlorinated water first, and never mix acid with chlorine products. That combination releases chlorine gas.
- Power off and lock out the controller before removing the cell.
- Work outdoors or in a well ventilated area, never in a closed pump house.
- Follow your manufacturer's procedure and the product safety data sheet wherever they conflict with anything on this page.
- On exposure, flush with water for fifteen minutes and call Poison Control. In the US that is 1-800-222-1222.
Paying a pool professional to do this is a reasonable call, and a lot of people should make it. There is no prize for handling acid yourself.
First, find out whether it needs cleaning at all
This is the step almost every guide skips. Every manufacturer in our archive tells the owner not to acid wash a cell that does not need it, and two of them describe the test in the same way: put the cell in the solution and watch. Vigorous foaming means there is scale to dissolve. No foaming means there is nothing there and the acid is only costing you coating.
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Mild Acid Washing: Use only in severe cases where flushing and scraping will not remove the majority of deposits.
Hayward AquaRite, manufacturer manual
The dilution is not the same for every brand
This is the part worth being careful about. The manufacturers do not agree, and the spread is wide enough to matter: following one brand's ratio on another brand's cell can mean several times the acid its maker specifies. Find your row and use your own manufacturer's number.
Caution. No row for your brand below? Then this page does not have that manufacturer's number yet, and you should read the ratio off your own manual before you mix anything. CircuPool is in that position today. Picking the nearest row on this table is the exact mistake the paragraph above is warning you about.
| System | Dilution | In the manufacturer's words | Soak limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hayward AquaRite | 4 parts water to 1 part acid | In a clean plastic container, mix a 4:1 solution of water to muriatic acid (one gallon of water to one quart of muriatic acid). |
The cell should soak for a few minutes and then rinse with a high pressure garden hose. |
| Jandy TruClear | 10 parts water to 1 part acid | With protective glasses and gloves on, add one (1) part muriatic acid to ten (10) parts water in a small bucket and mix the cleaning solution together. |
Do not leave in acid for more than 30 minutes. |
| Pentair IntelliChlor | 4 parts water to 1 part acid | In a plastic bucket, create 4:1 water-to-acid solution. |
Do NOT leave acid in the SCG cell for more than 30 minutes. |
No product on this page is an affiliate link, and the acid never will be. The commission would be pennies and it is the only thing here that carries a real injury risk. Selling you the hazard while telling you how to use it is not a trade worth making.
Three signs cleaning will not save it
- No foaming when the cell goes into the solution. There is no scale to remove, so whatever is wrong is not scale.
- The plates look worn rather than coated. Scale is white and crusty and sits on top. A worn cell has plates that look thin, patchy or bare.
- Chlorine does not recover after cleaning, with salt confirmed by an independent test. If the reading is right and the cell is clean and there is still no chlorine twenty four hours later, the coating is gone. No acid bath brings it back, because restoring that coating is a factory stripping and recoating job.
Then what
Cleaned it, reset it, still no chlorine after 24 hours. At that point the plates are done; no acid bath brings the coating back. Find your exact replacement here.